Drybrushing: not to be overlooked.

Once again, going against conventional wisdom will usually give you better results then following blindly.

"They" will tell you that dry brushing is for beginners, and "real" painters will always blend. 

Sure, if you don't mind taking 18 months to paint your army. 

Getting a good blend and highlight can be done with drybrushing, plus it is super quick and easy.  To do it right, however, does take practice and patience.  Once you master it, though, the results are great.

I've decided NOT to spend forever blending and/or highlighting my Space Wolves. I've decided to go the drybrush route. I've never really done much of it, pretty much only for terrain, bases and the occasional slugga.

Getting shadows and highlights with drybrushing requires similar approach as blending, getting the high areas or even using zenith highlighting.  This is all stuff I'm working on, but since I've only done 2 guys so far I'm still very happy with the results I've had.

The other trick to effective drybrushing is masking.  Here are some picks of me doing the chest and belt buckle gold on my first Grey Hunter:

Here is the masking. I based the gold areas with Balthasar Gold and then washed withNuln Oil. Masking tape is Tamia tape and poster tack takes care of the details.  The masking took less then 5 minutes.

And after the drybrushing is complete. Started with a drybrush of Balthasar Gold, followed by Auric Armor Gold, followed by Golden Griffon (the dry paint).  I washed with sepia, then re-highlighted with Golden Griffon.

Here he is once the masking is removed.  Perfect job, good depth and highlights. Maybe too much Golden Griffon, but still very happy with it.

I should note this was the first time I've tried the GW dry paints..and omg they are awesome.   So much pigment that controlling it is a bit difficult but what I've tried so far (the metallics) are just fantastic.

So that's it for now.  More Space Wolves to come, as well as my OFCC display board.