Drybrushing

Dry Brushing
This is probably
one of the most simplest of special techniques that you can
use to create a three dimensional look on your miniatures. But be warned,
you are going to need to set aside a brush for this method, as Drybrushing
will deteriorate the structure of the bristles. So it's a good idea not
to throw away your old brushes, as they will come in very handy for drybrushing.
When you look
at a miniature, certain parts of it are raised, and need to be highlighted
to create the feel of depth. Such things might include armour plates and
facial features. Basically, drybrushing can be applied to any area of a
miniature that requires a highlight. So how is it done?
Well, to start
with, you should have already applied your base coats to your model. Drybrushing
is going to pick out the raised area of the miniature. So what you will
need to do is
choose a lighter tone of your base colour. Once you have decided on that,
follow
these simple steps

Dip your brush
into the paint.
With a clean
piece of tissue, wipe off as much of the excess paint as possible, so there
is only a trace left on the bristles.
Carefully drag
the brush over the area to be highlighted, so the paint on the brush will
come to rest on these raised areas.

So there you have
it. Piece of cake, really, isn't it? But take some care as to where you
want the bristles of the brush to go. You don't want to be drybrushing
something with orange, and accidentally get it on something that is green.
You'll only have to patch it up again later. oNce you r first highlight
is dry, you can even go up to another lighter tone, and do the same process
again, but applying the brush in a lighter fashion, to only pick out the
top most areas.
Here you can
see that this Minotaur has a very hairy back. I decided to paint the hair
black, and then drybrush it using a lighter tone. I used a mix of Chaos
Black and Elf Grey, as Elf Grey was too bright to be painted on by itself.
After this is dry I would then go on to use pure Elf Grey, with a lighter
hand.











Personally, I very
rarely use the drybrushing technique, except on large metal
areas. I prefer to use the Shading
and Highlighting method instead, as it allows a lot more control. I
only really use drybrushing on very rough surfaces, such as fur and hair,
which I find to be very viable for drybrushing.