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I personally LOVE the dry brushing technique. I think it can improve detail on almost anything. Mixing that with washes, your minis can look really nice. Yet I see alot of people on dakka frown upon drybrushing. Most look at it as a "noobish" painting style. I dont get it, washing is even easier a technique, block paint then drown in wash, yet that seems to be totally OK to use over drybrushing.
Help me understand this conundrum of painting!

GW miniatures are sculpted with painting in mind. Compare it with other companies and you'll see the difference.

With that said , it means the extra raised sculpts benefits greatly from dry brushing or wet brushing , which ever!

Myself dry brush from time to time , people think its blending , loved it etc etc .
What can i say lol! So i guess its not that dry brushing is bad, i guess its just stereo typing the very obviously dry brushed paint job. ( For example white dry brush directly over black )

I drybrush all my minis. It helps me weather all my vehicles and larger models.

Like all techniques, there are good uses for it, and poor uses for it. Nothing it always good or always bad.

Poorly done drybrushing looks bad. Well done drybrushing looks good. At the end of the day, only the result matters, not how you got there.

Dry-brushing is a lot of fun. I think it is a great way to start painting, combine dry-brushing with washes so you avoid getting overwhelmed by the million steps involved in some of the more advanced techniques.

See thats pretty much the way I look at it. I use washes, drybrushing and regular painting. I agree with Luna that white drybrushed over black or something equally bad looking, is just terrible. Sometimes I mix my darker paints with white to bring down only a few shades, then drybrush with that, and repeat several times over to get a better blended effect. You cant really see it in the pics, but my AOBR warboss, his purple hair has 4 different shades of purple in it.
I like drybrushing on certain things. I think Im mainly trying to be a champion for drybrushing! It used to be the super method back in the day. Now its kind of shunned

KingCracker wrote: It used to be the super method back in the day. Now its kind of shunned

Its shunned because the amount of painting elitists has increased , and they just need to make fun of who ever spends less then
2 hours per figure. ( im sure most people go for table top quality , speedy yet good to look at )

LunaHound wrote:

KingCracker wrote: It used to be the super method back in the day. Now its kind of shunned

Its shunned because the amount of painting elitists has increased , and they just need to make fun of who ever spends less then
2 hours per figure. ( im sure most people go for table top quality , speedy yet good to look at )

Hey, I spend about four hours a fig and my stuff is above average at best! Time doth not an elitist make.

Yeah, I agree with Redbeard's argument.

GoFenris wrote:
Hey, I spend about four hours a fig and my stuff is above average at best! Time doth not an elitist make.
Yeah, I agree with Redbeard's argument.

Raaaaaa!!!! just generally , generally D:

LunaHound wrote:

GoFenris wrote:
Hey, I spend about four hours a fig and my stuff is above average at best! Time doth not an elitist make.
Yeah, I agree with Redbeard's argument.

Raaaaaa!!!! just generally , generally D:

It's okay, When I get to boy number 200 or so, I should be one.

Mimicking Thurston Howell...

"I say, those noobies and their drybrushing. What a lark!"

Thats the beauty part of playing Orks. There are so many of them, that the first Ork looks like poop, and the last is almost golden demon worthy lol

I feel that dry brushing has its place, but should not be your "main" technique for painting. I paint a model, usually wash some part of it, highlight, and for things like hair, which is a paint o highlight traditionally, i dry brush. Also, i have dry brushed armor which was painted chain mail, then washed with black, and then dry brushed again over with a very light coat of chain mail again, to get the full range of depth with just one color. I feel that if the whole thing is dry brushed, you need to learn how to highlight traditionally, and you will be a lot happier with the outcome

I love dry brushing. It is great and can create some great looking paint jobs even from 6" away. What I hate, is dipping. That is the noobiest noob technique that has ever noobed its way to noobville. My dog can dip a model, but I have friends that have been in the hobby for 8 yrs and still cant get dry brushing right. So if anyone claims that dry brushing is inferior to dipping, I question their mental standing. And I cant believe that there are so many hard core supporters of dipping, even people trying to sell their services as a "dipper". Im pretty sure I can figure out how to dunk a model in wood stain, I have been dunking oreos in milk for 24 years now. So I agree with you whole heartedly, dry brushing is well liked by me.

