Drybrushing

[GreyHunter]

Hey can anyone give me some tips on dry brushing? i was taught a certain way but i don't think im really doing it right? anything would help, thanks

[Tubal]

There's not really alot you can learn over the internet. Try to get a hold of a GW painting guide, the staff at your store should be able to help you if it's a GW store or an independent hobby store. Toystores are less useful but you could try asking.

Basically you paint your figure in one colour, preferably darker than your final colour. Then you put a lighter colour on your brush and wipe most of it off on a piece of tissue or similar. I use newspaper since it's what I cover the table with. Then brush lightly and quickly over the model to paint the raised detail only, leaving the recesses dark.
Some colours are easier to drybrush than others, the better they cover the better they drybrush.

[Cheredanine]

Tubal is spot on, you really need to see it to learn. basics are:

1. undercoat a darker colour
2. using an old brush (drybrushing ruins brushes) get alittle paint on it, wipe most of it off (officially using a lint free rag, but most people do this by effectively drybrushing the back of their thumb, (flicking the brush rapidly backwards and forwards accross it) - this is good cos your thim is textured so you can see how the paint will go on the figure and if you do it with the figure in your hand you rapidly switch from removing the paint to the next stage, preventing the paint from drying futher when you just got the amount on the brush right
3. apply the paint to the figure by flicking the brush backwards and forwards accross the surface. pros will tell you you should have so little paint on the brush you shouldnt see it going on and you hould have to do 4 coats or so before anything is visible. Most people abuse this on account of wanting to paint rather more than one marine a year, but always go for too little (you can always add more)
4. repeat steps 2 and 3 until you got it right

observations:
a. drybrushing, by its very nature is prone to being wiped off until it is seealed (varnished), try not to handle a work in progress much

b. it is common nowerdays to , for example, if doing blue, base coat dark blue then dry brush various lighter shades. However when I was originally tought to dry brush (1986 by a GW artist) - they used a slightly different technique, still base coat dark blue, then dry brush white and then posibly a couple of final coats with a light blue (doing whit first makes it easier) or go to c. Below

c. I generaly put a weak ink wash over drybruhing, this does tend t darken the overall colour but it will increase the hue and make blended ffect better. It can be used with a number of coats over a white drybrush

hope those help, but really get someone to show you (I seem to get drafted into showing new guys every time I go into our local store)