I have tried different techniques over the years and I think I might have a very good idea for us. Black and White paintings look great for the exception of color. Just a touch of color will turn a black and white painting into a masterpiece.

We can try painting like the old masters used to. Limit our color palette to a few token colors for damage control and to better manage the color combinations. Concentrate on form and composition vs vivid color. This works beautifully! Many of the masterpieces of old are only a few colors. Rembrandt only used Yellow, Black , White and Red for his palette. Think limited palette!

The old masters painted differently than we do today. They used to paint the entire scene in black and white called (grisalle). When the gray underpainting dried, they would glaze clear colors over the black and white underpainting. It would be like painting in watercolors over a black and white photograph. It worked so well that many of their works still remain unrivaled.

One more thing about the black and white underpainting, it allows the artist to work out the values better. That is why the light is so incredible in the Old Master paintings. They concentrated on creating an almost theater lighting for their figures. Read up on Classical painting or Indirect painting.