I feel that dry brushing is another tool in my arsenel, and when the need arises i use it, often.

There is nothing inherently wrong with drybrushing, the hate from it, as far as I can tell, stems from it being used as a solution to everything (at least for a while) and really there are times when drybrushing should not be used (such as large flat surfaces). This attitude of 'drybrush for everything' has been compounded by staffers in GW giving kids drybrushing lessons (instead of as part of an overall painting lesson). Its never going to win you any golden daemons but it looks just fine as long as its not abused and I think its the abuse that brings the hate.




Besides, everyone knows devlan mud is the new drybrushing.

Whats with the hate for dipping though? If it gets someone to have a good looking army on a table in a week, whats the issue with it. I would say that dipping and dry brushing are similar in complexity, and both can yield good results with some more work than just the technique itself. As long as it looks good, go for it.

LunaHound wrote:GW miniatures are sculpted with painting in mind. Compare it with other companies and you'll see the difference.

I have.. can't say that GW's better for having done so..

As for drybrushing, 90% of my technique is layered drybrishing, main reason to hate it is that it kills the brushes...

Lanceradvanced wrote:

LunaHound wrote:GW miniatures are sculpted with painting in mind. Compare it with other companies and you'll see the difference.

I have.. can't say that GW's better for having done so..

As for drybrushing, 90% of my technique is layered drybrishing, main reason to hate it is that it kills the brushes...

I didnt mean its better , just.... unique i guess xD

Sirius42 wrote:Besides, everyone knows devlan mud is the new drybrushing.

QFT

It does munch up brushes, this is true.

Jon G. Drybrush raped and murdered my wife, if only I could remember...

Get a tattoo.

I should write that down before I forget it.

Or get a bunch of tattoos and make it a game, dun, dun daaaaaa

Drybrushing is fine if you know how to use it effectively. The trick is to not make it obvious that you used the technique after the model is finished.

GoFenris wrote:

LunaHound wrote:

GoFenris wrote:
Hey, I spend about four hours a fig and my stuff is above average at best! Time doth not an elitist make.
Yeah, I agree with Redbeard's argument.

Raaaaaa!!!! just generally , generally D:

It's okay, When I get to boy number 200 or so, I should be one.

Mimicking Thurston Howell...

"I say, those noobies and their drybrushing. What a lark!"

Though I suck ork number 200 did not equal one with the force of painting. In fairness I have come a long way from ork 1 to 200 right now repainting 70% of them after learning a few more wonderful techniques off dakka dakka...My problem is this are we ever truly done painting a figure? I have caught myself going back alot though its mostly because Im learning still. I am just wondering if other painters keep going back as well.

I enjoy drybrushing but when I have good brush control moments I like to do wet blending.

Drybrushing is fine, it's just that it can look bad if done poorly or used incorrectly (I.E. Drybrushing a Space Marine is a no-no)

Minis that are painted are never completed, only abandoned.

Caboose wrote:...That is the noobiest noob technique that has ever noobed its way to noobville....

Yeah, I'm stealing this and putting it in a signature somehow. Great material!

KingCracker wrote:Thats the beauty part of playing Orks. There are so many of them, that the first Ork looks like poop, and the last is almost golden demon worthy lol

I must say I am finding this to be true. The first thing I painted was my boss and I have now stripped him and repainted him. I have about 20 or so boys that do not look that great and that way they shall stay as a reminder of where it is i have come. Not that I am great or anything just I have improved a ton I think.

On the dry brushing thing I think I could not live without it atm.

Soviet Yam wrote:Whats with the hate for dipping though?

I think similarly to drybrushing, it has it's applications (skeletons, zombies and skaven in particular), but some people view it as a crutch which stops people learning to paint better.

Every technique has it's place, whether they're just starting out or have painted for years. The trick is to choosing the right technique for the right surface and look.

At the end of the day though, I prefer my opponent to have some kind of painted models, no matter how he got there, than unpainted ones! It's the effort that counts