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Drybrushing

By Anthony Karl Erdelji

There is one important thing I would like to mention about drybrushing. It should only be used on textured surfaces or if you prefer speed over quality. Drybrushing should mainly be used when painting fur, hair, wood or other rough surfaces. Tanks can also be drybrushed since it helps to give them a well-worn look.

When drybrushing use the largest, preferably flat brush that you can get away with. The size mainly depends on the size for the surface being drybrushed. I use a 1/2 inch brush for drybrushing vehicles all the way to a 3/0 brush for detailed drybrushing such as a wooden weapons handle. Drybrushing is hard on the bristles so you want to use older brushes that are too frayed for regular painting.

Dip the brush in your paint, then wipe the paint off on a rag or paper towel. I use an old shirt. Paper towels will quickly become saturated and make a mess. Wipe the brush back and forth until about 90% of the paint is out of the brush. When you think your ready to being, test the brush out on some scrap paper or the back of your hand. Lightly scrub the brush across the surface. The paint should be faintly visible after a few swipes. If you see any brushstrokes, you have too much paint in the brush. 

When in doubt, remember that less is better when drybrushing. Its easier to build up from light drybrushing, but if there is too much paint in the brush and you accidentally get paint into the recesses, there is no way to fix it other than to repaint the area and start from scratch.

The hair on the head of this saddle was basecoated with purple and drybrushed with a 1:1 purple-pink mix, then again just on the top with a 1:3 purple-pink mix.

 

 

Drybrushing work well on vehicles for bringing out details like rivets and hatches

If you are someone that highlights EVERYTHING by drybrushing, try thinning down your paints slightly with water. The end results will be smoother. It will take additional drybrushings to build up to the desired color, but the colors will blend together better.

The wings on this dragon were painted with several successive drybrushings; four highlight colors and around ten layers for each color. Each color was thinned to about 1:6 with water and slowly built up to the desired effect.