Waspie
SMF Supporter
Over the past few days reading through the threads I see a few references to 'dry brushing' in the context of painting! What exactly is dry brushing? Is it designed to achieve a specific effect?
Just clicked on 'post reply' as you did - great minds....It's worth checking out YouTube as it's a technique that's harder to describe than you'd think Artist Opus is one channel that springs to mind.
But basically you put a small amount of paint on a brush then remove as much as you can on a paper towel or similar so there's hardly anything left on the bristles. Then lightly brush over the area and what little paint there is tends to catch on edges and raised details, highlighting them.
No doubt someone will come along with a much better explanation but that's the very basics of the idea.
Would I be correct in assuming when you say, "I never use paint" you are referring purely to dry brushing and not to painting the subject, train boat or plane!!!There is another option for dry brushing.
I never use paint. 90% of my dry brushing is done with Uschi Metal Powder. Bear in mind that this is to bring out detail and nothing quite brings it out better than a metallic sheen on raised detail. Naturally you dont do this on areas that are not painted metal as it really gives a great worn painted metal look.
In other areas a normal dry pigment is used by me. Consider that with dry brushing you don’t want the paint carrier, just the pigment element, why not go direct to weathering pigments!
I don’t use paint for dry brushing. Yes. Quite right about clarifying!Would I be correct in assuming when you say, "I never use paint" you are referring purely to dry brushing and not to painting the subject, train boat or plane!!!
I watched a chap on YT use a pencil to add detail to a machine gun on a AFV.
Sorry if I appear thick but I work on the premise - ;never assume'. Better to clarify!!
Doug
Thanks Barry.I don’t use paint for dry brushing. Yes. Quite right about clarifying!
Also, not all acrylics are suitable for drybrushing in the first place. Tamiya’s, for example, are generally very hard to drybrush with unless the paint is very fresh — trying it with a bottle that you’re opened months or years before is almost certainly going to be mostly futile. You’ll get some paint on the model, but it’s not going to look very good and you will have to keep putting paint on the brush a lot. Vallejo or Army Painter, on the other hand, drybrush pretty well. Thinking about it, the thicker kinds of water-based acrylics work better than alcohol-based ones or thinner water-based ones, I would say. That thickness factor is largely because the thinner ones tend to smear out a bit when you do, in much the same way as when trying to drybrush with a brush that was already moist, as Tim explained.It is much easier to do this with oil paint or enamel paint than it is with acrylics. They are slower drying. Acrylic paint dries extremely quickly when the majority is removed from the brush. Unless you work really quickly you will be left with a truly dry brush…….
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