#4: Brushing Up

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Summary:

How (and why) to drybrush and wash.

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[torbenm]

A trick I learned for easy washing is to do it with varnish: Postpone all washing until you want to apply varnish. Mix a bit of colour into the varnish and apply it. The varnish will be thicker in depressions and folds, so you get the described effect of washes, but it is easier to control, as the varnish is a lot thicker than paint diluted with water. You don't wipe off the varnish wash, you just leave it to dry. Be careful not to apply too much at a time, as it might run.

[Remjin]

A trick I learned for easy washing is to do it with varnish: Postpone all washing until you want to apply varnish. Mix a bit of colour into the varnish and apply it. The varnish will be thicker in depressions and folds, so you get the described effect of washes, but it is easier to control, as the varnish is a lot thicker than paint diluted with water. You don't wipe off the varnish wash, you just leave it to dry. Be careful not to apply too much at a time, as it might run.

I've tried this method, and overall, I don't always like it. I've mixed various things with varnishes in a hope to make some shiny new way of painting things and done a lot of experimentation tht way, but it usually doesn't take too well. The whole matte varnish in a bottle is relatively new to me, and while I've played with it some, I haven't tried these methods again with it.

Varnish is too thick, in my opinion, and waiting to shade until the very end will often cause issues with how I'm painting the rest of the miniature. Still, I'll try some more of it with the matte varnish, all my experimentation in the past has been with gloss, and the matte seems much thinner, which might help.

Thanks for the tip, though, always good to see a new way of doing things.