March 28, 2025 My Store Admin

How to Drybrush Miniatures

Drybrushing is an essential technique for any miniature painter to learn. Although it is considered a beginner technique, it is frequently used on Golden Daemon entries. Drybrushing is used to pick out any raised details by removing most of the paint from the brush and then lightly brushing over the model. This is a quick and easy way to highlight any model, making it perfect for natural textures like fur. The Notts Hobbies Complete Drybrush Set includes everything you need to drybrush your models, featuring three drybrushes of various sizes, a texture palette, and brush soap to extend the life of your drybrushes.

How to Drybrush

Drybrushing can be hard on brushes, we recommend using an old brush or a purpose-made drybrush for this technique. We would never drybrush a model with a brush that has a sharp point, as it will quickly ruin a good paintbrush. At Notts Hobbies, we sell small, medium and large drybrushes that are designed for drybrushing.

Once you have selected an appropriate brush, you need to select the correct paint. Any acrylic paints designed for miniature painting are suitable except speed/contrast paints, inks and washes. Games Workshop produce “Dry” paints, these paints are thicker than standard acrylic paints but do not provide any advantages when drybrushing. Typically, when drybrushing is used for highlighting, the colour selected should be brighter than the midtone of the area of the model being drybrushed.

Next, you need to place your paint on a palette, if you don’t own a palette, cardboard is suitable for this. We don’t take paint straight from the pot as this deposits too much and an uneven amount of paint on the brush.

Then, you pick up a normal amount of paint on the drybrush and wipe the paint off your brush onto your palette using circular and straight motions. When you wipe your brush across your palette it should leave no paint like this.

Then, lightly start brushing over the raised areas of the model. When drybrushing, be patient and gradually build up the highlights over time. But if no paint is deposited on the model, gently increase the pressure on the brush until the desired effect is achieved. Remember, it is easier to add more paint to the model than to fix adding too much paint.

Typically, models are drybrushed in a circular motion to pick up all the edges evenly. Miniatures can be drybrushed in a specific direction to replicate a light source, most commonly, models can be drybrushed in a downward motion to show a high light source like the sun. The Bloodletter below was drybrushed in a circular motion

How to Overbrush

Overbrushing is similar to drybrushing, but it is used for applying a midtone to a model instead of a highlight. When overbrushing, you can use the same brush, paints and palette as drybrushing.

When you are removing paint from the brush you leave more paint on the brush , one pass over your palette should look like this.

As with drybrushing you should start by applying a small amount of pressure, then gradually increase the pressure as required to deposit enough paint onto the model.

A model can be overbrushed and then drybrushed to apply the midtone and highlights. This produces a high standard of painting in a relatively short amount of time. With practice, you will learn how much paint to apply to the brush and how much pressure to use for your required finish. At times, it can be challenging to know if you are drybrushing or overbrushing, but they are different ways of applying the same technique. The Bloodletter below was overbrushed and then drybrushed to highlight the model.

Pre-Shading

Pre-shading, as popularised by the Slap Chop technique, involves highlighting a model in neutral tones and then applying thin paint as a filter over the existing shading. After the release of contrast/speed paints, this technique gained popularity as it builds further contrast between the shadows and highlights of a model more than just contrast/speed paints. This technique is popular when painting with an airbrush, as the airbrush paints using thin layers of paint which are not fully opaque.

When we paint at Notts Hobbies, we typically use this technique on details which are not the focus of the model but require painting, like boots and pouches. We would pre-shade the area with some light, neutral tones we are already using on the model to save time. It saves time as you can quickly apply an overbrush and a drybrush with colours that are already being used, so it is included in a different step. Whereas to apply a Wraithbone bascoat, you need to get a different paint out, thin the paint and apply two thin coats which takes a lot longer, which compounds when army painting.

Below, we pre-shaded the backpack of the model with skin tones as there are no light grey or cream parts of the model. We painted Cygor Brown over the pre-shade. We painted the same paint over a Wraithbone basecoat as a comparison to show the difference made by pre-shading the area.

Why have I got a chalky finish?

Typically, drybrushing can produce a chalky finish when there is not enough moisture on the dry brush. The most common cause is removing paint onto an absorbent surface, such as a paper towel, which removes both paint and moisture from the drybrush, resulting in a chalky finish.

Another tool that can be used to maintain the correct amount of moisture on your brush is a dampening sponge. The dampening sponge should be moist but not wet. When your drybrush starts to dry out, you should use the dampening sponge to rehydrate your drybrush.

Below the model on the left was drybrushed using a dampening sponge and a texture palette, which produces a smooth finish. The model on the right was drybrushed a paper towel was used instead of a texture palette.