How often do you use inks and drybrushing?

[Rhoderic]

Just wondering. Is it possible to be a "really good painter" and still take the easy way out sometimes, that is to say doing ink washes and drybrushings for at least some of the shading and highlighting?

I use these techniques constantly, and I was just reminded why, as I started painting the first of my cyberpunk geishas meaning to skip them altogether and just paint multiple layers of "normal" highlights instead. I've only painted the face (in white make-up) and the hands (in Asian skintone) and have reached two conclusions:

1) The number of levels of highlights I set out to do isn't enough. I have to do more.

2) I never want to look at this miniature again. I'm completely knackered.

With my regular inks-and-drybrushing-heavy style of painting, I feel I've plateaued and can't really improve anymore. I'm largely content with the so-so paintjobs I can pull off that way, but I still wish I could improve.

Does anyone use drybrushing for the lower levels of highlights, then switch to painting on the higher levels normally? I find the lower levels are the most time-consuming to paint, because they need everything but the crevices blocked in with the colour. With the higher levels, it's just a matter of picking out the raised areas, which goes much faster.

[Westfalia Chris]

I paint some 90% of my miniatures this way... especially vehicles. I don´t use inks, though, but rather thinned-down washes of regular paint.

As well as that, by subtly varying paint thickness and softness of pressure applied to the brush, you can achieve interesting effects.

A good example is my latest Sturmgeschütz and my Panzer III L, painted ONLY using drybrushings and washes.





I´ll admit, though, that drybrushing is not really suitable for the finest of fabrics. Although I´d still "wetbrush" silk to achieve a "feathered" look for the highlights.

I firmly believe that you can and should use any techniques that give a good result. Point.

[matakishi]

I use inks, mainly on flesh but sometimes on other things too. I drybrush hair and fur and other texture-heavy items but never flesh or clothing unless I'm adding dirt to boots or similar.

Generally I paint on highlights.

As Chris says, different techniques are appropriate for different things. I'm not a 'really good painter' but I'm usually happy with the results I get. You need to find what works for you regardless of what others do. If you think painting highlights is too time consuming then maybe it's not for you. Painting is a trade-off between time, effort and results and it's only you that can decide the value of each.

[poulppy]

I Use Drybrush only for the hair or animals and guns
I use three to for layers for the hightlighting : Base, Ink for shadding, Base + enlighters for the two ou three highlight.

[Prof.Witchheimer]

I'm using dry brushing only for painting of bases, vehicles and buildungs. Sometimes metal weapons. The another case was my Africa Copplestone Elephant which was impossible to paint usual way. I was giving up dry brushing and inking some years ago, it's a really nice way to paint lots of minis but if you're considering to reach high painting level so forget the dry brushing. Sure, you can take the easy way from time to time but it'll take its toll on your painting quality.

[cwchmc]

I use inks/washes on pretty much every miniature i paint. Not on every part of the miniature but somewhere on it. Usually flesh if nothing else. Drybrushing I use less. Like some other mentioned on high texture areas like hair, fur, etc. I've found that I can get better results with drybrushing than trying to paint highlights on those areas.
Do you prime black or white? I prime white and that makes washes necessary for some areas. I've not painted much over black primer but I assume that would make it easier to skip inks/washes.

Chuck

[revford]

I use washes of thinned paint and drybrushing for almost everything, but then I'm not in the same league as some of the wonderful painters here.

I'm just aiming to have something that looks good down on the table and simple techniques do that for me.

Everything gets primed with black spray, then block colours, a thinned wash of black paint all over, a drybrush back to the block colour again and then details picked out.

[Rhoderic]

Do you prime black or white? I prime white and that makes washes necessary for some areas. I've not painted much over black primer but I assume that would make it easier to skip inks/washes.

I use a white undercoat, but I find it doesn't matter much since I don't paint in the fashion where you leave the undercoat showing through in the recesses. Takes too much brush control, I like to just slop the basecoats on as fast as possible (so long as I get solid colours, and don't obscure any detail).

