Welcome dear reader!
ohhh, at the moment we're really bombing the jungle with posts but i think what has to be told needs to be shouted out!
Recently i was thinking about posting about a certain matter. Francesco Farabi and myself talked about the color black on the italian Games Day some months ago. This is a very interesting topic for every painter and i think that still too many painters don't think about this issue.
A color has many attributes:
Color value, brightness, saturation, pigmentation, consistency, gloss,.....
A good painter knows the attributes of his colors.
Some paints are glossy and some paints are not, some are highly pigmented and some are not, some are more liquidish and some are more pasty.
Every of these aspects can be used as an advantage while painting. With a good knowlegde of these attributes you will often make a good choose when you want to paint a certain effect.
In my opinion this is especially important when painting one color, black, and that is why i write this article right now :)
I tried out many different kind of blacks from different brands, this article will sum up my experiences. The best black in my opinion is very very dark and strong in color but still very matte.
The problem with glossy black is that it will leave a glossy finish in your shadows.
Glossy Shadows is something i like to avoid in my personal painting style and maybe you will give it a try too after this article.
Let's start with a boring list and continue later to some example photos:
Games Workshop - Chaos Black
glossy ++
darkness +
blackness -
The classic for most painters is one of the worst black i can imagine.
It has a very glossy, plasticly finish and the color is not 100% black, somehow it has a violet/brownish hint in it.
Lukas Illu Color - Black
glossy +
darkness ++
blackness +
This airbrush color is highly pigmented and very fluid. You can mix it in your shadows but it is pretty glossy.
Lukas Aero Color Professional - Black
glossy +
darkness ++
blackness ++
This airbrush color is highly pigmented and very fluid. It is a very rich black. You can mix it in your shadows but it is pretty glossy.
Lukas Pastos - Iron Oxide Black
glossy +-
darkness +
blackness ++
Very thick consistency and also a medium gloss this color is really hard to use on miniatures because of the thick, pasty attribute. I regulary use it for painting the wooden plinths because it is not to pricey and has a good coverage.
Vallejo Model Color - Black
glossy +-
darkness +
blackness +
The model color is a pretty basic black with a slight gloss. Nothing special to mention about this color.
Vallejo Game Color - Black
I hate most of the Game Color. Do not buy. If you own it throw it away and buy another better black to be happy again......
Vallejo Air Color - Black
glossy +
darkness +
blackness +-
The Air Color black is also pretty glossy but apart from this it is not too bad because of the high pigmentation and high fluidness you can mix it pretty good into the shadows for nice glazes (as most Air Colors)
Andrea Color - Black
glossy --
darkness -
blackness +
Ok, now to one of my personal favorites. The Andrea Color Black is a pretty matte color so i really love to use it for the shadows, one of the negative things is that it is not perfect black from the brightness. It's more something like a very very dark grey. But apart from that a very nice color.
Golden Acrylics Matte Acrylics - Bone Black
glossy +-
darkness +
blackness +
The Black from Golden is also a pretty nice black, not too shiny but still very dark. It's very pasty so you have to thin it down for good use on miniatures.
So, now for the theoretic part, but we wouldn't be Massive Voodoo if we don't show you some pictures :)
Here i painted a piece of wood with my "favorite" brands of black.... and Games Workshop Black for comparison and because many people use this black.
GW - Games Workshop in the lower right
GA - Golden Acrylics in the middle
MC - Model Color in upper right
AC - Andrea Color lower left
GA + MA - Golden Acrylics + Schmincke Matte Agent.
GA - Golden Acrylics in the middle
MC - Model Color in upper right
AC - Andrea Color lower left
GA + MA - Golden Acrylics + Schmincke Matte Agent.
As you can see, with neutral, diffused light, most of the blacks look pretty black and dark except for Andrea Color and the Golden Acrylics with Matte Agent.
Now if we turn the piece of wood a little bit towards the light we can see the glossyness of the color:
Now we even turn it more towards the light:
Ok, what do we learn from this small lesson? Black is not black, it is really worth to try other brands and get new experiences with the different kinds of black!
I hope this small article was somewhat helpful!
Cheers,
Raffa
A very intersting article! Thx for sharing your experiences... it´s suprising how much difference is there between the different "blacks" :D
ReplyDeleteThis article is totaly helpfull, thanks for that.
ReplyDeleteI normaly Black and white as well are both colours I often fell uncertain how to paint.
So any help like yours is very very appriciated
Merci
Fabian
Well done Raffa! As I value theory, I like this attempt of improving painting skills. I agree painters should be much more aware of their colour's attributes and use them intentionally. As a matter of fact I don't believe there will ever be a perfect ready mixed black colour, as all flat black colours tend to be a little greyish.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I know, painters, who use oil colours, mix their black by using dark green, dark blue and dark red, which turns out to be a very rich black. Due to the use of red and blue it tends to remain glossy after drying.
Btw, you should differ between the new Andrea colour range (XNAC), which you used, and the old range, which colours were even flatter, but the black was much more like a grey than it was a black.
@max: the problem is this: a matte black will always look greyish because of the rough surface (microscopic i mean) that will break and reflect light. So the "rougher" or "matter" the surface is, the less of the pure pigment will be visible because the light rays disort. If you have a very glossy polished new car the black on it will look very deep and rich, because the surface is clean and smooth (polished). so the light will not refract, it will reflect and so more of the pure pigment color will remain.......... i hope this complicated explanation will be understandable...
ReplyDeleteAfter all this is all theory, if you like a color, use it, but be aware of the attributes :)
Cheers,
Raffa
That's exactly my thought, Raffa. The flatter a colour is the more it's losing its richness and will appear less saturated. So it's very hard painting the effect of a naturally satin or glossy surface only by using flat colours. I believe the aimed effect should be supported by the colour's attributes, though those attributes should not replace painted effects, i.e. like some people use glossy paint, pretending it would be silk. That's not the way it's ment to be.
ReplyDeleteBut I think this is taking us too far for the moment.
Too far for me indeed :D - I have only one black and was happy with it, but now I will have some new experiments ahead - thanks for that interesting article!!
ReplyDeleteGreat article. I was always unhappy with my olde GW black. But my tiny brain never came up with the idea to buy one from another manufacturer. Thanks
ReplyDeleteWell done, Raffa! Jungle boy at his best ^^
ReplyDeleteNice lil article, Raffa. VMC matt black is worth a play with too mate if you haven't already.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing that might be worth a mention, is how you varnish the figure (if at all). A matt finish usually always looks best of course, but a few coats of gloss first can really enrich the colour depth (even black), and helps mitigate the loss of vibrancy you get with the final matt coat, thus retaining more depth.:)
Did anyone try the new base color black from GW ?
ReplyDeleteThis articles is a fair bit lower in quality than the usual. This is because there is no explanation on what is so wrong with the game colour black, the other colours don't get much more than a sentence in conclusion of their quality either. Also the P3, Reaper, Army Painter and Tamiya blacks are not reviewed in this article, even though many people think at least one of those brands have a great black colour.
ReplyDeleteI give this article 5/10 whilst all other other articles on this site get a least a 7.
Wow guys just stumbled on your site - this place is a treasure trove! Thanks for the articles, I'm going to have to up my game a bit. Cheers.
ReplyDeleteWhat about scale75 flat black?
ReplyDeleteWe did not try it as it was not on the market back then when we wrote the article. What is your experience with it?
ReplyDelete