White or black primer, that is the question

[nadinbrzezinski]

I have used black primer for many years, but alas here is the question. Black primer is great for moody models and for \"cheating\" getting depth. In fact, I was once told one by a profesional brush who used to work for Partha that they used Black... so I felt I was safe.

Now here I see many a great model and white primer is used. So here lies the question, to try white (which I am once again) or stick to black?

Nadin

 

[Squiggoth]

I always use a black undercoat because I find it much easier to \"brighten up\" a figure from a black undercoat then shade it down from a white primer... But I dislike using inks, so if you\'re an Ink user you might find a white primer just as good. My advice is too experiment with some expendable models - paint identical models with different primers - and see what works best for you.

 

[Aschul]

I\'ll take the \"painting snob\" approach and say that most of the best painters use white primer. Actually, I think it should really depend on the model. If there are a lot of dark areas or armour then obviously a black primer makes sense. Take a look at that Dark Elf Spearmen step-by-step article; obviously priming a model like that white wouldn\'t make sense as it\'s almost entirely chainmail and armour. However, one advantage of using a white primer is it\'s a lot easier to see the details and determine where the highlights and shadows should fall. I believe that in order for a model to look natural, the darkest shadows should almost never be pure black, so I prefer the subtlety of shading that a white primer allows.

 

[Coyote]

For rank and file, and when using Vallejo paints I like Black Primer. It\'s good for getting the miniature done quickly, and if I miss a spot it\'s black, which is less noticable then a spot of white.

If I\'m painting for the fun of painting, then I use white. That way I take my time blending and do the best possible job. White helps my colours pop.

Finally, if you want the true colours of the paints you are using, you can try a mid-grey. White lightens the covering colours, black darkens them. Grey will give you the colour you see in the pot.

I used grey when I first started and will never use it again. On plastics, it is the biggest pain in the butt, because you can\'t tell what\'s primed, and what\'s plastic as easily as white or black.

 

[keshley]

Well, I take the \'humble painters\' way

I always prime my minis black and work all the way to the brightest color. To me it\'s easier to do it that way.

I tried priming my Eldar Guardian w/ white because most of the armor is white, but then I had problem shading them. It turns out messy and I couldn\'t make the highlight area sharp yet smooth enough.

 

[nadinbrzezinski]

Well I am trying white in the last three models I am working on and when they are ready they will be posted.

I have used black for years because I find it is easy to work with, but hey... life is experimenting.

 

[sivousplay]

I\'ve always used white ... but then because of my \"watercolor-like\" style, it\'s the way you get bright colors. When I didn\'t paint this style as much, I found black primer made it much more difficult to see detail ... maybe it\'s just my eyes.

jim

 

[Sand Rat]

Primer

I shoot somewhere in the middle - grey. I\'ve tried both black and white and found that I prefer a color in the middle, and grey works for the depth of color I like. But then again, I am no where near a purist, and paint mostly to relax, not to game.

 

[Badaab]

Primer?

Here are my thoughts on primer...

I prefer white primer, because you can always get a smoother finish of light colors over it, because it takes less coats of the color than over black. And, you can always paint areas that are dark in black.

However, when painting dark miniatures, or mostly metallic ones... I opt for black, since it will save time on large areas and then I can concentrate on fiddly detail bits like I am known to do.

Grey primer is just gross. All your colors come out muddy looking overtop of it.

Badaab

 

[EvilGrandmah]

I prefer black. First of all, you get some sort of autoshading and secondly, every metallic colour you paint need a black undercoat no matter what. The only exception I see would be when you paint all metal NMM and like really bright colours on your models. Both of the above I do not like/do.

 

[Bent Brush]

Well Bent Brush uses both. I start with flat black primer. Coat that mini.

Then after it is dry I select a direction from where the lighting is coming from sy 45 degrees from the model face and then I mist the model in white a couple times.

This provides me with depth and highliting with little effort for rank and file minis.

Now i just paint them as normal and they come out looking really cool.

 

[Mengu]

I do both, but lately prefer white.

However, if I prime white, My first step after the primer is dry, is to grab my chaos black and basecoat brush, and paint all the \"shadowy\" areas such as arm pits and all metals black. The reason I started doing this is because I hate it when a miss a white spot that\'s supposed to be in the shadows, and try to fix an almost unreachable spot.

