I recently started to experiment with dry brushing, it is a technique that allows you to make paintings that look like drawing in a fraction of the time. This technique is particularly efficient to make soft edged shading.
Portrait painting tutorial and video for dry brush painting technique
For dry brushing you need a few stiff brushes to paint details and one or two soft round brushes for shading.
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Economical, genuine oil colors clean up with soap and water. Use with 5 non-hazardous mediums allows all the traditional oil painting techniques and styles. Tubes and sets.
Paint brushes for dry brushing
What works well for me is to spread a small quantity of oil paint on a piece of cardboard, then rub my brush on this paint, and dry if a bit on a paper towel before painting on the paper.
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Taking paint from the cardboard and drying the brush on the paper towel
I find it surprising but you can quite easily erase the paint on the paper with a kneaded or regular eraser, this is very convenient when adding highlights to your portrait.
Originally from France, I have been living in North Vancouver, Canada for the past 20 years.
My work has been collected and exhibited extensively in Canada and internationally. I am also part of the Art Rentals and sales program of the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Many of my paintings have been published in Art books and magazines (Artist Magazine, Watercolor Artist Magazine, Acrylic Magazine, International Artist Magazine). I wrote 2 art instruction books with North Light/F+W Books.
I have been writing for the last 5 years for my blog: paintingdemos.com, that has a mailing list of about 10 000 subscribers and about 20 000 visitors per month.
I am an active member in the community, as a co-founder of the North Shore Art crawl, a co-founder of a weekly life drawing group, a board member of the North Vancouver Arts Council, and have been invited as a juror for public art, art grants and juried exhibitions. You can read more about my collaborations here.
Hello Tom, you want the paint to be really dry so it kinds of sits on the paper, that’s how you can remove it with an eraser. An eraser will work only for the light to medium areas, not on the dark areas.
Comments (11)
Aino Shperber
Wow you are good!! 😮
Sandrine Pelissier
Thanks Aino!
Carol
When the piece is completed, how long does it take the paint to dry? And then, do you do anything else with it? Sealant?
Sandrine Pelissier
There is so little paint on the paper with the dry brush technique that it is almost dry right away. I didn’t apply any sealant but I guess you could.
Lori Lukasewich
Hi Sandrine,
Are you working directly onto the watercolour paper or have you sealed it somehow?
Thanks,
Lori
Sandrine Pelissier
Hi Lori, I am working directly on the paper.
Sandrine
Tom
How do you keep the paper from absorbing the paint and drying. I can’t lighten with a kneaded eraser because the paint drys so quick.
Sandrine Pelissier
Hello Tom, you want the paint to be really dry so it kinds of sits on the paper, that’s how you can remove it with an eraser. An eraser will work only for the light to medium areas, not on the dark areas.
Dry brushing technique tutorial for portraits painting — ARTiful: painting demos
[…] Dry brush painting […]
lesliepaints
Thank you, Sandrine. This is something I will definitely try.
Sandrine Pelissier
Thanks Leslie, let me know how it works for you 🙂