Rublev Colours German Vine Black is an opaque cool black with high tinting strength, fine grained and brushes "long" in the direction of the brush stroke. Vine black makes a moderate, slightly cool gray that works well in graying out flesh tones without dirtying them. Pliny describes a black earth which he calls 'Ampelitis' or 'vine earth', which is the source of this color from the Veneto region.