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 Arbitrator wrote:
Having watched the video I'm thoroughly whelmed. As a Contrast product they don't seem very... contrasty? Don't get me wrong, there's something to be said for a paint you can take right out of the bottle, slap on and boom you've got your basecoat finished, but there looked to be so little difference between the light and dark areas - even over a white/black zenithal - that it didn't seem like anything you couldn't do with a standard thinned down acrylic or even a strong enough ink. At the same time, the yellow didn't have the 'oomph' of the less contrasty Citadel Contrast or AP Speedpaints like Imperial Fist.

They actually remind me a lot of the Scale 75 contrast paints in that way, which didn't bother me personally but I know a lot of people really didn't like them for that.

Thats because its not really a contrast product, its a filter product. Contrast works by flowing away from raised surfaces and pooling into recesses to create highlights. These are, as stated in the video, filter paints - they work by being semi-transparent so that lower layers will show through. This is basically a product made to work with the slapchop method (which, while popular, is a waste of contrast paint and doesn't actually leverage contrasts actual capabilities properly). If you dont zenithal or pre-shade your miniature, you're not going to get very much out of these at all. Where this differs from other filter products on the market is that they have way more color intensity than any other filter paint ive seen (they usually function more like a tint than a paint like this), and also a much broader color range.

chaos0xomega wrote:

Thats because its not really a contrast product, its a filter product. Contrast works by flowing away from raised surfaces and pooling into recesses to create highlights. These are, as stated in the video, filter paints - they work by being semi-transparent so that lower layers will show through. This is basically a product made to work with the slapchop method (which, while popular, is a waste of contrast paint and doesn't actually leverage contrasts actual capabilities properly). If you dont zenithal or pre-shade your miniature, you're not going to get very much out of these at all. Where this differs from other filter products on the market is that they have way more color intensity than any other filter paint ive seen (they usually function more like a tint than a paint like this), and also a much broader color range.

This might be a plausible cope if the product wasn't called "1-Step™".

It's not like using a filter over a grisaille/slapchop prime is more steps than using Contrast over the same. It's still 'one step over primer', the way normal people talk about Contrast-style paints.

My issue with the slapchop style has been that it typically results in desaturated minis, because they only hit full opacity at the highest highlights. Contrast can sort of compensate for it through the use of opaque pigments in the mix, but a purely transparent filter like this doesn't have that advantage. You can see in these videos how the result is a yellow that looks very grey/green in the recesses.

I bet this will work fantastically with colored underpainting, though. Say, basecoat pink, zenithal white, apply yellow filter to get a nice rich yellow without any risk of obliterating the underpainting. Is that technically 'one step'? I don't really care.

 catbarf wrote:
It's not like using a filter over a grisaille/slapchop prime is more steps than using Contrast over the same. It's still 'one step over primer', the way normal people talk about Contrast-style paints.

My issue with the slapchop style has been that it typically results in desaturated minis, because they only hit full opacity at the highest highlights. Contrast can sort of compensate for it through the use of opaque pigments in the mix, but a purely transparent filter like this doesn't have that advantage. You can see in these videos how the result is a yellow that looks very grey/green in the recesses.

I bet this will work fantastically with colored underpainting, though. Say, basecoat pink, zenithal white, apply yellow filter to get a nice rich yellow without any risk of obliterating the underpainting. Is that technically 'one step'? I don't really care.

That's the only problem with any kind of transparent yellow over grey/black is that it will turn green due to black actually being blue....

Though some blacks can have a reddish/brown tint to them so that would make yellows go more orange. But since most manufacturers don't put pigment codes on their sprays/bottles (I do on mine) it's hard to tell without testing it first.

You can mitigate that green effect though by going over it again until you increase the opacity with multiple layers. Something I often do with my Alpha paints to make them punch if I need a solid coating, usually two or three passes is all that's needed.

 catbarf wrote:
It's not like using a filter over a grisaille/slapchop prime is more steps than using Contrast over the same. It's still 'one step over primer', the way normal people talk about Contrast-style paints.

I cannot tell which position you're attempting to contravene. My position is that this:

Thats because its not really a contrast product, its a filter product. Contrast works by flowing away from raised surfaces and pooling into recesses to create highlights. These are, as stated in the video, filter paints - they work by being semi-transparent so that lower layers will show through.

...is fraudulent pedantry, and that there is no meaningful difference between a "contrast product" and a "filter product" other than perhaps intensity. All contrast product lines are, in fact, filter products. Every contrast paint line is semi-transparent and designed to allow lower layers to show through.

If you only watch the first 3 minutes of the tutorial, sure, you'll hear him suggest that it's ideal over a zenithal undercoat. If you continue to minute 4, he then describes how the product is meant to settle in recesses. If you're a truly dedicated researcher and clear minute 5(!), he even repeats it. Not to mention every preview referring to 1-Step as "an answer to contrast paints."

...is fraudulent pedantry, and that there is no meaningful difference between a "contrast product" and a "filter product" other than perhaps intensity. All contrast product lines are, in fact, filter products. Every contrast paint line is semi-transparent and designed to allow lower layers to show through.

I wouldn’t call the distinction fraudulent, it’s more a matter of perception and how each painter interprets the behaviour of these products.

To me, contrast paints function like a high‑strength wash or a low‑opacity ink suspended in a slightly thicker medium. They’re semi‑transparent, have controlled viscosity, and rely heavily on underlying value to generate their shading effect.

My Alpha paints and One Step paints behave more like high‑tint, low‑viscosity inks or very thin paints. They’re still effectively filters because they’re transparent, but they don’t create the same dramatic value shifts that Contrast paints do. Instead, they depend more on the underlying zenithal or colour gradient (whether that’s black/white or something like a red/orange ) to establish the shading, while the paint layer primarily pushes the hue.