The Darkness is an extremely dark green-blue acrylic paint from The Army Painter's Warpaints Fanatic John Blanche Masterclass range. This near-black colour creates deep shadows and a brooding grimdark atmosphere while its green-blue undertone retains more colour and visual depth than a conventional pure black.
What is The Darkness? It is an 18ml. Warpaints Fanatic acrylic developed in collaboration with legendary fantasy artist John Blanche and forming part of his distinctive Masterclass colour palette. The Darkness originally appeared in the John Blanche Masterclass Volume 1 Paint Set and is now also available as an individual colour. This makes it easy to replenish this particularly useful shadow colour without needing another complete set.
John Blanche is known for an expressive visual language filled with weathered surfaces, gothic shapes, muted colours and powerful contrasts. His approach became an important inspiration for the miniature painting aesthetic commonly described as Blanchitsu or grimdark. The Darkness fits naturally into that style. Instead of painting every dark area with neutral black, this colour introduces a subtle cool green-blue character. As a result, even extremely dark areas can retain visual interest.
The colour also belongs to the Deep Green-Blues Flexible Colour Triad within the Warpaints Fanatic system. This makes The Darkness useful beyond a dedicated John Blanche palette, as it integrates with the wider Fanatic colour range. It sits at the dark end of this green-blue colour family, allowing it to be combined with lighter Deep Green-Blues to create a controlled transition from very deep shadows through visible midtones and highlights.
How do you use The Darkness? Apply it directly as a dark basecoat or thin it for controlled shadows, filters and translucent layers. On armour, for example, The Darkness can create a convincing near-black surface. Keep the majority of the armour dark and introduce lighter green-blue colours only on upward-facing areas and selected edges. The miniature remains suitably sinister while its volumes and details stay readable.
This approach also works particularly well for black or very dark clothing. Pure black leaves little room for adding deeper shadows, whereas The Darkness retains enough colour to be shaded further with black and highlighted with green-blue, grey or a suitably muted light colour. The same principle can be used on cloaks, leather equipment, dark creature skin or chitin, machinery, weapons and gothic scenery.
For grimdark miniature painting, The Darkness pairs naturally with earthy browns, dirty greens, rust colours, ochres and muted reds. Its cool green-blue character provides useful contrast against these warmer tones. Rust on dark armour, weathered metals and warm skin can therefore stand out without relying on extremely bright or saturated colours. The Darkness is also useful for atmospheric underpainting: establish it in the deepest areas first, then build translucent colours or progressively lighter layers over the top.
The paint uses The Army Painter's Warpaints Fanatic acrylic formula. This combines dense pigmentation with a premium resin base and stabilisers designed to maintain consistent pigment dispersion. As a result, the paint can be thinned considerably for techniques such as glazing and controlled layering while remaining equally useful for more opaque applications. Shake the bottle thoroughly for approximately 30 seconds before painting and check the consistency on your palette before applying it to the miniature.
The Darkness is suitable for both beginner and advanced miniature painters. Beginners get a practical dark base colour that makes building readable contrast straightforward. Experienced painters can exploit its green-blue undertone for glazing, subtle colour shifts and atmospheric shadows. It is particularly versatile for fantasy, science-fiction, horror, skirmish miniatures and grimdark projects where a conventional black can sometimes appear too neutral or visually flat.
The main advantage of The Darkness is exactly what its name suggests: it lets you paint exceptionally dark areas without removing all colour from the shadows. That makes this John Blanche colour both an atmospheric tool for grimdark painting and a practical addition to a broader Warpaints Fanatic collection.
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