Grimdark Might Be Up to Us Fans 

Maybe the real grim darkness is the friends we made along the way

Grimdark thrives on tragedy, when something precious and beautiful is bitterly warped and twisted. The Imperium is grimdark because is depicts a humanity that has achieved its dream of exploring the cosmos, walking on new worlds and meeting other intelligent life - but in the process everything that is good and wonderful about humanity has had to be sacrificed. Outer space has become a source of fear, death and pain rather than wonder, awe and inspiration. 'There is no peace among the stars'

People seem to forget that the 40k universe always have been massively tongue-in-cheek and satirical. It's goofiness contrasted with genuine tragedy.

For me Grimdark only works if it’s contrasted with a little hope and life. A fictional world disinterests me if there’s no hope, because then there’s no reason to get invested. I think Dan Abnet put it best in an interview where he said there is no Big “H” Hope in 40k but there is little “h” hope on the smaller more personal scales.

Grimdark is a never ending loop where all you can do is delay the inevitable so stuff like Tyranids and chaos cause 40k to be grimdark

Wow, those paintjobs look great. Never occurred to me to use a different color as a zenithal basecoat before!

Just as 40k has the right mix of fun and grimdark, this channel has the right mix of entertainment and tips! Keep up the great work

Your painting never ceases to amaze me Jay. Great job!

Grimdark /grime-dork/ Adjective 1. A Zorn palette John Blanche illustration, in a rusted tin can, floating down a sewer pipe, with a rat on it, with a laser for an eye. 2. Portmanteau word derived from the tagline of the Warhammer 40k universe, similar to frenemy, chillax, or brunch.

40k is at it's best when it combines grim dark with satirical absurdity.

I just want to say how nice it has been as an audience member to see the HUGE jump in the quality of video in the last year or so. The content of your videos have always been amazing but in the last year the actual composition of the video has grown massively and it has been awesome! Keep up the great work, we are all loving it!!

I've recently been in Beksiński muzeum in his hometown. Some disturbing stuff. But for me grimdark is just world for painting dirty dark minis. Something in direction in blanchitsu style.

I liked how you mention no box art. I am a newer painter and I feel like box art only makes my life more difficult. I like having a reference but only when I want it, but once that box art gets into your head sometimes it is hard to forget.

That’s crazy how much difference the base color made between the white and the orange! Thanks for the information. I am just a week into painting miniatures and I have a limited in my knowledge of painting in general. I appreciate the tips,tricks, and advice you give. It has kept me from feeling overwhelmed with my newfound hobby. I’ve tried to reach out of my comfort zone and not be scared of details and not in a sense “paint by number” and make my miniatures an extension of my creativity and your videos do that for me to encourage that unique approach. Thank you for doing the content you do!

The most grimdark place I've ever seen- the church of the holy sepulchre. Tall ceilings hidden in darkness, pleanty of different robed figures, mumbling prayrs, icons and old ornaments in every crevice.

I know this video is more about the theme than the actual paint job but honestly I think these are the best models you've painted, so much soul coming from these models that you bought out with a great paint job.

Jay my man they look amazing, whenever I burn out, watching your videos makes me want to grab the brushes right away. Fantastic video, thank you!

For me grimdark is the life cycle of a beast of nurgle. A beast has the mind of a puppy and he just wants to play with every one but the beast doesnt know that he is a huge disgusting monster and every one they touch turns into a puddle.😢😢 And the beast just becomes depressed...

Great video! Loved the animated intro haha. I like grimdark... but not going to lie I miss the old school vibrant/contrasted look from the 90's when I first discovered 40K and Warhammer Fantasy. Thanks for the video!

Bam! Great lesson in underpainting! It's the tutorial I needed, not the one I was expecting.

really love how these came out (and i generally find glazes and layering to be more meditative than working with an airbrush so it's always nice to see.)

that orange zenithal came out kingly, so much more vibrant and alive than the comparison, and thanks for the comparison at the end! definitely gonna be trying out different undercoats with my models moving forward

You are my favorite channel for mini painting. Thanks for everything!

My eyes made the orange look green almost, very cool

Nice!, its always great when speed and awesome show up at the same time and you really nailed it on these with both.

It was really funny how you said Zdzisław Beksiński for me Pole, I needed a moment to get it. Amazing job!

Thank you for this! As a beginner I really like your approach to painting.

Love the paint job and the little story at the end! Great vid

Jay, that orange zenithal may have changed the game. Well done.

I love those goblins, really great job on the paint job too

Love how these turned out! 😍

Lovely stuff, best models I've seen you paint!

For me grimdark is just synonymous with 40k. They've encapsulated everything that it means for me. Great marketing!

Wow, this one was great. Learned a lot of cool things to try. Somehow these vids keep restarting that fire for the hobby. Thanks!

