Once you go BLACK
- Reena Lee Creations
- Dec 22, 2018
- 1 min read
Updated: Mar 9, 2020
This is such a valuable subject. If you ask an artist they will call black a colour but not the scientist. As colour is only present due to light and black is the absence of all light. Whatever you believe I will refer to it as a colour in this blog.
Having an exceptional light source is a massive MUST. I’ve found that good diffused daylight and daylight globes are the best sources. At least a cool globe rather than the warm.
Black is a very tricky colour to create. When Needle Felting blacks I’ve found I prefer a mix of blacks to best show off my creatures realistic features.
In my Tassie Devil Feltorial I’ve used a combination of darkness with the dark brown Romney core, the cooler black Merino for base and the warmer black Corriedale as a top coat. The differences in these wool types and shades, helps to create depth to your black. Therefore mixing fibres is an essential part of creating that realistic illusion. This pleases the eye way more than a monotone version.
Photographing black can also be very tricky and a good rule to remember with all black photography is to limit the dynamic range in the scene. The camera gets confused if there is too much contrast so using a darker background with help immensely.
Try out different things and see what works for you. Experimenting is the best way to learn new skills.
Rx
PS. Check out this interesting read: Art Fight! The Pinkest Pink versus the Blackest Black.
Really appreciate you breaking down the science vs. art debate on black—it’s such a nuanced topic. The tip about mixing blacks to show realistic features is something I’ll definitely try out, especially since I just started exploring this on Bizarre Lineage Wiki.
I really appreciate the distinction you made between how artists and scientists define black—that’s such a useful way to frame the challenge. Your tip about mixing different blacks for needle felting makes a lot of sense, especially after reading your thoughts on lighting in the Neverness to Everness Wiki.
I really liked your point about mixing different blacks to get more depth in needle felting—that's something I've struggled with since just using one black often ends up looking flat. For anyone wanting to experiment with color theory beyond black, I found some useful breakdowns over at ScopeQuill that helped me understand how to blend tints and shades without losing that rich darkness.
Really appreciate you breaking this down — the point about using a mix of blacks rather than a single shade totally clicked for me when trying to get depth in my own felting. I’ve been relying on just one black wool and wondering why it looked flat, so I’m going to try SubtitleOps to help find better combos.
I noticed how the page mentions a specific dyeing process, which really helps bring the black tones to life. refresh rate checker