Rock Painting, From Bugs to Birds to Fruits to Faces

Rock Painting, From Bugs to Birds to Fruits to Faces

This project was initiated by my sister Ann who had a box of gently rounded river rocks that she wanted to paint for her grandson.  She had paints, she had markers, she had paintbrushes and she had ideas.  So for one hour on a beautiful day we sat on her deck and painted rocks.  Not just any rocks, vegetable rocks.

I must say, it was kind of addicting.  Once you’ve painted one, you’re ready for the next.

Apparently rock painting is huge right now.  A quick check on Facebook has the group Rock Painting 101 with 172,000 followers.   Easy Way Rock Painting has  53,000 members and Found Painted Rocks has 59,000 members.

The interest in rock painting may have increased lately because of the ease of using acrylic markers, you don’t actually have to be able to paint a straight line and those little rock canvases are everywhere.  Start collecting.

For the background colors we painted on acrylics from a tube.  They dry quickly and they cover the rocks really well.  You may have to use 2 coats for the lighter colors.

The above picture was the set of acrylics we used.  I could not find the exact set online but I did find a great substitute.  This set (click link) is listed right now on Amazon for only 7.99 for 24 colors.  These paints  were rated 4.7 and even list rocks as one of things they will paint on besides canvas, wood, paper , MDF, ceramic and fabric.

I see tons of craft projects in your future.

 

For fine lines, and white eyeballs we used this set of acrylic markers by Kamumu.  These are also sold out, but I found a nice alternative for these markers as well.

This set of 24 acrylic paint markers has dual tips, which just means they have a fat and skinny side, they dry quickly and they cover well.  They also say they are for wood, canvas, rock painting and glass.

And now for our inspiration.  Our goal was to paint a pile of fruit or vegetables  that my sister’s grandson could use as play food in a kitchen.  And pile up, and sort, and make believe.

On her next visit she was going to hide the vegetable rocks in the garden and have her grandson hunt for them. Oh, did I mention he likes everything with eyes.

After an hour of painting fun we had our own pile of eyeballed fruit and vegetables.

We did go out on our own with the blueberry and pizza slice because we had a rock that looked just like a pizza and a little round blueberry.

When you’re all finished with the rock painting, you may want to seal your creation with a spray polyurethane.

I hear that her grandson, my great nephew, gave the rocks fantastic reviews.  Since I never got permission from my niece to use her son’s image in my post, my great nephew now has a very happy rock face.

It was so easy to just Google  “vegetable painted rocks” and see what popped up but I bet you’re curious about other rock painting ideas. Or at least I was.

The following are just a few of the many many pages that popped up when I searched for painted rocks.  Some of these look like mini works of art and some are more basic, for the beginning rock painter enthusiast which we were.

Most of these were from Facebook posts or Pinterest saves so I had a hard time attributing these to any individual artist.  If you do know of the original poster I will be more than happy to include their name or website.

From turtles to chickens, from monsters to cactus, I think there is something for everyone.

 

These are apparently from Natasha Dienes who posts her work on Facebook.  I was happy to place an artist with their creation.

Notice the long whiskered cats have their whiskers drawn directly onto the shelf.

Weren’t those fantastic?  Did it make you want to go out and find a pile of rocks.  If you don’t have a source for rocks, Amazon sells those too. Of course they do. 🙄

Until next time, stay inspired.