You gotta have that bright, stuff to get dragged down into the muck and mire, of "Grim Dark"..That's why my ideal movie idea would be Either during the Crusade, with Space Marines descending on an innocent world, of kind likable people, being forced into the Imperium. OR I would like a movie starting with an idyllic life on some Xenos world, only for the Space Marines to arrive and start Grim Darking things up.

Jay, thanks for these really great technique vids ! I'm a modeling O G but a Warhammer newb. The models I have painted in the past were by all precise and technical by design (Sci Fi spaces ships and military planes and tanks). These vids really help an old dog learn some new tricks. I thought I'd let you know I joined the channel's Patreon, you guys definitely deserve the support. See you in the live streams And Nick, grow your hair, LOL!

I've done a purple undercoat for orks, but definitely going to be trying the orange. Awesome work Jay.

Jay, that was one of your best paint concepts 💡. Definitely in your top 5, maybe top 3 for me. Well done!!!! Your skill has grown wonderfully. Carry on! As for your question, I honestly think your title says it all.

The True Meaning of Grimdark Grim: is my determination as, inspired by you videos, I set out, brush in hand to strive for the higher echelons of creative endeavour. Dark: is my mood when the result of my labours more closely resembles something that fell out of my ass, one dark and stormy night. It is the battle within me!

Really well done. Some of your best paintjobs I'd say. The orange basecoat was a great idea!

That goblin holding the chain was a clever idea. The white eyes making the troll blind was genius, though.

These are absolutely amazing! great paint job! In my opinion they are the best that you have painted!

Think these might be some of the best miniatures you have done on the channel. Look absolutely amazing! 🔥🔥🔥

This is my favourite video yet! Grimdark to me is dark, dirty and sinister

great use of orange undercoat

Fantastic idea using the orange as a zenithal. I'll have to try it out one day.

As well as zenithal with another colour than white as the light, I've been loving priming them with adarker ambient colour like blue or magenta, you get some really vibrant highlights, but get nicely contrasting shadow tones

I love how these turned out, great job!

This video is what got me to subscribe. Loved the simplicity of the paint job!

These guys are fantastic. Great work.

I JUST had the "colored zenithal" idea the other day but haven't tried it yet. (I was trying to think how to get around a camo primer and was thinking to do a skin tone zenithal). So happy that this works so incredibly well!! Also, that nose chain thing is brilliant.

Man, those goblins look fantastic. I've been experimenting with using different colors for my primes instead of just the usual grey, white, or black. Tans, yellows, and even a light blue. It definitely changes how the colors react on your minis.

Ok this is the best green goblin I have seen, orange is the key!!! Thanks for this new tip.

Great video! I feel like you’ve really leveled up your painting. 👏👏👏

I just subscribed to BlackCrag yesterday, they have really excellent orks!

Grim Dark represents(to me) the seedy underbelly of war and violence and what everyone involved has to go through when dealing with war of any kind. As a Veteran I have seen these things up close and personal, but it hasn’t kept me from see the beauty of the art we call “Grim Dark”. Great video, thanks for the inspiration for the goblins with the orange zenithal.

Grim dark is the setting and atmosphere, bit like a filter over everything. In terms of painting it feels like the realism that’s added particularly to figures or industrial structures that at a glance gives you that atmospheric feeling. It’s the difference between looking at 90’s eavy metal paint jobs where you can appreciate the model and the painting but then you look at the codex and see the artwork that you get the feeling.

These were some of your best work, dude. Way to go!

Those came out fantastic! Inspiration for the kill team orks I'll be painting up for the NOCF this year :)

You have baffled me with this one. Insanely good work

Wow your skills really inspire me. I want to get into painting myself, watching the painting makes me only want to get into it more.

These are brilliant! I love how much content you put out and how you just throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks. Please keep making these fun videos and don't ever get too "youtubey"

This overall video was amazing! Incredible result man!

Grimdark as a setting: no matter how good things get for you, it can always be taken away at a moment sometimes without warning. Hope Should be acquirable but not the default state for your average Joe. Grimdark as architecture: so large and grand in scope that you feel insignificant or so tight it can only force you to develop claustrophobia. Grimdark as an aesthetic: so much of it should be not built to purpose. It should, from rifle to the largest structure or machine be built in ways that can and will be esoteric and complex with people too simple or too lacking in access of knowledge to properly explain how the things they use work.

Amazing what a difference that orange zenethal made!

Very nicely done, those eyes definitely make 'em look pretty crazy

The paint job is awesome !!!

This is your best paint job to date my dude

My illustration professor loves painting figures in off-color tones, but always brightens up the nose cheeks and ears with warm colors regardless of the base skin color. His reasoning was that they were alive, not zombies. I havent tested his theory on 40 k minatures yet, but I think when using cool tones on figures like green and blue, it's especially important to contrast with warmer colors on the figure's skin - assuming they're not undead. I'm going to practice on some resin prints and hopefully try it out on my ork kill team.

