Contrast Paint And The Establishment Bias

 A long time ago, painting used to only take place indoors.  Studios were where artists would mix their pigments and oils.  Canvases would be stretched on wooden frames and the subject would sit before the artist and, over a period of time the artist would paint them.

If a person was to paint a landscape, they would go outdoors to first sketch it, then return to a studio to paint it.

Several things happened in the 1870's that precipitated what would become later known as the Impressionist Movement.  But high on that list was advances in how paint itself was made.  Paints had moved from being cumbersome and requiring the mixing of pigments and oil by the artist to being stored in tubes with resealable caps.  This was a huge boon to painters and would be credited by Renoir as being a vital element of the Impressionist Movement, saying "Without tubes of paint, there would have been no impressionism.”

I think about the emergence of Impressionism in art quite a often.  I supposes the part of me that strives for fairness appreciates the idea of taking the creation of art away from a small cross section of society and making it more accessible to a wider section of society.  Those who would become known as Impressionists would take their art out into the world and art would be changed by this for the better.

That was over a 150 years ago.

Games Workshop released Contrast Paints in 2019.  These paints have significantly altered the landscape of painting miniatures.  And the establishment wasn't happy with this.  Even now, two years later, some established painters still attack the product line and still treat hobbyists who use the paints with disdain.

This is gatekeeping, plain and simple.

There is, with any innovation, fear of change and fear of how that innovation may impact your place in the hierarchy.  If you're an established painter whose expertise is called on often, something new like Contrast Paints is of course a threat.  It's a new tool that has not yet been mastered and specifically this tool was designed to help those newer to the hobby.

This isn't the first time I've seen established painters attack a new product in the hobby.  The shades that GW has had in service for a decade or so have been mocked, yet now they're seen as integral to painting miniatures.  Even the original inks that Games Workshop first released in the late 1980's were seen as "cheating" by many painters.

There are, I believe, some who don't use Contrast Paints for very specific reasons.  Guy from Midwinter Minis uses a very small and exclusive palette of paints.  His focus is always on painting models quickly so he excludes a large section of items in his painting tutorials.  There are others who have embraced Contrast Paints like Juan Hidalgo or Warhipster.  These established painters use them quite well.  Juan Hidalgo is achieving incredibly effects with Contrast Paints.  It's a shame that so many painters, especially ones that new painters go to for tutorials and advice, have embraced their own bias rather than try to incorporate a new tool in their formidable arsenals.

Thanks for reading.