Re: [GZG] Question for the painting gurus...

Hi Mike,

Several suggestions and comments.

First off, if you are seeing detail loss after drybrushing, you're using
too much paint.  The brushes have to be, as others have said, nearly
completely dry.  Test on a paper towel first.  Avoid thinning your paint
with water (assuming you're using water-based acrylics) if you want to
dry brush - the brush retains the wetness for too long and the pigment
density decreases, making it really, really hard to get a decent effect. 

Drybrushing is something that you can practice.  Get something that
isn't an expensive miniature but has similar levels of little bumpy
detail.  I have built and painted a lot of game terrain and use
drybrushing almost exclusively for that task.  If you have a rough-ish
surface, such as a bit of foam covered with sand, you can practice the
drybrushing technique over large areas without messing with minis.  Take
a look here:

http://www.stargrunt.ca/gallery_modeling/sg2_gal_aj_vehicles/sg2_gal_aj_
veh5.htm

http://www.stargrunt.ca/gallery_modeling/sg2_gal_aj_vehicles/sg2_gal_aj_
veh12.htm

http://www.stargrunt.ca/gallery_modeling/sg2_gal_gurkhas/sg2_gal_gurkhas
_9.htm

These are several pics that include buildings and vehicles that I 
painted with drybrushing.  The technique can cover a lot of area *fast*,
but it still requires a subtle touch.  The subtleness mostly comes in
knowing how much paint to have on the brush.  At first, err on the side
of not enough paint.  Keep your brush almost completely dry, so that
when you pass over your model, you see almost no change.  You might need
even 5 or 6 passes with the brush before you see something happening. 
That's good.  From there, you can try adding just a bit more paint. 
Repeat.  Eventually you'll get a feel for how "dry" the brush has to be
for you to get a good combination of coverage and speed.

If the guru at your local store can *show* you drybrushing, even better.

Another suggestion (once you are past the practicing on lumpy blocks and
dry glued sand stage - building game terrain is a great way to learn how
to do this, because people don't look at it as closely adn you get to do
lots of big areas... and it's a lot cheaper) is to see if you can find
other figures cheap.  Doesn't matter what they are - ships, vehicles,
infantry, monsters, whatever.  Stores (or friends) sometimes are giving
away old junk on the cheap.  Prime the old junk black and practice
drybrushing.  This will give you experience doing it over smaller areas.
Then go back to your ships.

In my experience, dry brushing is one of those things that people either
get or don't get.  You'll be practicing and suddenly it will work for
you, and you'll have one of those "ah ha!" moments.  Then it will work
fine and you'll be much less frustrated.

Remember, the key point here is *DRY* brushing...

Good luck.

-Adrian

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