The only contrast paint you need

No it is not actually a click bait title, and I will answer right now. Its contrast medium. I can and will explain in more detail but if that was all your looking for ummm like and subscribe? This isn’t YouTube, I can’t monetize this click… Quick say something funny before they click off.

Ducks

That a boy Henry.

Its just plain sad the best contrast paint isn’t pictured

Okay now on to the serious business of why contrast medium is the only contrast paint you actually need. Here is the big problem with contrast paints. You have no idea what your getting.

No I know you know the colour you’re getting, but you have no idea how it will interact, the finish it is going to give, or how much or little pigment it will have in it. Every contrast paint is different. Use Black Templar as a contrast paint and you will look back and go, damn it, did I pick up the wrong bottle if you have it next to your Abbadon Black. Because damn, is that boy thick, it's a thick boi. Or rather its colour intensity is considerably high. However, let’s look at the other side of the spectrum apothecary white….

The only thing I think when I hear apothecary white, is white would you do this to yourself? Clever huh, the pun with white and why, see what I did there. That previous sentence is the only thing that is holding my sanity together from the time that a whole miniature had almost all of its apothecary white tear because it was tacky… The whole model… its paint removed in a whole section back to the base coat… Yes… that was a thing that happened. Apothecary white is not similar to black templar in anyway.

From Dana Howl’s website a light coat of contrast Wyldwood over straight white.

Okay, perhaps a bad example because when we compare white paint in any range its always difficult. So why don’t I compare something which is relatively close in colour range? In the bottle, those two colours don’t look that different… Wyldwood and Skeleton horde?

Wildwood is so intense, that if I paint it over a white area, I might bring it to black. To do the same with Skeleton Horde… I would have to do between 7 and 11 coats of it… yet these are both just contrast paints…

Dana Howl’s Example on skeleton horde

Are you beginning to see the problem?

Every single time someone picks up a contrast paint they don’t know what they are getting, and to make it worse this is marketed to beginner painters. In my opinion, contrast paints, are just a tool like any other but the skill floor and ceiling are a vast distance apart. It is anything but beginner friendly. Sure, X contrast paint might work well for doing Y with Z, but this isn’t algebra and your example isn’t helping the new guy in the hobby.

This is why contrast medium is the best contrast paint. Because every time I have mixed it with a regular base or with a layer paint from the citadel range, it just turns it into a contrast paint consistency but it leaves everything else about that paint the exact same.

Why I like contrast medium but not contrast paints themselves?

One reason.

Mistakes. I don’t know about you, but I make a lot of mistakes. I mean like a lot. Okay maybe not that many but when you are being paid for your craft, you know what people don’t tolerate? Mistakes. and that’s fair enough.

Want to know what will punish you for mistakes more than anything else?

Contrast paints.

However, mixing your base paint with a contrast paint and then putting that over the top of your zenithal primed model? Well, I tell you that you have a massive head start on where you want to be and some of the time layering on top of that would just ruin the effect you already have going for you. This is the magic they talk about when they talk about contrast paints. When you have it over a zenithal prime and you just hit it in one go and you’re done. I am not talking about tide marks or anything just you put the right amount on, you were careful and clean and just bam, you are done, like a dinner.

The reason why helps so much is it cuts down so much time, but more than that, if you make a mistake you can colour match, you know what you can’t do with actual contrast paints? Colour match. This is one of my primary problems with both washes and with contrasts. You have so little control over how the end result is, for a lot of people they are like magic in a bottle. However, ,when you are asked to paint something for money… magic in a bottle doesn’t cut it. And when you want to start stepping up in painting you're going to have to leave that magic behind and start learning that there are no magic shortcuts.

Should you stop using washes and contrast paints.

NO!

However, you shouldn’t lean on them as a crutch. Except sometimes there are no better tools for the job.

This guy, I used both washes and contrast infact I combined them together to get into the cracks of the Zoat’s skin to the consistency that I wanted. There is always a tool for the job and there is always a magic trick you can do with your specific contrast paint of choice and ‘that thing’ do it.

It should be A tool not THE tool.

Contrast Medium

You shouldn’t be looking for the ‘exact right contrast paint’. It is a tool and it should work for you, you should control it, not it controlling you. Sure… You have to mix the paint…

If you have read this article to this point, I believe in you. You can mix the paint.

Suddenly your most intense colour from a completely different paint range… well you can turn it into a contrast paint and do that glowing eye effect without buying a bottle of whatever colour you want your eyes to glow. Two coats of your base colour turned into a contrast over mini that has been zenthaled highlighted will mean that you have depth of colour and highlights straight off the bat and you know what the finish will look like. As far as I can see there are only advantages to having this in your hobby arsenal.

Conclusion

I didn’t lie, contrast medium is the only contrast paint you need… but let’s be honest this hobby has never been about needs. I have far too many contrasts paints now, because my lovely wife loves to paint with contrast paints and mix them into other things. Does that change my opinion on using contrast paints? Nope, I would prefer, to have other colours because I can fix mistakes, but she enjoys contrast paints. As always its what works for you, but if you already like contrast paints…

Why don’t you want more of them? In every colour of paint you own?

Til next time friends

Keep those brushes wet!