Last updated October 21, 2026. By Andrew M. Tan.
What is the difference between inks, washes, and shades for miniatures? They all have different effects and behaviors when you apply them with a brush or airbrush. An acrylic ink can be transparent, semi-opaque, or opaque. A wash is a thin application of color, and you can buy it premixed or make it yourself. Shades are washes used to darken recesses and bring out detail. The names overlap, which can make it confusing to choose what you need.
In this article, I review the differences (and similarities) between washes, inks, and shades. I also highlight their most common uses for painting miniatures. If you’re confused about what these hobby mediums are best used for, this post is for you!
What’s the Difference Between Inks and Washes?
Inks and washes have different uses, and overlap in some areas as well.
Here is a detailed description of inks vs washes:
Inks are an art medium. A wash is an art technique or a medium. This means that you can buy an ink. It is sold in bottles. With washes, you have the option of buying them premade from popular hobby companies or you can make a wash yourself. A wash is simply diluted paint (or ink) that lets the underlying color show through. Premixed hobby washes also have formulas designed to flow over detail and collect in recesses.
- Inks come in transparent, semi-opaque, and opaque colors. Opaque inks can give you quick coverage of large areas such as skin of lizard men, the carapace of an insect, etc. Transparent inks let the underlying color show through. I rarely use inks straight from a bottle. You can dilute acrylic inks with water or a compatible acrylic medium to create a DIY wash.
- Washes are transparent paints that you use for shading or color modulation of large areas such as the skin of an orc’s face, the scales of a snake, etc. Depending on the brand formula, e.g., Citadel, Vallejo, The Army Painter, you can use a wash straight from the bottle or thin it for more transparency. The variety of “washes” you can buy may be overwhelming to understand at first glance. But, all washes work through their color transparency, and help to increase the contrast of a miniature painting by darkening recesses and texture.
What are the Pros and Cons of Inks and Washes?
Ink Benefits
- Opaque inks can quickly cover large areas on a miniature. Transparent inks allow the underlying color to show through.
- Inks can give you strong color even though they are thinner (e.g., lower viscosity) than regular hobby paint. Coverage depends on the color and formula.
- You don’t need much ink to shift the color of paint or water. A small bit of ink mixed with a lot of water will still have strong color saturation. This makes them great for making your own washes.
- Acrylic inks are versatile. You can mix them with compatible acrylic paints and mediums for intense color.
- For making your own washes, use a water-based acrylic artist ink. Check the label: drawing inks and India inks can use different binders.
Ink Drawbacks
- Opaque inks can quickly cover other hobby paints. Even transparent inks can have strong color, so be careful to avoid overusing them.
- Some inks leave a glossy finish; Liquitex Acrylic Ink dries satin. Use a matte medium or matte varnish to reduce or remove the shine.
- Black and dark-colored inks can darken a model quickly. I generally recommend mixing and thinning artist inks to create a wash for most applications (more about this below).
- Very fluid inks can spread across a wet palette. A palette with wells helps keep the mixtures separate.
- For blending techniques, you’ll need to adjust for how quickly inks flow and dry.
Wash Benefits
- Washes add depth and can help you shade large areas over an entire model without overwhelming other colors.
- You can make your own DIY wash with artist inks or thinned paint. This gives you control over the color and how intense it looks on the model.
- Mix acrylic paint with a compatible wash or thinner to add color into deeper recesses on different areas of your model. For example, you can thin a shadow color with a brown wash or flesh wash to give skin or flesh tones extra depth.
- Many easy to learn, basic techniques, e.g., GW battle ready standard painting, start with a transparent coat of wash over the entire figure followed by highlighting techniques.
Wash Drawbacks
- It is easy to use too much wash over a model. A dark wash application often desaturates and darkens your main colors. After applying a wash, I suggest going back and restoring mid tone colors and highlights.
- Pre-made hobby washes, e.g., GW washes or shades, are usually ready to use. You can also thin them for a lighter effect. The Army Painter makes Wash Medium for its Fanatic Washes for this purpose. Extra water or flow improver changes how the wash spreads.
- As with inks, using a darker color wash can easily overwhelm an entire area of your model with a single color.
RELATED: BEST 7 WASHES FOR PAINTING MINIATURES (RECOMMENDATION FOR NEW PAINTERS)
What About Shades?
A shade is simply a wash that darkens or “shades” the recessed, deeper parts of your miniature. You can buy one or make it yourself with diluted acrylic ink or paint. To clarify, many washes are intended to create shadows, which also means that many washes could be considered “shades”.
I know this is a bit confusing. But, as it turns out, shades sold from popular hobby brands are often just dark colors that you apply over other paint to shade/darken them. The shading or shadows you create help add contrast and improve your miniature’s definition and volume. You can certainly make your own shade with diluted ink.
Shade Benefits
- All shades add contrast and depth to a miniature when used correctly.
- The use of a darker shade is the opposite of highlighting, and both work together to define volumetric form on a model.
- Shades already work as a wash. You can dilute them with water or a compatible acrylic medium for a lighter effect.
- Dark brown or black acrylic inks make great shades when thinned or diluted (try not to overuse flow improver; my guide to thinning hobby paints covers your options). Consider mixing your DIY shade with a bit of matt medium to reduce the gloss of the finish. For this reason, I often recommend using a matte varnish to complete a painted miniature.
- Pre-made shades, such as those from Citadel, are excellent and easy to use for any painter. These work great over a base coat of paint, and help to quickly define texture, definition and detail on a model.
