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Picture them in your head. Crazy, evil cultists. Secret meetings, twisted plots, midnight masses in service of the unthinkable. Got it? What color are their robes? I'm about to start painting a group of cultists and I'm having trouble deciding on a color. I don't want the color to be indicative of their allegiance, I want them to be able to stand in for any group of evil cultists. So I want to put it to the Forumites: What color says, "that's an evil cultist," without having it say, "That's a cultist of (blank)?" What color robes do you wear when you worship your dark Deity of choice? What color looks great, even if it covers 90% of the miniature?

I wanted to start this thread because of something I read in another one--specifically, that the MSP "primary" colors were mixed with white and thus of limited usage in some applications. I thought I might clarify a couple of points about how MSP was created and which parts of it are good for what. After I babble on for a while, I would love to see you guys talk a bit about how you use color. So if you want, just skip to the end of this Wall o' Text. First off, when we created the line, I was aiming to provide a good selection of colors that were fairly matte, had great adhesion (i.e. they would stick to the model as well as possible, and stand up to handling with a minimum of wear and tear), and would cover as well as we could manage. I also had some colors in mind that I had not seen in any other line at that time--really dark purples like 9022 Nightshade Purple and 9025 Burgundy Wine, for example. I began to learn paint chemistry and to work with different bases and pigments during this period and found that the brightest of colors inherently lacked coverage for various reasons unless paired with certain base types we weren't using (if you want me to elucidate here, just ask). Because of this, I did not concentrate on creating "pure pigment" colors for the first 54 (the initial release). So, though the first 54 MSP colors in the Core set make up a nice selection of hues, they aren't as good for pure mixing. As the line grew, we got the opportunity to expand to over 200 colors and I added in the Clear Brights--9094 through 9099. These are colors containing only one pigment or one plus a dash of another. They contain no white or any other colors. Because of this, they are very brilliant and translucent, which is why they were named "Clear (red, green, blue, etc.)." These colors are IDEAL for mixing and glazing. You can also gain a lot of "pop" using these over highlights initially laid down in white, or you can shade and highlight in colors that might cover a little better and then brighten and smooth everything with a glaze of Clear X. There are other single-pigment colors in the line, great for mixing, that I have mentioned in other threads--among them, Palomino Gold (yellow ochre), Pure Black, and Pure White. 9071 Chestnut Brown is your Burnt Sienna alternative. I also added in the initial Liner colors (9064-9066) during this period. I have never been one to use pure black in my shadows and found that Brown Liner and Blue Liner expanded my shading options. The Liner base is more fluid, has more flow improver added, and goes nicely translucent when thinned, allowing for subtle shading and glazing effects. We later added three other colored liners (Red, Green, Violet) but they were not nearly as popular and were sadly canceled due to lack of sales. Now I think they may merely have been ahead of their time, because I get requests for them an awful lot! We capped the first 108 with Flow Improver (though there is already flow improver added to ALL MSP's), Brush-On Sealer (works great as a matte medium--wash formula is 3 drops water, 3 drops Brush-On Sealer, 1 drop paint of your choice, adjust to taste), and our Brush-On Primer (white). Additional additives were later added with brush-on Black Primer, Anti-Shine Additive (add a tiny bit to make paints or washes more matte), and Drying Retarder (add a little in place of water to slow the drying time of paint, but be careful not to add too much or it won't dry!). All other additions have just been collections of colors that we thought might be useful to have around in a bottle so you don't have to mix 'em every time. In the HD line, we were looking for coverage, but again I didn't want to change the base too much. So we went with high-coverage pigments instead, and have been very happy with the results. The Heavy Gear line was created as a collaboration with their parent company and has some excellent and unique colors in it--both traditional MSP and HD types. Now--I would love to hear about how you use the colors you use. What do you like for shading, for highlighting, what are your most favorite and useful colors? Doesn't have to be MSP. I'm curious about whether you are shading with complementaries, highlighting with warmer and shading with cooler or vice versa. :) Who are your Color Theory gurus? Any good books to recommend? Online resources? Examples of minis you've painted with unusual takes on color?