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I sometimes get a powdery look when I drybrush.

What causes this and how it is avoided?

 DarkBlack wrote:
I sometimes get a powdery look when I drybrush.

What causes this and how it is avoided?

Don't drybrush.

More seriously limit what you cover. Make sure you wipe nearly every speck of paint form your brush before starting. Think you have enough paint off? Then wipe the bristles some more.

Take your time. Even though dry brushing is considered 'easy mode', it takes a bit of practice, patience, and skill to know how far to go.

Avoid dry brushing large flat surfaces. Avoid using a color that contrast greatly with the base color. Keep the brush actually dry, the less paint the better. Finally, if you followed the above advice and are still seeing it, paint a greatly thinned down glaze of the base color over it to help get rid of the powder look.

Gently gently. build up the colour very gradually.
Lightly brush the surface, don't scrub.

As mentioned, it's called dry-brushing for a reason; less paint the better (but will take longer).

Working up a dark colour to a highlight?
Do it in stages, just like layering. The more stages you use between the base coat and the lightest dry-brush, the better.

It kind of depends what effect you're getting and what you're aiming for.

- Use soft brushes. There can be a tendency to use crappy brushes, but make sure they're *soft* crappy brushes. Also go for broader brushes like flats or filberts.

- Less paint on the brush (too much can look scratchy, too little can sometimes look powdery)

- matte surface to drybrush over (too glossy will tend to look scratchy, but if it's grainy it'll tend to look powdery).

- Try using oils or enamels. Acrylics are pretty much dry once they hit the model, oils and enamels take a bit longer to dry so if you get a scratchy or powdery look sometimes you can keep working the area and it'll go away, not just adding more paint but also smearing the paint already on the model. The downside is to build up more layers of drybrushing you have to wait for the previous layer to dry and/or varnish between drybrush coats.

- Layer drybrushing and combine with washes and glazes, washes and glazes will tie colours together and reduce the prominence of the powdery look. A good technique can be drybrush -> wash -> drybrush lighter -> wash -> drybrush even lighter for edge highlights -> glaze.

- Finish off with a varnish to equalise the sheen across the layers.

I personally use a wet brush and then apply it somewhat similarly to a dry brush. Thin as all hell coats and mix paints gradually (heck, it's almost like the glazing mentioned above)

Say you were painting over a base of Mephiston Red, you'd mix 5:1 Mephiston Red to Wild Rider Red. Let that dry, then 2:1 Mephiston to Wild Rider, then 1:5, then pure.

If you're looking for a "fast production" approach, applying a wash over drybrush will lessen the grain, and can help with blending. In some situations. Depends on what you're trying to do and what colours you're doing it with.

Have any pictures?

I was trying this (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phZbqbTI-lc) but with blue layer in between (for Tzeentch corruption). I've already put 2 layers (one blue one flesh) over it and it looks fine.

Just to clarify, i use drybrushing and overbrushing often and don't usually have this problem.