Story: My art teacher told me to stop using pure black and I refused for a year

Back in 2021 I was doing this big digital painting of a night scene in Procreate. Kept using pure black (#000000) for shadows and dark areas. My teacher said it would look flat and dead. I ignored her. After a year I finally tried using dark blues and purples instead. The difference was insane. Whole piece had way more depth. She was 100% right. Anyone else stubborn about something like that?

2 comments

2 Comments

harper_wells7h agoMost Upvoted

Isn't it wild how often that happens though? Like, it's not just art but everything. I've noticed people do this with cooking too, thinking a recipe needs pure salt or pure sugar when really a little bit of something else, like lime or herbs, makes the whole thing pop. Or even in how we talk to each other, thinking being totally direct or totally nice is the only way, when actually mixing a bit of warmth with honesty gets way better results. Feels like the whole world pushes us to go all-in on one thing instead of blending stuff together.

lilyfisher8h ago

Yeah, the "pure black" thing is real. It's like how people use stark white light in photos instead of warm or cool tones and everything looks dead.