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So when I first got into wargaming 10 years ago (that feels weird to say) drybrushing was my best friend. Every model, that was how I finished it.

I was looking at some old models today and realized...I don't do that anymore, or at least I only use it in very specific circumstances. As my brush control improved it just became faster and easier to do highlights with a detail or flat brush.

Anyone else have a similar experience? A different experience?

Like everyone, when I first started, I drybrushed damn near everything. I still use it on things, mainly metal. But thats about it really.Very few things I paint have drybrush

I remember when I didnt know what drybrushing was. When it was explained to me I realized I had been doing it. But now that you mention it I use to drybrush just about everything with texture. But now I only use it when basing my models. Like you I guess that I just started highlighting the fastest easy way I knew I could.

Drybrushing is just another tool, you can actually achieve some wicked effects if you do it with small barely noticable layers

I still drybrush organic layers (faces, bases, rocks, hands, skulls, stuff like that), but I find myself starting to use actual highlighting for hard edges (power armour, vehicles, etc).

Drybrush is still one of my favorite effects for weathering though.

I... I still have no idea how to do anything but drybrush.

So no, not really.

My drybrushing sucks so I paint on highlights normally now.

I dry brush, but people can't tell that i dry brush.

I use dry brush really only when painting dust, dirt, and scratched up metal. Otherwise, I usually do highlighting or some light airbrushing instead. Dry brushing is a very reliable skill, still enough.

Yeah, I use drybrushing mainly on chainmail, basing, whenever something needs to look dirty or rusty. Otherwise, it's all blending and harsh highlights.

Dry rushing is like anything else in theainting world, it's a tool to be used. I think when we are new its easy to rely on one tool more than others, but as experience grows we just get better at the job. I don't dry brush much more now, actually a lot less, because I have learned were to dry rush for maximum effect. But I use it as much as I use any other technique. It works well enough for me.

I am fairly new too painting but I use drybrushing all the time and my latest models, (which I have not posted yet) look awesome. Not as good as some here but can hold their own ground.

Ravenous D wrote:Drybrushing is just another tool, you can actually achieve some wicked effects if you do it with small barely noticable layers

Some models/surfaces are perfect for drybrushing, so there's no reason not to use it. If done correctly it's even barely noticable, that you did use this technique, so I'm all for it. I epecially use it on silvery metals, to bring some definition to the areas.

Cheers,


IK-Painter

I don't drybrush significantly more or less than I did, initially, because I treated it as a tool for specific jobs from the get-go. I wish I could say that was due to some innate painting sense, but alas, I simply lurked heavily on Dakka for good long while before I ever put brush to model.

Actually, I lied. I have been drybrushing much less, of late, because I haven't been making terrain (beyond simple infantry basing).

simple answer: no I don't

As many others already said: drybrushing is just another tool of many, perfect for some effects/material, not so good for others.

I myself for example actually started with hard edge highlights as my first highlight technique and used it on everything. Now I no longer do.

I really don't get why drybrushing is regarded as a newbie technique only by so many people.

fiddler6291 wrote:I really don't get why drybrushing is regarded as a newbie technique only by so many people.

I think it's a self-perpetuating myth at this point. There's a big enough perception that it's a 'lesser' technique that most people never take the time to learn how to do it properly.

The first hint that the common perception of drybrushing is incorrect is the fact that so many people think that it's a fast or corner-cutting painting method. If you're dry-brushing and it's happening quickly, odds are you're not actually dry-brushing.

I stopped drybrushing a while ago as I thought it looked very 90's in style. This also coincided with a sabbatical I took from the hobby for a number of years. Since returning, I have started using drybrushing again. Not in the same sense as I used too; I use it in combination with the foundation paints and washes to create highlights and depths of shadow. It works quite well I find.

I used to drybrush all the time, and at first refined that into what I guess we not call 'flatbrushing'. It was my standard way of painting large areas of anything.

I guess this all went out the window when I discovered washes, inks and that sort of shading. My painting style also changed from very dirty to very bright.

I still use the same techniques for highlighting ares though, and on certain things like hair and furs.

Bob Ross creates happy little bushes with dry brushing

I tend to do very light drybrushing as a foundation for highlights. It's sort of like when you get good enough at drybrushing, it just gradually evolves into highlighting.

I use it for highlight foundations and adding dust for weathering. It would be kind of dumb in my opinion to consider yourself too skilled to use some techniques and limit yourself. It also helps with blending on cloth and such as well as adding a direction to the highlights.

I also still use it as a main part of OSL, as it lets you dust a light coat over surfaces; perfect for adding a coloured glow, which is built up on to make OSL.

These guys were essentially dry-brushed;



As previously mentioned, dry-brushing is a tool, it achieves a certain effect, but like all tools, you need to know how to use them to achieve effective results...so yes, I still dry brush.

Ashton

ArbitorIan wrote:I guess this all went out the window when I discovered washes, inks and that sort of shading. My painting style also changed from very dirty to very bright.

thats a bit strange, when i started using washes, and stopped overbrushing (im terrible at drybrushing) my models went from very bright to very dirty

Similar to what others have said - when I started I used to drybrush everything when I was learning, but now I still use it as a tool for specific textures - primarily fur, chain, bare metal, dust and dirt/grime - often alongside washes and glazes.

Depending on what I am painting yes. I actually dry brush (granted its not as dry as normal) my Salamander Marines because I can get a nice even coat of green, then fill in any detail work, as well as any skin work. I feel like others in that Drybrushing is just another method, no more valid than anything else.

To me if there's anything that could be considered "newbie" technique now, its washes. Granted they are effective and look great, but only so in capable hands. Most people that I've seen with washed models just go overboard and willy nilly with the thought that they are a magic formula for good looking paint jobs.

I don't even put paint on my brush, thats how dry I brush.

As some one else mentioned, drybrushing is very well suited to certain models - Kroot come to mind. Something like a Space Marine, though, just highlights no drybrushing.

warpcrafter wrote:I tend to do very light drybrushing as a foundation for highlights. It's sort of like when you get good enough at drybrushing, it just gradually evolves into highlighting.

More of this.

Over the years I've moved into layers and washes. Until the OP asked the question - I did not even realize that I don't dry brush any more. Even on terrain work, I'd rather wet blend using sponge than dry brush.

Nothing against dry brushing, I've painted many armies using dry brushing techniques.