- A shade applied over a base coat of paint will easily create a more compelling surface. Metallic materials benefit greatly with an application of shade. Boltgun metal or gunmetal paint, for example, appear better with the real metallic shine of steel or iron with a simple coat of Nuln Oil.
Shade Drawbacks
- A commercial shade comes in a set color. Sometimes making your own wash is better for matching a particular color on your model.
- Because shades darken the tone of model’s recessed texture, they may fail to work well on miniatures with large open surface areas with less defining texture.
- You can buy pre-made “Shades”, or make DIY washes. The confusion of when premixed shades are more useful than DIY shades is hard to untangle for new painters. For the most part, premixed shades from Citadel (Games Workshop) are the best choice for those who are unsure.
- For adding shadows, shades and washes can often be used interchangeably. The color, flow, and finish of the particular product affect how it looks on your miniature.
How Do You Make an Ink Wash for Miniatures?
There are several ways to make an ink wash for painting miniatures. In general, ink washes are translucent, so you can layer them multiple times to achieve the desired ink effect. To use inks properly, the key is moderation.
Use inks to make unique shading colors, such as for a flesh wash for human skin tones, or a green wash for those orks and goblins. Black or brown acrylic ink is useful for many miniature painting projects. A black ink when diluted into a black wash, for example, allows you to quickly define the panel lines on armor plates or mechanical parts.
It is interesting to note that Games Workshop (GW) had a line of useful, old GW inks. A thin application of ink wash created by diluting artist ink or paint worked well for miniature painting.
Ink washes are diluted forms of inks that are used for shading and coloring large areas on a model’s skin or armor. One way to create an ink wash is by adding ink to a wet paint mixture. Adding acrylic ink to a compatible paint mixture changes its color and how it flows through your brush or onto the miniature.
You may also create ink washes by adding ink directly into water. Adding ink to water will allow you to mix ink drops into various ratios of ink and water before applying the mixture to your model’s textures. When creating ink washes for game pieces, remember that each layer can darken the color underneath. Apply the ink in thin coats and let each coat dry before adding more.
It’s fairly simple to dilute acrylic ink for a wash
Step 1: Use ink and water or a compatible acrylic medium to create ink washes. Use an eye dropper or estimate droplets from a brush to keep track of the ratio. Start with a drop of ink and add the thinner a little at a time. Try it over a painted scrap to see how much color shows through, then adjust the mixture.
Step 2: Apply ink washes with a brush or airbrush. Use ink washes sparingly and in thin coats. Applying ink washes in multiple thin coats will allow you to build up the ink wash on your model so it looks more natural.
With these tips, you can use ink washes for miniature painting to achieve a variety of different effects.
MORE DETAILS: FULL INK GUIDE AND RECOMMENDATION FOR MINIATURE PAINTING
When to use ink straight from the bottle
The difference between an ink (straight from the bottle) and an ink wash is how much you dilute it before applying it to your model. An undiluted ink has its full color strength, whether that color is opaque or transparent. It can be overwhelming to use ink straight from the pot. Ink washes are often ink mixed with water (or a compatible acrylic medium), which makes the color more transparent and gives you more control over its tone on your model.
If you are using ink straight from the bottle, it can be useful for creating deep lines of contrasting color without taking too much time.
Inks and ink washes are both good for adding shading and contrast to your miniature paint projects. In general, ink washes are easier to work with because you can create an ink wash that is lighter or darker depending on the ink-to-water ratio. For this reason, ink washes often give you more control over how ink is applied to your miniature project.
When you want a lighter effect, an ink wash gives you control over the tone through the amount of water or medium you add.
Tips on How to Use Ink Wash
A wash is an application or technique where a transparent medium, such as diluted ink or paint, is applied over a model’s surface to darken recesses and define surface texture on a mini painting. To best use an ink wash, remember to apply it in your painting in areas where you want to define shadows and depth.
Use a brush loaded with the ink wash and apply it to your model. Work in sections, as you would with normal paint, so you don’t have too much spread where you don’t want the ink wash to go. How you apply your ink wash will depend on the miniature. With practice you should be able to control where the ink wash will go.
Some miniature painters will start with a gloss coat to help ink washes flow over the surface and into detail. I generally don’t recommend doing this as it can also make it more difficult to control where your inks go over the model. Inks tend to run easily, especially thinned out inks. For a closer look at applying a wash, see my seven-step shade tutorial.
For more tips on how to use ink washes, check out how I used inks in this short ink basing tutorial and how I use washes in this article painting an RPG tabletop miniature and board game miniature.
Conclusion
Inks, washes, and shades are amazing tools for painting miniatures. There is so much to learn and try in this hobby. I hope you found this article helpful and informative. There is a lot of confusion surrounding these mediums and I wanted to clarify some of the discussion. It doesn’t help that company marketing has blurred the lines between what shades, washes, and inks are used for.
Inks are art medium products, and shades and washes describe both products and techniques. Sure, nowadays you can “buy” shades or washes, and then use them with methods according to their namesake. Ultimately, the goal is the same: use these mediums to add contrast and volume to your miniature paintings.
If you have any questions or feedback about this post or want to learn more, please leave me a comment. I’d love to hear from you!
Until next time, happy miniature painting!
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By Andrew M. Tan
Andrew is a commissioned miniature painter with more than 20 years of hands-on experience painting tabletop miniatures, photographing models, and testing hobby tools in real-world use. Read his full bio.