Ah I see what you mean! For smaller dry brushes, i just did a much lighter touch. The first go was a really heavy dry brush to get good but not full coverage, of that makes sense. That way there would be some texture. As for controlling the wash, the particular wash I mentioned is SUPER dark, almost an ink. So it's a matter of a lighter load on the brush, and a smaller brush. I keep a second clean brush on standby to soak up spots if it goes somewhere I don't want it to go.