All paintings have a ground color, the one behind all the other ones. It may be white from the gesso used, it may be wood colored if there is no gesso. You might want to tone your surface with red or brown to start. Whatever color you use will peek through the rest of your layers and you can use that for added punch. For this class, we are using black gesso on our surface so that the black will set off all the other colors like jewels.

The black is the mystery behind all other colors.

I have found that it is sometimes difficult to get students to understand how to get the darkest darks, and this way, your darks are already there!

Once I started painting on black, I haven't stopped. I will occasionally paint on magenta or brown, depending on my subject matter, but I always return to black because it adds a layer of depth to my work that I haven't been able to catch in any other way.

These are two paintings from the same scene, the first one on a black ground, the second on a clear gesso over wood. I am much more excited about the first one!