Lunch and Learn, Painting Rocks

How to Paint Rocks

Why would anyone want to paint rocks?

Rocks are in the landscape, and if you're a landscape painter,

at some point you're going to have to paint rocks.

I divided a sheet of Urban artist paper into four sections so I could work on four sets of rocks at once.

 

Rocks start out as blobs.

Blobs of gray, brown, blue and purple paint.

When I start painting rocks, they just start showing up. 

You look at the blob and then decide where the light is coming from.

Those little arrows in the corners tell me where the light is coming from.

Then I take a very small amount of a lighter color of the basic rock color and with a very light touch

and a bristle brush I locate the rocks and where the light shines on them.

The paint keeps getting lighter and the brush strokes also get lighter.

I can locate as many rocks as I want.

I can make them any shape I want.

I just have to remember to have a light touch and remember where the light is.

 

  These are the finished rocks from todays lunch and learn.

I added the grass to seat them into sort of a scene.

Rocks just show up in the blobs of paint.