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Do the following two sentences have the same meaning? Or which one is correct?

  1. The Chinese ink painting is usually in black and white.
  2. The Chinese ink painting is usually black and white.
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If we use 'in' before a word or phrase when talking about works of art, we are referring to how they were made or produced. If we say that a Chinese ink drawing is 'in' black and white, we are saying that it was done on white paper using black ink. A drawing could be in pencil, in pen and ink, in crayon, in charcoal, etc. A painting could be in oil paint ('oils'), in watercolour, in acrylic (paint), and so on. A sculpture could be in marble, in wood, in plaster.

We can write words in ink, pencil, crayon, chalk, etc.

If we leave out 'in', and say that something such as a Chinese ink painting 'is black and white', we are talking about its appearance.

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