This might be a bad analogy as I don't bake, but I imagine it's sort of like a really high end confectioner making an elegant dessert. When it comes to sweeteni

This might be a bad analogy as I don't bake, but I imagine it's sort of like a really high end confectioner making an elegant dessert. When it comes to sweetening it they have many choices. They probably won't choose HFCS or stevia, because those two choices are rather "viral", they tend to invade everything else and dominate the flavor. Black pigment is sort of like that too. It has a deadening effect and often conflicts with the color palette an artist is going for. Yes red+black will equal a dark red, but kind of a flattend out muted one. Red+green+a smidge of the right blue can often yield a better dark tone that matches the palette and intent of the painting better. It also depends on the painter. Monet was all about exploring light and understanding light. For him the colors he chose were vital as was his ability to mix color, so oil paint was the natural choice for him. But take Lichtenstein, color was very secondary to his message and he even wanted bad color in a lot of ways. He painted in pure black pigment all the time, he even used acrylic paint which Monet would have scoffed at. I don't think anyone would try to suggest Lichtenstein was less of an artist, just his needs/message were different. When I first posted here and said "fine painter", I was refering to painters where the paint and pigments themselves are vital to their message, like Monet.