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I am still pretty new to this world and have taken quite well to the painting aspect. However, one of the things I cannot get right is painting black. Part of my dilemma is that I primed everything black. I see a lot of examples where the edges are highlighted in some form of white or grey, but either I am just terrible at doing this or I need to find the world's thinnest brush. What tips do you all have?

I prime all my models black; thin layer of abadon black to get all areas, once dry I clean off pooled up paint areas with xacto knife.

Heavy drybrush Vellejo german grey(darker eshin grey), touch edges with eshin grey, then highlight edges with codex grey, do the other colors, highlight triangulated areas with minitorum grey.

you can check out my deathwatch in my inquisition gallery for results.

I prime my Black Legion... well, black.

The key for me is 2-3 very thin coats from different angles. This should give almost perfect coverage. You need to bear in mind that it isn't just primer, but your base coat.

I actually prefer to highlight with a mix of black & turquoise to give a cool, deep black look. This contrasts with other army's stark grey highlights.

However both are equally valid.

edge highlighting is fine, but to highlight black properly you should take a little time to read up on colour theory and warm/cold colours. using colours like blue or red can make your black highlights much more realistic.

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
edge highlighting is fine, but to highlight black properly you should take a little time to read up on colour theory and warm/cold colours. using colours like blue or red can make your black highlights much more realistic.

Exactly as said here. It depends on how you want your black to turn out. When painting my Templars I will prime using Vallejo black surface primer and then game colour black (thin/light layers) in case of any missed areas. I will then typically use model air German grey thinned down in a zenithal type highlight. Following this I will lighten the grey a tad and zenithal again with the aim to create some depth to the model. Depending on how you feel the result looks you can glaze/wash the model to tone it down and highlight or add battle damage as you see fit.

 Big Mac wrote:
I prime all my models black; thin layer of abadon black to get all areas, once dry I clean off pooled up paint areas with xacto knife.

Heavy drybrush Vellejo german grey(darker eshin grey), touch edges with eshin grey, then highlight edges with codex grey, do the other colors, highlight triangulated areas with minitorum grey.

you can check out my deathwatch in my inquisition gallery for results.

I don't think anyone has answered your last question. You don't need the worlds thinnest brush to do edge highlights on armor. Just get some paint on your brush. and glide the side of your brush on a protruding edge. With little paint on the side of your brush, the paint should just hit the tip of the 90 degree (or w/e degree) edge that you want to highlight. So just follow the edge with the side of your brush and you should get a nice consistent, straight line!

If this is confusing look up edge highlighting on YouTube.

If you are looking for a super small brush look up Army Painter: The Psycho

But again thin brushes like this are not needed, and would make it actually harder to do an edge highlight.

Thank you all! Great advice thus far.

Everyone here has covered it perfectly, but i remember what i did when i saw you ask this - i was wearing black pants and so i looked at them. Black was not the dominant colour at all

Ref: my current pants (admittedly faded), these were black currently a medium blue grey, but look how much white there is, how the light flows. My point is, find photos of what you want to do and actually look at how you'd replicate it

kb_lock wrote:
Everyone here has covered it perfectly, but i remember what i did when i saw you ask this - i was wearing black pants and so i looked at them. Black was not the dominant colour at all

Ref: my current pants (admittedly faded), these were black currently a medium blue grey, but look how much white there is, how the light flows. My point is, find photos of what you want to do and actually look at how you'd replicate it

I've reviewed a lot of pictures for the Dakka gallery but this is one of the strangest ones that was actually on topic!