For Beginner: Dry Brush or Layering?

[Valander]

Originally posted by Gussy
Well, no more dry brushing then.

Drybrushing still has its uses; don\'t throw it away completely. Just be aware that it tends to not work well for larger surfaces, but it works just fine on hair/fur or really rough surfaces.

No technique is inherently bad or good (even dipping ); they all have their uses. The trick is finding out which techniques work to get the effects you want. Unfortunately, that requires a lot of experimentation, and there\'s no real shortcuts to experience.

Dipping might give you a better idea of how shadows and highlights are supposed to work--it is a fast technique that produces decent tabletop quality. If you go that route, pay attention to how the dip settles and keep that in mind when you decide to move on to other techniques like layering.

 

[Joek]

I started mini painting in about 1983-84, and I avidly read WD through the years, and Dry-brushing was the standard thing to do. All of a sudden John Blanche did an \'Eavy Metal article about \'blending\' and by god it took a long time to get it, but eventually I did (of course, I\'m now having to relearn it all now after so very many years away from the hobby ).

But I still enjoy dry-brushing enormously, and it does have some very good benefits if used well I think. And I do think it\'s a very good way for new folk to learn how to get a decent-looking figure. Give it all a couple of thin glazes over the dry-brushed area to tone things down a bit, and I can well see a very good looking army evolving!

\'specially Skeletons! I\'ve always thought they look much better drybrushed than layered and blended!

 

[funnymouth]

Originally posted by Joek

\'specially Skeletons! I\'ve always thought they look much better drybrushed than layered and blended!

:no:

 

[Vanth]

Painting is an art in itself and the best results can be obtained only through a range of techniques that never end being learned and refined.
Painting an army for gaming, though, is a different beast and needs to be tackled in a completely different way if you want to see the end of it within the span of a single lifetime: for this purpose I would suggest taking a look at this product which gives extremely good results as far as gaming armies go. Couple rank and file troops painted this way with characters painted the other way and you have an award winning army at any tournament you wish to go.

 

[Wodwo]

I haven\'t been painting very long, but the one bit of advice I have is to try everything. If you read about a new technique, find a couple articles about it and give it a shot, even if it seems too advanced. There are loads of tutorials on this website and around the net and they all have some useful advice, but in the end you\'ll figure out what works best for you. It\'s all about how much fun the painting process is for you and how much time you want to spend painting your army.

 

[Severatus]

Primer Black = check

Blue base coat = Check

Now water down some black paint apply it over all the armor.

This will define the edges & darken recesses & give you that look of depth
( make it more interesting )

From here you can dry brush a mix of blue & a little black - small amount of pigment on the brush -

Add a little more blue to the above Blue & Black mix so it will be a little more light than the first layer.

You can use as many layers of this till you reach a pure blue.

To highlight use a detail brush making reflected light on edges or where you wanna using a mix of blue & lighter blue or maybe bone/ white ect.

Thas the most basic way.

The skulls are best saved for the last stages.

I would suggest medium brown base coat - then wash with a little black watered down
( not too dark ) - let dry - be sure it has enough black around the edges to define it. If there are spots that need coverage touch up with non watered down blk - or rewash till it looks cool.

Using the same medium brown base coat to pick out the overall shapes, highlight with a lighter brown - mixing to bone or off white - with pure white spots.

Keep up the work your not doing that bad

Also dont tell Gamesworkshop but, almost all painters use other brands of paint
( which are much better ) to paint their GW minis

You can save a lot of Time & money by investing in Vallejo Model color paints.

More pigment = Less layers, more details

You can cover areas with just a few coats of smooth watered down paint & if you mess up the first time you can try several times before you start losing details.

TH

 

[Gussy]

Well...this is the end result. Thanks to everybody for all their help. I\'m sure it\'s not very good by your standards but this is academy award quality for me as compared to what I got from my Battle of Macragge figures.

http://www.coolminiornot.com/184314
http://www.pbase.com/image/93861164

 

[djinn24]

Good job!

Just keep on wotking on your layering and look at some of the other models to see what they did and try your hand at it, your skill will only get better.

The white on the Crux and on the helmet seems a bit thick. The main issue is trying to paint white over black which can be a royal pain in the butt. Plus there is no shading on it so it look really plain. To go from black to white you can try with a stepping color that covers the black better and can be used for shading on the white. Space Wolves Grey is a good one or any type of light grey. When paining on the whitetry to not get any white into the crevises and you will have some shading.

You might want to try to ink (chestnut ink) on the metals to add some depth to them as well, maybe use a brighter silver on the very tips of the guns to highlight them.

Normally I paint the Crux on the armor like I would bone.

Dark Brown, dry brush 1:1 brown and bleached bone, a lighter drybrush of bleached bone and finally white on the uppermost edges of the bone.
Keep up the good work!

 

[bobsacks]

When I started out I only used dry brushing. I was painting skeletons for a Vampire Counts army at the time. I think that dry brushing is one of the easier techniques to learn. From there you can build up your brush control and just learn how the paint goes on the model before moving into more advanced techniques.

 

[Griffin29]

Regarding the problem theat you are having with getting the skulls to be really whit and not white with blue under tones. Use a light brown color as your first coat of paint on the skulls and then either work it up to white by mixing white with the light brown you used or you could go directly to the white. either way the brown underneath will cover the blue better and give the white of the skull a more earthy and realistic tone to it. To keep my hands from shaking I generally hold the mini in my left hand and place my right hand so the pinky sides(palms up) are touching to eliminate the shaking. You will need to experiment with that to see what will work best for your own painting style. Hope this helps a lil.

 

[ILL FATED USHER]

I myself have used the dry brush highlighting technique and have found it really great for quick table top quality mini\'s though i dont suggest it if its for a competition, I am unsure if someone has told you how to do this in a more effective manner or not.
Judging by your pics though i assume either you are not drying your brush out enough or your using your brush incorrectly.

1st you want to base your mini in black under coat, i find that armory black spray primer works well enough for Space Marines and its a hell of alot cheaper than the stuff GW gonna sell you. $2.99 a can opposed to 8 dollars a can.
2nd you want to either use a standard size brush or a dry brush, though i find myself that a standard brush doesnt hold as much paint and can be mor easily dried out of any watery paint. I will normally dedicate a standard brush for my dry brushing and save my nice dry brushes for metalics and the such.
3rd youll want to get a good bit of paint on your standard brush and use a paper towel to brush away all the excess moisture from the paint untill it looks as though its all but clean on the paper towel.
4th the basic idea now is to rub off the paint residue onto the areas you want that color, I find this to be a great way to do very watery colors, (E.G. Whites and yellows) and not get the look your getting on your skulls,
The terminator captain in my gallery was done 100% dry brushing and dry highlighting as i call it. working from a dark color and continuously either adding white or going to the next lighter color in the paint selection i have. Using a dry brushing technique as i described above.

I hope that this helped you a little bit, I too paint marines and know exactly what your dilemma is, though i cant promise this technique is good for everyone, its just eh way i do it, and im sure is not the proper way, but i think they look pretty good and it gives you a good grasp on what seems to becoming an out dated form of mini painting.

Good luck!