Reply To: White Primer or Black? What's YOUR preference, and why?

[Universal Head]

I started with white back in the 80s when I started painting, and everyone used white. Sometime in the 90s Games Workshop seemed to lead a change to black, and I’ve never undertood why. I tried it once or twice and found it incredibly difficult and a waste of time – I couldn’t see the detail, I couldn’t wash areas with colour, some colours were very difficult to paint over black (eg yellow), and frankly I never saw the advantage of painting that way (except maybe if the entire figure was clad in plate mail and I was drybrushing it with a metal colour).

Some say it is more forgiving for beginning painters, and perhaps that’s why GW championed it. But once washes were developed that sat in the creases (eg the wonderful Devlan Mud), the last reason for using black as an undercoat – that it automatically ‘outlined’ areas – surely disappeared. I just don’t understand any reason for using black as an undercoat, frankly.

Give me white every time. 🙂