Drybrushing - round or flat?

[Valkyrion]

GW drybrushes are wide and flat like paintbrushes, other drybrushes are round and bushy like make up brushes. 

 

I've only ever used wide and flat, but drybrushing is my main way of painting, so would round drybrushes revolutionise my painting? 

is it much of a muchness? Or, like almost everything, does it simply boil down to choice and preference? 

[Karhedron]

I have used both and they are much of a muchness. I find flat drybrushes a bit better for straight edges like the corners of tanks but not a huge difference. 

[Grotsmasha]

Round ones will get smoother finishes on flats, and Flat ones will do better on sharp edges. I regularly use both, and recommend having both on hand.

ALSO I get actual makeup brushes from Kmart/Target etc. much cheaper 

[sitnam]

For smaller models i've enjoyed flat brushes better, and it allows me to better control where i'm brushing. On the other hand for the tanks I just did I liked the round brushes for their coverage

[Firedrake Cordova]

I come from a time when there was no such thing as a drybrush - we just used knackered old regular brushes that couldn't keep a point.  

 

Having said that ... I'll echo what @Grotsmasha said (although I use the Rosemary & Co Model Drybrush ones - The Army Painter has a cheaper equivalent that came out after I bought mine, though).

[WBRBloom]

8 hours ago, Grotsmasha said:

Round ones will get smoother finishes on flats, and Flat ones will do better on sharp edges. I regularly use both, and recommend having both on hand.

ALSO I get actual makeup brushes from Kmart/Target etc. much cheaper 

 

Same here, and as @Firedrake Cordova said, I come from an age that saw the raise of different tools, such as the drybrush, become a thing.

 

That being said, I still got my original GW drybrushes (large and small) of which I cut off the tip of the small one to make it flat (the large one still has its tip). For very large ones, I use some Costco makeup brushes which look like they have the exact same hair and shape as the Artis Opus ones, and they are a fraction of the price.

 

My guess is that they also use natural hair, as if you're going to put this in your face you might as well use natural hair instead of synthetic. They work pretty well so far.

[Firedrake Cordova]

For what it's worth Rosemary & Co, Artis Opus, and The Army Painter all use goat hair in their drybrushes.

[phandaal]

I use both. Cheap makeup brush packs for all-over drybrushing and flat surfaces, and cheap hobby store brush packs for applications like base drybrushing and small point drybrushing.

 

Edit: Also will add that using a makeup brush to build up a flat coat over a large area with several applications over your darker base is a game-changer.

Edited August 5 by phandaal