Artis Opus are on Kickstarter right now with a new set of brushes, the Series D. These have been designed for those that want to take their drybrushing to the next level.

They might look like make-up brushes (and Lloyd has said that he has a good time drybrushing with those) but they are designed to make the process a lot easier.

• Smoother volumes and flat areas
• Perfect stippling, using the round head’s natural fade toward the edges
• ‘Edge highlighting’ with minimal paint transfer on surrounding areas
• More delicate dry-brushing, allowing for more subtlety, and looking after your models!

The rounded heads on the brushes are made so that you can achieve the desired effect in any direction you like rather than having to use straight motions. You can see some of the ways this technique has been applied across the example models on the Kickstarter.

Personally, for me, I think that drybrushing never went away! It might be sometimes lauded as a 'newbie' technique but it allows me to do a lot of highlighting and develop shading with very little problem. This is especially true for someone like me who doesn't have a very steady hand.

The set looks very bling and if you're one of those people who really enjoy getting stuck into their painting, especially on larger figures and busts, this might be the set for you to consider. Whether or not you could get the same results from make-up brushes I don't know, but it would be interesting to hear your thoughts in the comments.

What do you think of this new brush set?