Dry-Brushing help!

[Jeremiah2911]

Hey everyone,

 

I've recently begun testing paint schemes for my Raptors army (the O.D. Green ones), but the drybrushing method I'm attempting to use just isn't looking right. I am trying to mimic the scheme found here: http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/index.p...&blogid=134. I'm doing the same thing he suggested, and the dry-brushing just turns out being very scratchy and gross-looking, not at all the smooth transition of color from Catachan to Camo, like the article shows. I tried giving it a wash of the Catachan, as he said he did, but it did nothing. The dry-brushed camo also looks too bright; much brighter than the examples do. I tried a wash of Devlan Mud, which gave some nice crevace shading, but didn't do mucch for the color. The only other thing I can think to try would be to buy a Badab Black wash. Any suggestions?

[Vindicatus]

Personally, I've used drybrushing to achieve some pretty amazing transitions; I'm doing a batch of Nurgle Terminators that go from black > drybrush white > drybrush Camo Green > drybrush Rotting Flesh, but end up a deep, resonant green.

 

Question 1 : How are you thinning your paints? On my side of the world we don't have Future Floor Polish, so I use Pledge Vinyl Floor finish; two little tips into the paint pot, and I'm good to go. It waters it down just enough so that, when dry brushing or highlighting the edges of armour, it blends in very nicely with the surrounding area.

 

Question 2 : Are you thinning your washes? It doesn't have to be a lot, but enough to break the tension of the wash so it flows smoothly. A little Pledge, and it rolls all over the place and helps dull the tone down and bring colours together in a more uniform fashion without looking 'scratchy'. It takes practice to do appropriately, but with a little experimentation, you'll find out what works for you.

 

I think some watered down Badab Black would do well, you just have to be careful about where it pools. Maybe a mix of Badab Black and some Thraka Green to ensure you don't wash the colour you're going for down the toilet when the black settles.

[Lord Noble]

Short answer: You have too much paint on your brush.

 

The Camo Green shouldn't even register at first. It won't be bright at all. The brush should look like it has NO paint on it.

 

Oh, and there's no need to thin when dry-brushing (IMHO).

 

Are you using make-up brushes as glenn suggests? I use them exclusively for dry-brushing. Oh, and by cheap he means $2-4 range. A good regular paint brush will cost easily twice that.

 

If you had pictures, it'd help more.

 

Also, when I painted my Raptors, I used Devlan Mud as a wash to make them more gritty.

 

-J

[Jeremiah2911]

Well, for the first trial run, I used a Devlan Mud wash (with a dot of liquid detergent in it), and, while it gave a bit of shading, it was barely distinguishable from the Catachan Green. No, I wasn't using make-up brushes, so that might be my problem. Thanks for the help!