Dry-Brush Painting: The BEST Way to Paint Your Sculptures, Models, and Minis

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What is dry brush painting?

Dry brushing is a super easy  paint technique that gives you expert level results with saturated colors. You don't need a steady hand. You don't need fancy equipment. Heck, you don't even need good quality paint. The technique involves using very little paint on your brush, such that the bristles are almost dry.

This article will give you you a detailed walkthrough on how to dry brush  acrylic paint on your  sculptures, models, or minis, including how to pick your colors,  and which brushes to use. 

The dry-brush painting technique works best on texture.

Which base colour should I use for dry brushing?

Dry-brushing is a technique for a textured projects. ​If you have a highly textured sculpture or model, dry-brushing will look great. It also works really well to give a weathered or aged look. On flatter projects, it can make projects look more organic or more gritty. It can also make projects look more soft and furry. Dry-brushing will always emphasize texture

Base-coated projects ready for dry-brushing. From left to right, the projects have been base-coated in black, burnt umber, and purple.

Which base colour should I use for dry brushing?

Your first step when you're dry-brushing a model is to base coat everything in a dark color. The final colors will be built on top of this base layer. I like to get two steps in one and make this base layer serve as both my primer and my underpainting.

This base will be visible in all the crevices and low places in your texture, almost acting like shadows. Black is probably the most common base color people go for. Burnt umber (brown) is another common base colour. Both of these are really good, solid choices. I personally have been reaching for dioxazine purple a lot lately.

This image depicts the same series of colours dry-brushed on top of three different base colours.

Generally, you're going to want to base-coat in a dark colour. Feel free to experiment! Different base coats will affect the look of your final project. In my experience, a black base-coat will make the final product look more gritty and hard. Burnt umber will give a softer and warmer look. A purple base coat will give a more illustrative pop-art look

A great DIY primer can made from watered-down white glue, acrylic paint, and any cooking starch.

A comparison of black paint and matte mod-podge primer and my homemade corn starch primer.

​How do I base-coat or prime my models for dry brushing?

A really popular base layer or primer was popularized by Jeremy of Black Magic Craft who uses matte Mod Podge tinted with black paint. This is a great option for minis and smaller models. ​My personal preference is a more matte, more opaque, thicker recipe .

I mix the paint of my choice with some watered down glue (Mod Podge would work fine here, too) and a scoop of corn starch. The cornstarch makes the mixture very matte, it increases the opacity by acting as a filler, and it increases the “tooth” or grippiness of the base layer.  If you can't find cornstarch where you live, any cooking starch will work.

If you're doing a project with a lot of fine details, you're going to want to put on your primer pretty carefully, making sure you don't fill in the texture with your primer. If your texture is really pronounced, you can really just slap a thick coat onto your project. In either case, you want to make sure you have really good coverage. Do two or three coats if you need it. A good solid base coat is going to make all the difference to the quality in your finish, and you're going to want to make sure it has dried really well before you move on to painting.

Cheap kid's paintbrushes or student-level brushes work great for dry-brush painting.

​What paint brushes should I use for dry brushing? 

Grab whatever cheap. coarse synthetic brushes you can find. Dry-brushing really does wear and tear on your brushes. With all this abuse, it doesn't make sense to spend a lot of money on  brushes.  Discount brushes meant for kids or classrooms will work just fine.

Most good paint brands will indicate the opacity of the paint colour with a small square symbol on the bottle.

A good rule is to choose two mid-tones and a highlight for each coloured area you want to dry-brush.

How do I pick paint colors for dry-brushing? 

This paint technique works best with opaque or semi opaque paints. For most quality paints, you can check the opacity on the bottle. Look for a small square symbol. If you have a paint color that you really want to use that is transparent, mix it with an opaque white.  After dry brushing with the mix, let it dry, then go over it again with just the transparent colour. This will give you an opaque, but true-to-hue finish.

A good rule for determining the palette for your project is to pick two mid-tones and a highlight color. The mid-tones are just two shades of the colour you want to paint an are (For example, if you want a blue roof, pick dark blue and medium blue for your mid-tones). The highlight colour can be a very light complementary shade (like light blue in the roof example) or sometimes it's fun to switch it up and use a contrasting highlight.  If you're unsure, you can always choose white for your highlight.

Experiment with different highlight colours! One of my favourite contrasting highlights is to use light orange or pink on green mid-tones.

Remove most of the paint from your brush on a paper towel.

Use a scrubbing motion apply the paint to your project.

How do I dry brush acrylic paint?

After you've primed with a base-coat and selected your color palette, the actual painting is really easy. I like to have a good supply of paper towels or scrap paper ready. You need to work the paint off your brush every time you pick up color. I do a quick dip into my color of choice, then I use a circular motion to remove a lot of that paint. Now I can use a scrubbing motion to apply the paint onto my piece. 

The trick here is to work up to your final color in layers. This technique allows you to build up a lot of depth in your color application. So even if you're using three colours (two mid-tones and a highlight) you don't have to have your painting done in three steps. You can do a few passes with your darkest mid-tone, get it to where you like, and then move on and do a couple more passes with your lighter mid-tone before you finish with your highlight. Go slow and build up the color gradually.

It's critical that you ensure that each layer is dry before you move on to the next one. In most cases this is almost immediately because you're using so little paint. However, if you find that your colors are getting a little muddy or lifting, hit the project with a hairdryer or walk away for a few minutes so the paint can dry a little better.

If you mess up, you can re-paint over it with your base coat.

I tried to wipe some paint off with a damp cloth. The colours went a bit muddy because I didn't let it dry before trying again.

Troubleshooting

I messed up and got paint where I didn't want it:

If you mess up an area, you can always go back and repaint it in your base color. You can also wipe paint off with a damp cloth. Just be patient and let the piece dry before you give it a second try.

I always seem to get too much paint on my project:

If you find yourself being too heavy-handed with the  paint, try keeping your wrist loose and holding the brush back at the end of the handle. This can help. 

My colours keep lifting off or getting smeared and muddy:

As I said earlier, if you find your colors are getting muddy or lifting, you need to let your project dry more in between layers. Adding cornstarch to my base or primer layer has really helped me out with this issue, because that cornstarch really sucks the moisture out of your subsequent paint layers.

Another source of muddiness can be damp  brushes. If you're washing your brushes between colors, really, really dry those bristles after washing. I keep an old towel around for this because paper towel doesn't seem to get the bristles dry enough for me. In a best case scenario, you're using a fresh, dry brush for each layer, but sometimes that's not realistic. After you've washed a brush, just really make sure you dry it off very well.

And now you have all the info to be a dry-brush painting expert! You can check out the technique in action in the video below or on other projects on my YouTube Channel.

If you give this technique a try, it would make my day if you’d share it with me. I’m @JaneSawyerMakes on TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, Reddit, Threads,  and Twitter (X). Please share and pin this article!