Drybrushing

2003-8-25

Dry Brushing; urban myth, legend, mystical power...?
No, none of those, just a simple technique used by virtually all model painters across every genre.








Principle: dry brushing is used to apply a lighter tint of paint to the raised areas on a model to produce a highlight. The sample swatch illustrates the result, and common 'problems'. The left side of the swatch is dry-brushed correctly, taking 2 or 3 gentle passes to 'lift' the texture of the plasticard. With dry brushing don't try to force the result, let the paint and the texture of the model achieve the highlight.



How to :- mix or dispense a lighter tint of paint onto a palette, preferably a well so that most of the paint can be drawn out of the brush on the lip. Now most of the remaining paint has to be removed from the brush, use a lint free cloth or disposable kitchen towel, until it appears that there is no paint left on it, i.e. it is dry. (There will be some paint left in the bristles).

Now the brush is drawn across the texture of the model, depositing a small amount of paint on the raised areas. Build up the highlight in stages using successively lighter tints if necessary, with each tint applying the dry brush stage with less pressure until only the highest texture is being hit with paint. In general, the rougher the texture, the more paint can be applied in one pass.


Caution:- the two most common problems that occur with dry brushing are:

a) 'Wet' painting - the paint is too fluid so drops into the texture of the model, like a wash would. Or the brush being used has some residual water / thinner in it that leaches out as the brush is draw over the surface resulting in the same problem. Dry the brush before picking up paint from the palette and don't thin the paint excessively. The paint should be as thick as possible without drying out in the brush or leaving blobs.

b) 'Heavy' painting - trying to apply too much paint in one pass results in blobs of paint being deposited on some of the texture. Remember, the brush should appear as if there is no paint on it.


TIP: Dry brushing is very hard on brushes so use cheap or old ones. Clean brushes frequently because the small amount of paint being used dries in the brush rapidly.