Black feathers?

[PlasmaDavid]

I'm trying to paint some birds with black plumage, anyone have hints so as to make them look good, instead of merely as if I've basecoated them and not bothered to paint them?

Current assumption was painting black then a drybrush of dark grey to highlight the edges of the feathers.

 

[Fhanados]

My old method of highlighting black would be a black basecoat, light drybrush of Shadow Grey, and a very VERY light drybrush of Spacewolves Grey, followed by a Babdab Black wash to keep the recesses dark. That was a while back now and I haven't updated my paint range for a few years, so the colours will have different names now but Shadow Grey was the darker blue-grey and Spacewolves Grey was a much lighter blue-grey.

Hope this helps!

 

[Kharn The Betrayer]

Also a midnight blue instead of black color helps and still is almost black