You can create stone painting art like these beautiful bird rocks with these instructions. Be sure to get the right materials for long-lasting designs on rocks and stones. This project is from the book, The Art of Stone Painting. Projects in the book include birds, owls, other animals, plants, trees, mandalas and more.
Also see the tutorial for hand-painting owls on stones here and more tips on stone painting click here.
Tips for Stone Painting
This selection from The Art of Stone Painting: 30 Designs to Spark Your Creativity by F. Sehnaz Bac is provided with permission from Dover Publications, Inc. who also provided a review copy of this book.
If you want to make designs like the ones shown here, I do recommend getting the book. There are 30 different designs, each with before, during, and after photos so you can see the design process.
Choosing & Preparing Stones
- It helps to have a design in mind when choosing your stones, so the size and shape will fit what you are hoping to create.
- Before you paint, sand any rough surfaces with extra-fine grit sandpaper and then wash the stones and allow them to dry thoroughly.
- If a stone is still rough, you can apply a few coats of acrylic paint to smooth the surface.
Tools & Materials
- Good quality artist’s paint brushes in a variety of sizes from 0 to 3.
- Acrylic craft paints
- Pencil to first draw your design on the stone
- Paint pens
- Acrylic inks and fineliner pens for outlining details
- Acrylic varnish with UV protection (glossy or matte, liquid or spray form)
Want to paint something else?
These materials also work on flower pots.
Paint a Bird on Stone
Related: How to Paint Strawberry Rocks
These next images show the steps for painting a bird.
Because you must wait for the paint to dry completely before adding more to your design, you can work on several different stones at once. This way you are always creating something new while the others are drying.
You can also use a hairdryer to speed things up. To dry the paint, that is. Not your hair. Or both.
When your design is complete and the paint is dry, protect it with an acrylic varnish that includes UV protection to prevent the colors from fading.
The Art of Stone Painting ~ F. Sehnaz Bac
More Tutorials
If you want to see more example’s of Sehnaz’s artwork, have a look at her shop here on Etsy.
Watch Hand-Painting Techniques
These videos show time lapses as the stones are painted. You can see how the design starts with an outline and the background colors and then progresses as more intricate details are added.
~Melissa the Empress of Dirt ♛