The palette for this painting is the same as for the last sunrise painting, with all of the same colors being used. There wasn’t a black or grey on the palette, so I made a black by mixing the Prussian blue with the sicklerite (brown) and a more opaque grey using cerulean with sicklerite. For the browns of the tree I mixed quinacridone red, new gamboge (yellow), and more sicklerite. The base coat for the tree was painted using that warm orangish brown mix, and then on top of that some of the black mix was painted in various amounts for the shadows and details.
Too Much White Paper 
Old Man Winter…I’m shivering. (K)
Fabulous and mixed blacks are always richer.
Thanks 🙂
Lately I’ve actually been wondering about that and thinking I might do a mixing test. People say carbon blacks dry to a dull finish, but they’d be as rich with a little bit of another pigment added? Mixing deep darks does offer a lot of possibilities though. 🙂
I’m finding Payne’s grey and mixing my own blacks IS actually the best for large areas of black. Have fun, there are lots of possibilities!
Lovely painting – it says to me the snowy tree isn’t dead, it is just waiting and full of promise of new growth.