Gradients ( Outdoor Acrylic )

One of the easiest things to do, that also adds a lot of punch, is to form gradients of color. Take two shades and apply a strip of each color along the top and the bottom. Then use a brush to combine the two at the line where they meet, blending them until there is a soft transition. Place these throughout your garden or in outside flower pots for a fun pop of color.

Landscape ( Outdoor Acrylic )

Don’t limit yourself to just making designs. Here, our artist used her rock as a canvas for a landscape. This beautiful scene turns it into a mini-masterpiece that could be used as a paperweight or as an artful reminder on a table or shelf of a trip or vacation.

Scales ( Metallic Acrylic Artist Paint )

Metallics really add a glow to your rock art. To demonstrate this, our artist used metallic acrylic paint to create these glistening scales. Doesn’t it look as though part of a mermaid’s tail has dropped into your hands? If you’re afraid to freehand these scales, use pre-cut stencils to make a design.

Acrylic + Glitter ( Acrylic Premium Artist Paint, Glitter Shaker Jars, Acrylic Markers )

Who doesn’t love a little glitter? By adding it in this example, a mystical design was created. To do this, paint the design first, then dust with glitter while still wet to get a shimmering result. To further enhance the color, use a marker, as our artist did. To make sure the glitter stays on permanently, once it’s dry, apply a coat of varnish. 

Galaxy ( Craft Acrylic, Outdoor Acrylic )

Here’s another example of using a uniform stone to create a scene worthy of a canvas. Our artist has intentionally used a vertical orientation to give depth and distance to this enchanting galaxy scene. She used a limited number of colors, blending them together to create gradients in the night sky.

Lettering ( Acrylic Premium Artist Paint, Acrylic Markers )

A level stone is an ideal place to experiment with hand lettering. It’s a good place to write inspirational words that you can place throughout your work or living space to keep positive and motivated throughout the day. Use your own handwriting or experiment with different fonts with stencils or letters found in magazines or on the internet.

Strawberries ( Acrylic Premium Artist Paint, Acrylic Markers )

Once you start looking for stones, you’ll see how many shapes they come in. Use this to your advantage by studying each one and see if it reminds you of something. In this case, the triangular shape reminded the artist of juicy red strawberries.

How cute would this look if you did a bunch of these and put them in a small basket on the kitchen table?

Fish ( Outdoor Acrylic )

Sometimes a stone’s form is the inspiration not just for a particular subject, but the movement of that subject as well. This scene of a Koi fish swimming among the water lilies looks more vibrant by using the curved shape of the rock to enhance the curve of the fish. The artist has also added shadows and the rings of water created by the movement to give this a realistic look.

Cacti ( Acrylic Premium Artist Paint, Acrylic Markers )

Achieve interesting objects by using a solid color as a background and adding rows of small dots. The effect can be abstract but in this case, by using green as her background, our artist created stones that look like cacti.

Abstraction ( Acrylic Premium Artist Paint, Acrylic Markers )

The most important thing is to have fun. If you don’t consider yourself skilled enough to replicate literal or realistic objects, use your imagination to play with creating abstract designs that emphasize color and patterns. Match these to your home’s color scheme for an interesting visual display on a coffee table or shelf.

Pouring (Pouring Acrylic Paint)

One of the hottest trends right now is pouring. This technique works especially well on rocks because pouring paint includes a special medium that makes it more fluid. Here, our artist added different ones into a cup and then poured it over a rock. Tilt the stone in different directions, so it runs around the surface, creating some pretty magical designs similar to geodes. Use multiple small stones with this technique to create talismans to carry for good luck.

3D Dots ( Craft Acrylic, 3D Fabric Paint)

For this example, either a slick or textured stone would work. Here our artist used Arteza craft acrylics to place an initial dotted design. Then to give it the 3D effect she used 3D fabric paint and added more dots that puffed up and added extra texture. This gives it an organic appearance much like a sea anemone. We also feature a mandala dotting kit for even more precise dots!