I typically use the basecoat-ink wash-drybrush technique on the skin and all the larger areas (clothes etc) on a model, basically on anything large enough that I can get to it with a drybrush. Then, on all the fine detail I use a basecoat and one level of painted-on highlight. Certain details might warrant some different special treatment.

I've painted a couple of Andrea 54mm display pieces in the past. On these I found it worked well to to start painting an area with a basecoat, a wash and a drybrush, and then paint on the higher highlights normally. But this might not apply as well to 28mm. I will attempt it on the geisha miniature, as soon as I've finished stripping it.

[Lowtardog]

I have neither the skill nor patience to paint as well as most of my fellow lead adventurers and have only really gone for the layering and highlighting on GW LOTR figures which turned out well but I then sold. I tend to use Wet and dry brushing with oil paint washes which I find are much more forgiving than ink washes once you have the hang of them.

[Hammers]

You can definitely get excellent results with inks used as washes. I use them extensively for deep shadows. I apply them as dark washes over a base color, much dilluted and with a fair amount of flow release added.

I find dry brushes is a fairly heavy handed approach to hiliting. As said previoulsy it is, wet or dry, best for vehicles and fur.

[WitchfinderGeneral]

I hardly use any inks.
And I'm not drybrushing that much any more. But for some parts, like fur, drybrushing looks better than layering, in my opinion. I'm also brushing on the metallic colours. But I do it very carefully, not just brushing over everything I can find.

[theoldschool]

I tried washes and drybrushing for a while under the very patient tutelege of Bob Murch, but I really couldn't get to grips with it at all. I found that it lacked the control I could get with a layered painting style, I could never master dry brushing.
I know some people say that it's faster, and it probably is for painting large numbers of figures, but for painting a few figures at a time I find the layer style just as quick.
I normally use three layers (base, mid, highlight), and generally no more than five. I've never understood the macho preening on some forums about the number of layers: the "I used 15 layers on the hair" which prompts the response "I did 40 layers on his belt". It reminds me of the Monty Python sketch  ::
I adore the Rackham school, the use of colour and subtle tones is stunning. I have recently tried adapting some of their techniques by using thin washes of paint (the Rackham paints are wonderful for washes) to add depth over the mid tone. So far it's been hit and miss, but promising.
Pat

[Johan]

I've been experimenting with white basecoat and ink. Judging from the first results 1 layer of ink gives me base , light and shade if you find good ink.
A light extra drybrush here and there and a figure finished in playable quality in about 15 minutes. Can't show any results at the moment as I don't own a camera (yet).

[KeyanSark]

I am a fanatic user of washes (not inks) they produce a fine, natural shading for my tastes. Especially on faces and some kind of clothes.

Dry brushing only a little, and only if I'm serial-painting. I prefer to highlight using several coats.

However, I drybrush on bases and fire arms, normally. Also fur or hair.

[Argonor]

Up 'till recently (mainly on LotR minis), I used a very thinned down black ink to shade almost any colour (not skin, yellow, or white and the likes), then layering or drybrushing the mid-tone up again. Only on characters did I ever bother highlighting (again, skin was painted with two or three layers - I now use 3 or 4, as pulp minis are all characters in some respect, and I feel inspired by the fantastic work of you people in here).

On some occations I have used the drybrush/layering combo to make smother transitions - mainly on Uruk-Hai skin. It looks OK at an arms lenghth, but cannot compete with a thoroughly layered model.

I still drybrush almost all hair and fur as my hand's won't keep steady enough for layering that kind of stuff (and what kind of brushers do y'all use for such itty-bitty work??? Mine are too big...).

Now - until now only on my pulp minis - I have switched to layering almost everything. I'm not totally satisfied with my progress so far - especially because I tend to cover too much of previous layers with the next, lighter layer, making highlights stand out too weak (and often I really should add another highlight with some white mixed in the final colour). And because I have to get used to thinning my paint much more than earlier to get smoother transitions between layers.