Page 36 - The Digital Cloth holiday issue

The Painted Rock

a mini project

Thank you to the Digital
Cloth for inviting me to
share my artwork and this
little mini project with your
readers.

STEP 1 : I like to prime my stones before I start to paint on them to make
the vibrant inks stand out more. I use common old white acrylic house
paint of course some people might prefer the natural qualities of the stone
to show through and that is Ok too. Finding the perfect stone is half the
fun.... I usually find beautiful stones on every camping trip away. I usually
paint a couple of coats of paint either side of the stone to get a nice even
finish.

STEP 2: When the paint is completely dry, I draw a design onto the
stone, in this case I’ve drawn the design onto the stone using a black
acrylic ink archive pen making sure that the ink is
waterproof.
(I don’t want the ink to run when I start to paint the stone)
STEP 3: For this project I’ve blocked the design in with black acryl-
ic paint I’ve used a tiny brush to get into all the fiddly bits one coat
is often enough, but if not the second coat is easier. I use Sennelier
acrylic and FW Daler Rowney Inks, Pigma Micron archive pens.
I like to paint with acrylic ink because the colours are vibrant and
they flow nicely, but acrylic paint and paint pens work well too. I’ve
kept my palette simple with this one only using four colours.

STEP 4: Now for the
tidy up, I’ve touched
up the black paint and
then used a fine white
acrylic pen to highlight
and add some extra
details to the design.

STEP 5: To finish it off I’ve painted the back of
the stone black and then sprayed the stone with a
clear acrylic gloss Happy Creating! Deb Laan
@papermachemermaid