Monday 25 April 2016

Black is the new black

Sorry about last night's post. It was about the same old thing heard on the radio from one of the many war-torn areas of the world which blackened a black mood even blacker, and I thought, 'nothing ever changes'. What I should have considered is that it might not be the best thing to start anyone off on a Monday morning.

Talking of black, have you heard of the paint that Anish Kapoor has filched from the Ministry of Defence to incorporate into an artwork? A British invention (hooray!), this paint absorbs 99.6 percent of all light, and is not really what we think of as the 'colour' black, it's just that you cannot see it. It is not a pigment, it is an arrangement of tubular molecules which let in photons, but does not let (most of) them out.

One of the most impressive qualities it has (apparently) is that, when applied to fabric which is then folded, you cannot see the folds no matter how close you get to them. You can see why this stuff was developed by the military - well, you can understand it anyway.

Only last Friday, I was trying to teach someone the basics of using primary colours to tint new stonework so that it blends in with the surrounding old, as in camouflage. This is the only reliable way I can make any money these days - giving away trade secrets.

When using cheap pigments, black is added as a last resort and at the last minute. The addition of cheap black to any mix is the quickest way of killing the colour altogether, when the thing you are trying to do is keep it as vibrant as possible. 'Payne's Grey' is the closest pigment you can get to a black which does not contaminate, but that's another story.

The first thing this lad had to understand was the difference between 'hue' and 'tone'. The hue should not be killed just because you are darkening the tone, but it is very difficult not to turn everything into mud by adding black. I did mention Pointillism, whereby pure colour is applied in dots and mixed by the eye - or brain - from a distance, but this was a bit too much for him to take on at this point. It was a much easier concept to grasp when coloured photographs were printed using three-colour, offset litho.

The next - and by far the most difficult - notion he had to take on is that there is no such thing as 'true black'. Blank stares. Equally, there is no such thing as a true white either - I suppose a mirror is the closest we get to true white here on Earth. More blank stares.

I had three different pots of black powder pigment in front of him, and I pointed out the difference between each of them. This one is a warm black, this one is a cool black, this one is a disturbing mixture of each - a purple black. If any of them were a true black, you would not be able to spot the difference in hue. More blank stares.

Okay. What makes a dark night dark? The absence of light. Things don't turn black when you turn the lights out... or do they?

No, this isn't for Monday morning either, unless you are planning on painting something black.

23 comments:

  1. Can this be used on clothes; it would camouflage fat very well?
    Is it normal that the three eggs in Bath are left unattended?
    Greetings Maria x

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    1. I've just checked and they are being sat on again. The trouble with these webcams is that you spend most of the Summer fretting. Just wait until they hatch!

      Thinking about the fabric, I would imagine that the less you could see the fatter the person. It would, after all, be like parking a bus in front of a scenic view. Don't take this personally - or is it too late?

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    2. Last year, all the eggs - 3 - successfully hatched, but one chick took forever to pluck up the courage to jump. You would not believe the anxiety this caused in our household as we spent the best part of three days shouting at the screen, "Go on! You can do it!"

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    3. Last year, all the eggs - 3 - successfully hatched, but one chick took forever to pluck up the courage to jump. You would not believe the anxiety this caused in our household as we spent the best part of three days shouting at the screen, "Go on! You can do it!"

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    4. That made me laugh - I could do with some of that black fabric then; I need some fattening up.
      I see she is back on the eggs again- good-I was worried that she had abandoned them. x

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  2. ..no colours anymore I want them to turn black..

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  3. Isn't true white just light? Not sure. Or all colours in the light spectrum mixed together?
    Hi Tom, greetings from me xxx

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    1. Hello Sarah - nice to hear from you. Are you sure that was a black cat that stepped in your path?

      Now let me think... Things - or paint - appear a certain colour because of the spectrum which they reflect, or absorb. White reflects most of the spectrum, and black absorbs most of the spectrum. Red paint reflects - obviously - the red end of it, and they used to cheat in international arms sales by painting the target planes red to make it easier for the heat-seeking missiles to lock-on.

      I will have to think about it, but quicksilver set in a medium is pretty good at reflecting pretty much everything right back at you... I don't know.

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  4. Rachel said what I was going to say.

    The military paint sounds like Harry Potter's cloak.

    I wonder why your pupil was/is unreceptive? He's missing out.

    Best wishes.

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    1. Well what did you mean?

      They make a computer-generated version of Harry Potter's cloak. Sensors on the back of the outfit project the background image onto the front. I can see all sorts of problems with that system, though.

      He's not unreceptive. It's just he has never had to deal with this stuff before. All masons appear clay-footed to the outsider - or even insiders like me.

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    2. Rachel quoted Paint It Black.

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    3. Rachel quoted Paint It Black.

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    4. Ah! I should have know - I've even used it for post titles in the past... or was it the Amy Winehouse version....?

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  5. I listened to Anish Kapoor on the radio this morning talking about this stuff......and then afterwards there was a lovely lady talking about the south downs and the light and life there and how she 'just had to write a book about it' and I found myself getting a bit 'chip on the shouldery' as I heard myself shout at the radio 'but you didn't have to give up your job at Aldi and take time out to do it did you Love?'........

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    1. 'Green-eyed monster' also comes from Shakespeare. Something else I learned from R4 this morning - oh no, World Service, actually.

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  6. The paint was developed by BAE Systems. Black is 'the absence of colour', it is now the absence of planes, helicopters, etc.

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    1. The paint should be called, 'Stealth Black', but is - in fact - called something with a few letters and numbers.

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  7. We are asking our friends to bring back some black Hammerite for our fencing and general iron work. Paints are a bit expensive here in France.

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    1. "My neighbour stole my garden gate yesterday, and put it up in front of his house."

      "What did you say to him?"

      "Nothing."

      "Why not?"

      "Because he might take offence." ('a fence'... Oh, never mind...)

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    2. Thin grey fur on that one.

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