Tuesday, February 21, 2012

How to Blend a Different Way..

How to do quick drybrush blending..

A lot of people look at Drybrushing in a negative way but it’s another technique that can and in my opinion should be used. It’s a quick way to highlight but will give it a more weathered look. Which can work for some cloths and leather or on some vehicles. I like the weathered look on my Eldar Vehicles, not too much but just enough makes it look like they are screaming through atmosphere and I don’t think Wraithbone Rusts. 8) …  I also like it on some metals to make it have a sheen but not becoming too metal-eee.

But, sometimes I will also use it to blend. And as long as the surface is smooth it will give you a good quick blend. I’m trying to knock out the Falcon on my table and I usually blend their guns so I figured I’d make up a quick step by step to show how I do it and how easy it is.
I've been painting these for awhile so I always use the same colors.
dark -Regal Blue
medium - Enchanting Blue
light - Ice Blue
I start off just painting the colors on in blocks.

Once you have the colors on and they are dry it's time to start blending. I start with Ice Blue and start blending into the medium Enchanting Blue.
Next I crack open the Enchanting Blue and start to work on the blend between the mid and light. I don't clean the ice blue off the brush. This will pretty much start a paint blend on your brush. Work from the mid and work toward the Ice Blue drybrushing lightly. It won't take long and the transition should start to looking pretty decent.
Next I'll start blending the Enchanting Blue into the Regal Blue.
Open the Regal blue and blend back into the Enchanting Blue. Again I don't clean the brush. It shouldn't take too long. Just starting working the transition area smooth and evenly.

You may have to go back with the other colors if the blend isn't completely smooth. But that's all up to you and how you thing it looks. You can also go back with a wash and cover the entire thing. This can make the blend tighten up. But that is up to you, I didn't do that here as I wanted to show it with just the Drybrushing.

I hope this is useful for some people. 8)

Also here are the pictures of the finished Wave Serpent. I will put some markings on it down the road but not sure what I want to do at the moment.





Tonight I'm hoping to finish out the DW Speeder I've been working on .. I have a full painting night lined up ! 

2 comments:

  1. I'm one of those that uses drybrushing on textured surfaces only. I think you've hit on the big thing with using drybrush to get smooth blends and that is the use of washes to "smooth" them out and bring it all together.
    Nice work on this one.

    Ron, FTW

    ReplyDelete