I do the opposite when I prime black. I grab my white, and paint all the flesh, and anywhere else that will have a bright color white.

I don\'t mind grey either, but it\'s too much painting black and white on top of it before starting to put the colors down.

Reason I prefer white lately is because I\'ve seen that I end up putting thicker coats on black, which ends up in a surface less than smooth .

-Mengu

 

[nadinbrzezinski]

Hmmm sounds like a good idea, mind if I ahem try it? Will report back on the results.

Nadin

 

[asmodai336]

Personally, I\'m all about white primer. First off, I find that it is much easier to go from light to dark than dark to light. For instance.... I did some saim-hain eldar recently and seeing as how they are almost entirely black, I figured I\'d just primer em in black and save some time. Wrong. I ended up spending more time trying to hide the brush strokes in the yellow highlights then I would have if I\'d just primed it white and painted black. White. It\'s the way to go.

 

[GuillaumeLeCourageux]

White!

I am only using white primer. I have tried black one, but I hate painting 10 layers of yellow just to get a bright color. And that\'s what I need most of the times for my Bretonnians! So I use lots of inks and shades, both for rank & file and for characters.

 

[elouchard]

I use white primer for most of my figures. Black primer works well for some 40K guys and figures with edges and overhangs that would collect shadows.

The problem about muting colors with black primer can be avoided by painting white on the surfaces that will be bright colored, especially for yellow. For stripes or freehand paintings on dark background, I paint the pattern completely in shades or white - like a grayscale image. Then I put down colors with thinned paints to retain the white glow. It\'s a technique from oil and acrylic painting that gives a striking look. If you\'re going to use yellow or red over black primer this will save alot of time.

 

[Thri-Keen Priest]

Two-Tone Priming

I agree with Bent Brush, for the most part. Starting with black and topping with white highlights is the best way to go, especially for \'shady\' characters.

For most heroic models, I use white. For skeletons and fully armored knights, I\'ll use black.

It all depends on the personality you\'re going for in the piece...

TKP

Originally posted by Bent Brush
Well Bent Brush uses both. I start with flat black primer. Coat that mini.

Then after it is dry I select a direction from where the lighting is coming from sy 45 degrees from the model face and then I mist the model in white a couple times.

This provides me with depth and highliting with little effort for rank and file minis.

Now i just paint them as normal and they come out looking really cool.

 

[GuillaumeLeCourageux]

Originally posted by elouchard
I use white primer for most of my figures. Black primer works well for some 40K guys and figures with edges and overhangs that would collect shadows.

The problem about muting colors with black primer can be avoided by painting white on the surfaces that will be bright colored, especially for yellow. ...

Why not the other way \'round? That\'s how I do it: prime everything in white, and then a black undercoat for \"critical\" parts like metal etc... I found it far easier to point black over white than this thin white over black!

 

[elouchard]

Painting black over white is the better way to do armor and is how I do pretty much everything. That being said, sometimes I have to go the other way around for figures such as space marines in dark armor with small areas of bright color.
If you want to have a strong dark color background, like a dark blue or black shoulder pad or cloak, with some light colored details, then it can be good to do an \"underpainting\" of white. I know it sounds strange, but I\'ll give an example.

example: You prime in black and want to have a moody dark red armor with a yellow (NMM gold) swirl pattern. The armor you do in red shades using the black primer to keep it dark and give shadow. The pattern you paint in thinned white so that you have a light surface to do the yellow on. Same thing if you want to paint a skull on the armor - paint in gray scale shade first, then color.

Another example: Blood angels in black armor still have their insignia of white, gold and red. Black primer helps make the armor easier to do and painting white over the insignia will make it easier to have bright colors.

hope this makes more sense.

 

[ZaPhOd]

I kind of like startin gwith black exclusively now, except for maybe Albino Flesh ;b
I find after the black, a couple of thinned layers of your base color can be applied, and the amount of mixing to darken the shadows is lessened. Also, your highlights can really jump out at if you have patience and blend in enough layers! I think it adds some depth to the mini but it is all just personal preference!