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Hi all. I'm going to start an Ork army soon for 40k and I want to go for a bright orange color scheme. I found two ways of doing this either with layering or dry brushing. I suppose my question is since I'm still a novice in painting, should I go for layering over dry brushing? I've heard people say dry brushing is a beginner's technique and if your going to get better you should practice layering and edge highlighting. Whats everyone opinion on the matter? Thank you all for your opinions

All techniques are valid for different applications. Do what you feel most comfortable with - professional painters still use drybrushing where it is appropriate. Drybrushing is also a good way to get miniatures painted up quickly to a decent standard so don't knock it because you've been told it's too basic. Layering is definitely worth learning though, but there is no reason you cannot implement both successfully.

Drybrushing saves you a lot of time and is also very useful if you're going for a more weathered look. Layering and edge highliting on the other hand, aren't the most advanced shading techniqes, but they are still something that could make your orks look great, since they are something in between high level paintint that just dosen't work with the sheer number of orks and the time saving wash n drybrush.

keep in mind tough that drybrushing is very messy and offers little control.

would help if you could say what part of the ork you want to paint orange.

I'd say take a picture so we can see the effect

There's nothing wrong with drybrushing, it's often done roughly by newbies because it can *potentially* be a fast way of painting models. But drybrushing can also be an "advanced" technique that when you take your time is no faster than layering but has the potential to produce even better results.

In the wargaming community drybrushing has gotten a bad reputation because of those newbies painting their first army, but in historical model painting or display model painting it's the opposite

So yeah, no need to shy away from drybrushing just because some people consider it a beginner technique, it's a technique that you can hone to a high standard if you're willing to put in a bit of effort. It can actually be a very good way of differentiating slightly rough materials (drybrush them) and smooth materials (layer them) on your models.

One of the tough things with dryrbrushing can be what FrozenDwarf said, lack of control. If you want to drybrush multiple parts of the model it can be hard to keep it "within the lines".

I personally prefer dry brushing, as I never really liked the edge-highlight look.

One tip though, if you're going to do dry brushing, get a brush specifically for doing that. It's very easy to damage brushes with the technique.

 FrozenDwarf wrote:
keep in mind tough that drybrushing is very messy and offers little control.

would help if you could say what part of the ork you want to paint orange.

Armor for mega Orks and bosses and shirts or clothing bits for the Boyz. I'm considering using Orruk models for nobs and warbosses.

Dry brushing is a great technique to use as a beginner and even a seasoned vet it makes things look better with a bit of practice.

ZombieDev wrote:

 FrozenDwarf wrote:
keep in mind tough that drybrushing is very messy and offers little control.

would help if you could say what part of the ork you want to paint orange.

Armor for mega Orks and bosses and shirts or clothing bits for the Boyz. I'm considering using Orruk models for nobs and warbosses.

then i would do the drybrush as first step as it will mess up your green skin or any other details.
just remember to take your time and be neat when you do your other stuff as it is hard to drybrush over streak or dot of different colour on the orange.

Drybrushing and Layering are both valid techniques for highlighting up miniatures from the base coat. They both have their uses and their places in a pro painters box of tricks.

Drybrushing is simply mis-aligned as a 'beginners' technique because it can offer great highlighting results despite having little manual control compared to layering.

Warhammer TV did a great video recently though, where on the same model they used Drybrushing, Wetbrushing, Layering and Edge Highlighting!




give it a watch and see what you think!

ZombieDev wrote:

 FrozenDwarf wrote:
keep in mind tough that drybrushing is very messy and offers little control.

would help if you could say what part of the ork you want to paint orange.

Armor for mega Orks and bosses and shirts or clothing bits for the Boyz. I'm considering using Orruk models for nobs and warbosses.

As other have said, drybrushing is no more a 'beginner' method than washing is, both are perfectly valid and can achieve effects other methods simply can't. The areas you mention are especially suited to drybrushing, as drybrushing blacks/greys/browns can build up a great worn leather look, and similarly using either metallics or your chosen armour colour (or both!) will achieve a very nice battered, grimy look on armour perfect for orks.

I actually wrote up a lengthy post/tutorial yesterday on the merits, uses and practice of drybrushing, you can give that a look here if you're interested.
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/3180/615960.page#9453834

If you're doing an ork army and want to actually finish it, then go with drybrushing.

I've been painting Orks for decades and have made liberal use of drybrushing, but recently, I started using this technique:




I've been very happy with both the speed and results!