you can definitely use black well. especially in the anti-skeuomorphism age. I think that the mobile app example he uses has black or almost black on the top ba

you can definitely use black well. especially in the anti-skeuomorphism age. I think that the mobile app example he uses has black or almost black on the top bar and if your own page uses black, then it doesn't make this nice differentiation between the bar and the cohesiveness of your own app. in paintings, the real reason you don't use black is because the pigments for black are "dead" looking. The paint "ivory black" looks bad because it is made out of bone, whereas if you use dark blue and brown and mix a very dark color, it looks more lively. Yes, shadows aren't black, but everyone knows that. I think the real advice is Shadows Have Color, like "blue shadows" in the examples he shows. and that you shouldn't create shadows out of just black paint and white paint if you're making a realistic painting.