The painjob ended up really impressive and realistic! One of your best ever!

Wow, this is such a great idea! Thank you!

Man, i do love me some good speedpainting methods and these models look stunning. Considering you only painted them for like 30min per model, its actually mindblowing. I'll definitely try something similar. Might be fun to explore this idea some more with different colored zenithals

Grimdark is that feeling that you’re just prolonging the inevitable. You know you are dead you are just putting it off as long as you can.

Wow that airbrush and washing looks awesome. Already game ready 😲 this video shows my favorite style yet.

Brilliant! I'm defo going to give this a try. Thanks for sharing!

Dude, you did an amazing job!

They look very much like the Goblin Slayer goblins. Which is to say kind of silly proportion wise but when you know what a pack of them can get up to the grim dark is baked right on in.

Great job on this paint job

Damn, good Job, they look really good! I do not expect that

Grimdark to me is the beauty, hope and meaning found in the midst of despair and suffering, coupled with an ironic audience awareness that this hope is misplaced, the beauty a facade and the meaning ultimately futile. Genestealer cults are a perfect example of this; even success and ultimate victory leads only to speeding their own destruction. Despair and suffering are the only objectively true thing; everything else is a delusional attempt at coping with that reality. Even pure true love is never going to fully establish itself; take Eisenhorne, a strong psyker, being in love with Bequin, a blank that he can barely manage to be in proximity to.

Very cool looking goblins, and I really have no clue on grimdark, but love the styles within grimdark

Love the idea of the orange undercoat.

This looks amazing, love the outcome and how vibrant the skin came out =D

Fantastic paint job on those gobbos!

Dude, super sweet paintjob

I'd say those turned out really good; that orange tint dis a great job of bumping up their profile, and making them look less like every other Goblin, or Orc. Even in the quick glimpses we got, I saw you doing stuff I can't, but maybe someday. A similar video idea; could you go over a way to practice with greenstuff/puty? I have a special character I've been on again/off again working on for years, and one reason he's still not done is greenstuff sculpting. Whenever I think trying it, either to give a dragonskin look to his coat (he's mostly a tweaked Tempestor Prime), or how I'll eventually have to cut the head off of a Pathfider mini I got, because there isn't a good head for him in the 40k line, I panic. I don't just buy cheap boxes of stuff I don't need, and plaster greenstuff on them in ways that don't matter, so I can practice, but I'll need it for him, and I'll need practice because he's my most important 40k self-made character (my personal Rogue Trader). Lots of regular troops minis don't often require greenstuff customization, and characters should look good, so how do you practice using greenstuff without just cranking out a little heap of minis that don't matter, and you had to pay for them, and the pity? Any advice would be great! For me, the grimdark element is how little anything you do will matter, and while you might win a battle, the cost still might be great, while the war goes on forever. You might almost win, just to be defeated by an enemy who had seen it all coming, or by "allies" who can't condone what you're doing, or more, and ruin everything.

id been looking at these goblins for a while but wasnt sure. the renders do not do these boys justice. they came out awesome. cant wait to print them.

Dude. D U D E. The orange underpainting is fucking inspired. I was watching this while doing some test painting trying to figure out a good system for painting my boyz that wasn't going to keep taking forever and I tried this and I am still in awe at how utterly perfect this turns out. And equally shocked at how heckin fast it comes together. Holy mother of Gork. Thank you so much for sharing this!!

Yep, the best thing to improve painting skills is to make sure to mix in random models, not your normal army, every now and then.

That green skin recipe is lovely dude!!

Haha amazing I did exactly that setup with a snotling leading on a chained GW fantasy Ogre using an added chain to his nose with nose ring just like that! :D That was about 30 years ago and some of the first GW minis I ever painted. Unfortunatly I think Iv'e lost that one as it got moved around my parents place as I was finding myself in different parts of the world. The Ogre I used was one wearing some chain mail and leather and had a round headed spiky mace/club.

Quick tip for weathering balsa wood, use a brass wire brush! Creates grain like real wood

Great job. The orange really paid off

These are fantastic!

They look superb!

Great job!

These look great!

Grimdark is an excuse I give myself to hide mistakes with Agrax Earthshade and call it an artistic choice ^^

Blanchitsu is peak grimdark to me, when we talk design. As a philosophical concept: Dirt, inhumaine life, a lack of happiness, except about others' misery, fulfillment in fighting the enemy, the few mean nothing compared to the many.

It might sound a little strange, but whenever I start another 40K novel, I always -- always -- read the introductory page that sets the mood, even though I must've read it over a hundred times before (and even managed to sneak it into my university paper and final exam). I think it boils down the grimdark aspect of 40K into a few short paragraphs. And luckily, the rest is up to us to interpret and fill with meaning. When there is very little hope, never forget that "The Emperor Protects!"