>>Also, can you tell the difference visually when you change from one black to
another? (lamp black, ivory black, Mars black, Jet black, etc. etc.)<<
Yes you can tell the difference visually, these differences are subtle and
difficult to describe orally, Mars Black, is my favourite normally, a
fairly well behaved pigment if not loaded heavily.However all blacks are
difficult to work with as Terry correctly states in :--
>>Ivory black takes longer to dry and is weak; Mars black seems to have a
tendency to adversely affect surrounding colours, even more than most
blacks, unless it is used only for very short exposures for deep shadow
detail. In general it is better to avoid the use of black; use Neutral Tint
instead.<<
And goes on to state:--
>>Neutral Tint is a pigment that looks black and not grey. It is a mixture
of other colours that will darken without degrading pigments with which it
is mixed. I used to mix burnt sienna with Indigo to achieve a black until I
discovered Neutral Tint. The grey I use is Davy's Grey ( ground slate )
which is a good neutral for cooling down warm colours.<<
Paynes grey which has a slightly bluish tinge is a good foil to Davys grey also
raw umber has its moments.
My personal view is to look at the use of black pigment in a twofold
manner firstly if used to to reinforce tonal values, it is as previously
stated, probably is going to produce unpleasant grey mud.
However if it is used with
calligraphic intent as exemplified in Mediaeval Heraldry , Japanese flags
and Kites, and as Vincent contended when he stated that black was also a
colour in its own right, and used as such it works just fine.
The tonal problem can be simply solved by employing the painters technique
of balanced complementery colours, A technique where no black or black
tint is present . If two equally balanced complementary colours such as
say, yellow and blue /violet are mixed, you end up with a dark neutral grey
which can be easily reinforced into a pure black, with paradoxically no
black present, also there is an added bonus in that many very beautiful
semi-nuetral colours can be created within this limited palette.
If you make carefull choices you can have your cake and eat it.
pete