Two experiments, using color images of Japanese lacquer objects, investigated the relation between the strength of blackness and the visual and artistic impression of digital color images presented on a display. The first experiment determined the mean RGB values of black surface areas in the test stimuli where observers began to perceive the areas as “black”, and the mean RGB values where observers perceived the areas “really black”. Results indicate that to perceive a “really black” surface, RGB values should be lower than those of the original image in some pictures. The second experiment investigated, how, and to what degree the RGB values of black areas affect the visual impression of an artistic picture. Three factors, “high-quality axis”, “mysterious axis”, and “feeling of material axis”, were extracted by factor analysis. Results indicate that the Art students seem to be more sensitive in the evaluations along the “high-quality axis” and “mysterious axis” than the Engineering students are, while the opposite tendency is observed in the evaluation along the “feeling of material axis”.