You know the feeling that you have when you look at your rocks and think what is it missing, its just not looking right …. If you ask on social media you will hear many different answers like add a butterfly or a heart or some glitter…
Well our answer is add some shading. That will make it pop ! It takes a flat coloured-in picture to an image with more interest. And this is so easy to do ! We took a few techniques that are used by brush users and found a really simple way to do tis with paint pens.
Let’s chat shading and blending on rocks ….
1. Touch a small dash of paint on your rock / not too much . See in the top left picture how little it is. I am doing this with an acrylic paint pen you can do the same with acrylic paint.
2. Take a damp brush and smoosh it across the area . See how far that one small dash was able to cover ? Now the trick is that dash of paint MUST be wet to do this step This is why I recommend to do a small amount . Now add another dash of paint and repeat the process .
It is two wet substances that create the shading. One is the paint it is wet and the other is the damp brush. Tip – do not have to much water on your brush . It us important to dip your brush in water but then wipe off any excess water leaving you with a damp brush
DRY FINGER SHADING
This is such an easy way to create some shading. Pop a small dash of colour in t area and while it is wet, smoosh it with your finger. Stay in the direction that you want the shading.
I used Posca Colours – (AVAILABLE HERE) For the Lotus Tutorial – CLICK HERE
Water Wash Shading – It is very random but very effective.
You want to wet the rock so the surface looks quite wet. It is easy to do just dip your finger in clean water and splat it on your rock. Take the paint pen and scribble some of the pen on the water. You have two wets – the water surface and the wet pen – so it will bleed.
You want it to bleed as it becomes a lovely watercolour look with the stability of acrylic paint for the long term.
PAINT PENS AVAILABLE HERE
Click on the picture here to the right for the video.
Here are four simple ways to shade on your rocks. CLICK HERE FOR THE TUTORIAL
1. Wet Brush Shading
2. Hashline Shading
3. Dot Shading
4. Solid Line Shading
These techniques are all different but give the image a point of interest by giving depth.
Why not try all four looks to see which one you like the best ?
We would love to see your outcome pop over to our FB GROUP and show us your shading rocks. CLICK HERE TO JOIN
Reef Rocks Free Workshops
Our Supplies page is HERE to read up on everything you need to paint Rocks.
Learn heaps of different techniques on how to paint rocks – Right HERE
We are adding new tutorials all the time CLICK HERE for heaps of new ideas
