Level Up is a biweekly column for the intermediate to advanced miniatures painter. A quick note to the d20zine regulars—thanks for tolerating the long delay between columns! I had a great time at both KublaCon and Games Day LA. I came back with a bunch of trophies, including Best of Show at KublaCon and a silver and a bronze Demon from Games Day. There are pictures of my various entries and this week's demo models up at my new Web site—www.niceminis.com. Onward to the good stuff! I hear a lot of questions from folks about painting black. Too often, it winds up looking grey (overhighlighted) or unpainted altogether (underhighlighted). Today I'll start by explaining the way I approach painting black. Then I'll provide a step-by-step guide to painting two different kinds of black objects.

My Approach
Black objects come in a variety of shades and textures. The surface of a glossy black car, the matte black plastic finish of a cel phone, any number of shades of black clothing, the dull sheen of black leather...each of these materials has its own shade of black with its own reflective properties.

More than any other substance except metal, it's important to have reference material for black. Fortunately, black objects are easy to come by.

As you can see in the pictures above, texture is a key factor for black objects. The more smooth and reflective the object is, the closer to white the highlights come and the sharper the transitions are between bright and dark.

The T-shirt, even though it appears black, is almost entirely a very dark grey. Your eyes perceive the shirt as "black" because the highlights are almost nonexistant and the shadows are totally black. The leather purse is glossier, as shown by the bright, focused highlights. However, the fade between dark grey and black is very subtle, just as it is on the T-shirt. The sharp lines between black and grey on the car, coupled with the pure white highlights, show it to be quite glossy indeed.

The other key factor for black objects is the color of their reflection. Only a truly neutral black will reflect pure white light. Many black objects reflect blue, green, or brown. Think about comic books for a moment. Remember Superman's hair? Batman's cowl? They had blue highlights. An old pair of black leather boots are likely to have brown or beige highlights. A black T-shirt that's been washed a bunch of times is likely to start looking green under bright light.

You have a lot more artistic leeway with color than you do with reflective properties. You can choose the "coldness" or "warmness" of your black to harmonize or contrast with the rest of the model. As a general rule, a "cold" black with blue in its reflections works well for black hair and synthetic materials like armor, paint, and plastic. A "warm" black with brown or red in its reflections works well for brown/black hair and organic materials like leather.

Once I know the type of material I'm simulating and the colors I want to use, I'm ready to paint.

Example 2: A leather cap
The model here is a Goblin Bodger, from Privateer Press' Warmachine game.

	Here's the cap all basecoated and ready to go. Even though the model is primed white, I prefer to work up from a black basecoat rather than down from the grey highlights.
	Because I'm envisioning the cap as worn leather, it's not going to be terribly reflective. The highlights will be broad and subtle, like the t-shirt. I start by mixing in a little beige (Vallejo Model Color Bonewhite, or GW Bleached Bone) with my black, and blending this quite liberally over the upper surfaces of the cap.
	The second highlight adds more Bonewhite to the mix. It's also fairly broad. I think the trickiest part of painting black is knowing "how bright is too bright". We're verging on greyness here, so it's time to put the more focused highlights in.
	More Bonewhite is added for the final highlight. This highlight is applied sparingly to the natural highlight points: the folds on the top of the head, the front center edge, and a couple of spots on the edges of the ear flaps.
	Here's the completed Bodger, with his glasses, teeth, etc. done. The black cap looks quite natural, especially with the glinting metallics nearby.

Example 2: Powered armor

The model here is GW's Space
Wolves Wolf Priest from LA Games Day.

	Here's the primed model. One of the hardest parts about painting black is that black paint and black primer naturally reflect your painting light. When you're painting, make sure to move the model around a lot until you can clearly see the area you're blending without the glare from your painting lights.
	In this case, the model is being lit from above for the photograph. That means my painting will follow the same basic lines as the natural light. It's a little hard to see, but I've painted the collar, the top of the chest, the arm, and the fingers with a dark mix of black and GW Space Wolf Grey (a pale blue).
	The second highlight incorporates more Space Wolf Grey. It's much more obvious in the photograph. I'm looking to create a highly reflective surface here, so I'm going to take the highlights almost up to white. I'm also going to make the transition between the top of the arm and the bottom of the arm fairly stark.
	I've added white into the mix for the final highlight. When you're highlighting something this bright, it's particularly important to keep your paint thin and your blends smooth. Thin paint, carefully applied, will "blur" its edges just a touch and keep your final line highlights from looking like a line of paint.
	Here's the completed Space Wolf. You can see that I've done his backpack in a similar style to the powered armor. Notice how the non-metallic gold and the shaft of his weapon reinforce the illusion of directional light reflecting off the black. It's not that hard to fool the viewer's eye—fine art painters have been doing it for centuries. Remember that other parts of the model will reinforce whatever lighting effect you're going for with your black.

That's it for this edition of Level Up. Next time we'll look at some cool detailing effects for your models: painting rust, blood, and dirt. Thanks for reading!

Finn Kisch is a musician, gamer, and award-winning miniatures painter. He paints character models on commission and gives painting lessons in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can check out his other work and current eBay auctions on his Web site: www.niceminis.com.