Stippling?

[ElectricPaladin]

I'm planning to dive into some stippling tonight to create some cracked flagstones for my Imperial Knight. How exactly does one use a Citadel stippling brush? I've got one, but I've never had occasion to try it out.

Thanks in advance.

[interrogator_chaplain]

Alright, say you want to get blood drop splatter on a model, you load up the stippling brush with some Blood for the Blood God and put your thumb on the top of the brush and drag backwards spraying the paint onto the model. That's how the stippling brush works.

[DWest]

otherwise, think of it as a "stabbing drybrush" -- load the brush and then dry it similar to drybrushing, but not quite as much, then apply the paint with a straight up-and-down stabbing motion. A good way to do the "crumbled stone" look is to do a heavy layer of stippling with a dark shade all around the edges of the stone in question, then go back and lightly stipple in the base color to blend the dark into the base.

[ElectricPaladin]

Next question - how the hell do you clean this thing?

[DWest]

Go to your FLAS (Friendly local *art* store) and get a pot of "The Master's" Brush Cleaner. It'll be a hockey puck-sized tub with a hard white cake of soap inside. Wet the brush, rub it on the soap until you've got a good lather, then work the bristles back and forth between your fingers. I've brought drybrushes that were one stage past dead back to life with this stuff.

[whargoul666]

Go to your FLAS (Friendly local *art* store) and get a pot of "The Master's" Brush Cleaner. It'll be a hockey puck-sized tub with a hard white cake of soap inside. Wet the brush, rub it on the soap until you've got a good lather, then work the bristles back and forth between your fingers. I've brought drybrushes that were one stage past dead back to life with this stuff.

^^ Not an exaggeration. I've started storing my brushes with a lite coat of this stuff. It is hair conditioner so the longer you let it set/soak the better it is for your bristles.

On a related note, if you go with the dry brush stabbing approach to stippling, don't try to stab through the model (don't try to kill it), just stab lightly. If you want to go for the spray method (running your fingers through the bristles), but don't want to get your hands dirty you can also tap your brush against something to fling the paint (you'd want to do this hard, not light).