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Frequently when you watch/read a painting tutorial people will talk about using a white primer vs. a grey primer vs. a black primer. I guess conceptually the idea is that you want lighter primers for brighter colors, etc.

But every time I've watched one of these paint jobs, it seems like the choice of primer color was completely pointless. Every square inch of surface is covered by paint, completely opaque. Doesn't matter if it's a guy with an airbrush or regular brushes. There's never any primer that peeks through on an edge or whatever (I mean, that's why people do edge highlighting, right? Because there's no undercoat color showing through?)

So what's the deal here? Does it really matter at all? Feels kind of like one of those superstitions people just sort of grew up with and so it gets passed on without thinking about it,

It may seem opaque but it isn't. The primer shows through the paint and changes the hue. Try it for yourself. Prime a piece of sprue white and a piece black and apply the same paint to each one. The colors will look different even though you applied them from the same palette and bottle at the same time. The one on the black primer will be more muted and darker than the one over the white primer.

When I switched from black to white primer for everything I was amazed at how much of a difference it made in the colors.

Colors painted on white are mcuh brighter than when painted on black.

That's why you prime gray. The innate shading of black with the vibrancy of white.

 Badablack wrote:
That's why you prime gray. The innate shading of black with the vibrancy of white.

ehh, not really...it winds up with an effect that is in the middle of the two, not really giving you the best of both worlds, but the best and worst of both worlds...grey primers work great on armies that you're going for a realistic look for where you want the detail to stand out, but not be overly bright and cartoonish. White primer works great for when you're trying to make a model stand out from the rest of the army, or simply want to havef an army that is extremely vibrant.

I really wouldn't call grey the best of both worlds though, it's simply an in-between point for grey and black primers.

I prime the model upside down black and top down with white. Color choice is also a factor as yellow goes down better off white etc.

 Rickfactor wrote:
...as yellow goes down better off white etc.

Not entirely true. It depends entirely on the paint and the colour you're looking for.

Yellow paints have traditionally not gone well directly over black, although some of the high pgment paints appearing on the market these days have changed that... but some yellows are also quite wishy-washy over white. I've always found best results with yellow over black, working down with layers from black - brown - bone or tan - yellow.

Colored primers can affect a basecoat a lot. Ask a house painter, red houses will start out as pink, as it intesifies the red color. I have even compared painting two different minis with different basecoats, one orange and one red, and the orange one gave me a brighter red.

Its all in the science of colors.

 Badablack wrote:
That's why you prime gray. The innate shading of black with the vibrancy of white.

The problem with grey primer comes when you're prepping grey plastic/resin figures: you never know when you're done or if you've missed a spot. I did that once, and I've stuck with black primer almost exclusively ever since. The only recent figures I primed white were the Dark Vengeance Deathwing and a block of cultists.

I've been painting on white primer for years and recently decided to give black a try. At first I was frustrated at needing to do multiple coats with many colours that covered over white so much better. But now the process is growing on me.

I'm building a nice good base coat that has darker shadows in the recesses. When I paint white, I tend to wash to get those shadows and they are there already. I may still paint in a shade colour, but layering up to a brighter and brigher colour on black primer makes for a nice effect.

I'm enjoying black primer even though I've been down on it in the past. Different tools for different goals.

I prime black because I'd rather my models not look too cartoonish. But then again I may not be giving the best advice since I am lazy and I do basic painting and washes for a 'table top' standard. Yup, no highlights for me usually.

Because of time restraints and low reserves of primer my eldar were partly sprayed in either white or black, depending on which can ran out first! It can depend on the colours you use but generally you can tell which model has had a white undercoat and which has a black coat. My eldar guardians are painted jade green, and while the coating on all is very even I can tell easily which ones were sprayed white. They just look brighter. My fire prism and my wave serpent were sprayed white and they also look brighter. I think the problem is that the tutorials being on screen will diminish the effect a lot, whereas if you sprayed, two models from the same army, one in white and one in black and painted them up,you would see a very noticeable difference under natural light.

You try painting yellow over black. I dare you. Paint is all semi-transparent, and your primer color matters a lot.

It makes a huge difference. When I started painting I used black primer for everything. I was amazed when I tried white for the first time. I fell in love with painting all over again. Black is great for grimdark paint jobs and white is great for vibrant colors.

Cowbellicus wrote:

Frequently when you watch/read a painting tutorial people will talk about using a white primer vs. a grey primer vs. a black primer. I guess conceptually the idea is that you want lighter primers for brighter colors, etc.

But every time I've watched one of these paint jobs, it seems like the choice of primer color was completely pointless. Every square inch of surface is covered by paint, completely opaque. Doesn't matter if it's a guy with an airbrush or regular brushes. There's never any primer that peeks through on an edge or whatever (I mean, that's why people do edge highlighting, right? Because there's no undercoat color showing through?)

So what's the deal here? Does it really matter at all? Feels kind of like one of those superstitions people just sort of grew up with and so it gets passed on without thinking about it,

The problem here, is that you think that layer of paint is opaque. It's not. Not even kinda.

I prime black simply because every time i've tried white primer it has come out really thick and killed alot of fine detail.
Lately I've been using clear gesso and brush-priming though.