dry brushing

Hi Tom,

Dry brushing is the process whereby your use a very small amount of paint to highlight certain areas areas.  A classic example is dry brushing the raised knobs/dials/buttons details of a plane's instrument panel.

Basically, you need a stiff bristled brush (most people seem to just cut off the bristles from an old brush), and put a small amount of paint on it - then wipe off most of the paint (so you might think there is nothing left).  However, when you brush it over the dials etc, you slowly build up the paint so those items stand out from the background. 

It can be tricky at first, especially if the first few swipes don't look like they offloaded any paint - but ideally, you need to do 6-12 brushes over the dials (etc) to make them stand out.  ie, you will have so little paint on your brush to start with, that it take at least 6-12 swipes of it for some paint to finally build up.

Obviously don't press too hard - you just want the bristles to make contact with the raised details, not the background.

Dry brushing can be used to highlight any raised details, instrument panels (as noted above), ejection seats, bolt heads etc etc.

Hope this helps.

Chris.

eg:  Picture is a bit small, but you might be able to see where I've dry-brushed the details on the ejection seat, instrument panel and outline details of the RIO's instrument panel.

The key is to use tiny amounts of paint and lots of patience.

Basically, what Chris said. I usually wipe my brush on a paper towel or post-it note. The key is to "swish" the brush without putting too much pressure down.

Here are a few examples of applications...

First - aircraft cockpits...

Second - armor...drybrushing with a light grayish/tan works really well on allied armor.

Third - toning back whitewash on armor (especially if it's fresh enough or whatnot that the hairspray method would be overkill). In this instance, you drybrush the base color.

I think a good sized book could be written on dry-brushing, it is that extensive of a topic.  It can produce two somewhat different effects.  First, as someone else noted, it can apply a contrasting color on raised detail and on edges.  Second, it is a way to get a semi-transparent color on a surface without airbrushing.  It is somewhat similar to the use of pastels, being a way to make your own pastels, in effect.

I also use enamels, and use them for various weathering, such as dry-brushing and washes.  Yes, it is scary, because once you apply enamels, even a dry coat with dry brushing, they are on there and only polishing, fine sanding, or repainting will remove the paint.  Courage- Courage.

I use the back of old business cards to smudge the paint from the brush to get it drier than the initial dip.  How dry to get it?  Depends.  Different dryness gives different effects.  Very dry gives a transparent or translucent finish.  Wetter gives a less transparent coating, more visible, still with fuzzy edges.  Dry brushing is great for dust colors, smoke stains, and very light rust.  Particularly good for exhaust stacks.  Hard on brushes- I have learned to set aside brushes just for dry brushing.

Echoing those above, I use drybrushing for three purposes. In general order of application, they are:

1) What I call "toning." This is like what Don said about pastels and washes. It's a subtle, wide-area effect to "tone" a base color with lighter and darker versions of the base color. It breaks up the montone of a single color on a large area, and helps to mimic the subtle variations of color the eye sees on full-scale objects, due to atmosphere, lighting effects, and so on. It's essentially a hand-brushed version of what a lot of folks do with an airbrush. (I just find drybrushing easier to deal with and control.)

2) Weathering. I start this with a less-subtle version of the above, with significantly lighter or darker versions of the base color (to simulate wear, sun fading, and general grime), then attack specific areas with mud and grime. I also use it after washes to sort of even things out.

3) To make detail "pop" out, essentially adding highlights. This can replicate paint wear on corners and grab handles of metallic surfaces (done with, say, steel), or just highlights on raised surfaces like cockpit gauges, ejection seats, etc. This is generally a very lightened base color, or white, best done by dipping the brush then rubbing away MOST of the paint on a paper towel, then just "flicking" the edge of whatever you're working on. (For best results in this, keep in mind the general direction light is coming from. White highlights on something that should be in shadow can look strange.)

Two more observations, tools-and-technique-wise (based solely on my own experience).

I almost always use enamels or oils for drybrushing, though (these days) most of the rest of my painting is done with acrylics. Acrylics "set" too quickly, especially in the tiny amounts used for drybrushing, and I've never been able to make them work well for drybrushing purposes. Enamels offer much more conrol and subtlety.

After trying bunches of brushes over the years, of widely different quality and materials, I always find myself going back to the cheapo Testors nylon brushes for drybrushing. They're sturdy, don't shed bristles, and since they're inexpensive you don't feel bad about squashing them, or occasionally sacrificing one where required.  The nylon bristles seem to be the right mix of stiffness and flexibility, and I find through repeated use that I can "shape" the nylon bristles in useful and predictable ways. I've got a couple of each (wide, flat and pointed/wedge) that I use for nothing but drybrushing, and even with fairly regular use they tend to last a year or two.

The key to drybrushing is PRACTICE, a lot of it. The first time you highlight an instrument panel and it "pops." it's like magic. But there will be a lot of frustration along the way, as well. Just keep at it, keep trying different uses and applications, and it gets to be very satisfying.

Good luck.

Greg

Nothing more to add here Tom....  these gentlemen have covered it all, in good detail.

I will echo two points that many of them have already made - - - - practice and patience. It is a learned skill for sure. And you can sure goof things up if you aren't careful. Even after many years of dry brushing I still get clumsy now and then....  and boy do I give myself a broadside of not-so-nice words when I do.....  

Less is sometimes more when it comes to drybrushing.

Have fun, and good luck

Bill