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The dark L is considered by the IPA to be a velar consonant, meaning it is "articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate" (Wikipedia). However, it is far from that: it is pronounced with the back of the tongue the farthest from the soft palate. It can be produced using an open back unrounded vowel together with the tongue touching the tip of the front palate.
Am I correct?
Yes, I think you are correct. American English l in the onset of a syllable is velar, typically, while in the offset of a syllable it is uvular. The SPE feature system gives a good foundation for describing this with its three binary tongue body features high, back, and low, which apply to primary articulations or secondary articulations, and as well to vowels and consonants.
In the SPE system, velars and velarized sounds are [+high,+back] and uvulars and uvularized sounds are [-high,+back]. It is not clear to me about how [+/- low] fits into this scheme, so far as secondary consonant articulation is concerned.
The textbook consensus that syllable offset l in American English is velarized rather than uvularized has puzzled me, since it seems so obviously wrong. Maybe this is due to the influence of Peter Ladefoged, who, of course, did not speak American English.
The IPA letter ʟ is described as a lateral approximant at velar place of articulation, and is know to exist in only a few languages. The thing in English called "dark l" is transcribed as ɫ (either as a stand-alone character or l plus "combining tilde overlay"), and is a "velarized l", where "l" could have various places of articulation (dental, alveolar, postalveolar). The same diacritic is usable with any consonant, and describes a secondary articulation, not a primary place of articulation (as would be the case of the velars k, g, ʟ). A secondary articulation is usually more open than a primary one, i.e. more vowel-like, though in some cases labialization as a secondary articulation may be realized as simultaneous closure at the front and the back.
The vowel analog of a velar is ɨ, but velarization is realized over a range of vowel heights, analogous to ɨ...ɤ. So a "velarized" sound might in fact be better described as a uvularized sound, if indeed in a language the tongue is retracted further and lowered.
