STEP 1: Dip the tip of a dry, stiff, round-bristled brush into a dab of acrylic paint.

STEP 2: Zigzag the brush in a figure 8 motion on a piece of newspaper until you've removed most of the color.

STEP 3: Brush the end of the bristles briskly back and forth against, not with, the texture of the piece.

Tips & Warnings

• Drybrushing works best over a base coat - a solid-colored coat of paint applied to the whole piece of bisque. Dark colors work better than light colors.
• The drybrushing technique puts highlights of color on ridges and details, leaving the darker base coat color in the grooves and furrows.
• Wetbrushing is the opposite of drybrushing.  Use the same bristled brushes you use in drybrushing, only leave more of the paint in the brush than you do when drybrushing.

This piece was just painted, not drybrushed.

This piece was drybrushed.