Dry brush is a painting technique in which, a little quantity of paint is put on a dry brush. As the name suggests, when the paint is put on the dry brush, it usually produces a broken, scratchy effect. In general, what washes do for the crevices, dry brushing can do for the raised areas. Dry brush technique generally satisfies two main purposes. First, to create proper highlights to counteract the shadows and second is to fake wear and tear, as the raised areas always suffer most of it.
The dry brush technique is fairly simple. What you need to do is to take a brush preferably an old one, and dip it into the paint. Once you do this, wipe the brush with a paper till the time only a faint line of paint comes off the brush. Once the desired level is achieved you can gently brush across the desired area of your canvas. This process can be repeated to build up the highlights as required. Remember, you can always put on more paint on the brush if you need to get the required effect. Dry brushing requires less amount of paint. With watercolors, care should be taken after the brush is loaded with paint. It needs to be squeezed dry. The dry but thinly loaded brush should then be applied to a dry support.
