Explore Rock Painting and Stone Art Sculpture

Rock painting and stone art is an economical art form enjoyed by hobbyists and professional artists alike.

Lin Wellford is well-known for pioneering this creative art form and has published many rock painting how-to books on the subject. Want to try your hand at rock painting? Try several fun and free projects right on the Creativity Portal created by artist Ernestina Gallina of Pietrevive Rock Art.

In addition, the following resources will inspire you to learn how to paint animals and other objects on rocks, and how to create your own stone sculptures using ordinary rocks, a little bit of imagination, and lots of creativity!

Spotlight

Whimsical Fun Rock Painting Projects by Ernestina Gallina

Ernestina Gallina is a self-taught artist living in Italy. She started rock painting as a hobby in 1998. Since then she has become more and more involved with this art form. Ernestina’s artwork has been exhibited within Italy and is currently in various private collections. You can try several of her whimsical rock painting projects right on the Creativity Portal including the Stone Cactus and Valentine Love Bugs. Try Ernestina's free Rock Painting Projects »

Rock Painting and Stone Art Resources

Pietrevive Rock Art | Free Stone Painting Projects
Pietrevive is a site fully devoted to rock painting. It features galleries showing a wide variety of animals painted on stones. The site provides information on rock painting supplies and techniques and offers painting lessons as both free downloadable PDF files and fee-based advanced tutorials.

Pet a Rock | Spotlight
Learn the fun techniques to turning ordinary rocks into pet works of art! All you need to begin are smooth stones, inexpensive craft paints, and your imagination. Pet a Rock features plenty of how-to instruction and inspiration.

Lin Wellford's Stone Menagerie Rock Art
Author of many rock painting books and videos for kids and adults that "have become a phenomenon in hobby, craft and decorative painting circles, Lin illustrates some of the amazing possibilities for creating a wide variety of animals, little rock cottages, and three dimensional flowers and plants using ordinary rocks and stones."

The site not only showcases Lin's books, videos, and magazine Painting on Rocks, it also features a free rock art newsletter with site-accessible archives back to Spring 1999; and a frequently asked questions area where you can submit your own rock painting questions to learn answers to such questions as: Why paint on rocks? What kind of paint do you use? Where can you get rocks? I'd like to try painting rocks, but I can't draw. How do you transfer patterns?

Stones Park, a Park of Painted Rocks
Web site of Sicilian artist Maria Di Bella, features an art gallery and several how-to rock painting tutorials inspired by Lin Wellford's books. Includes creative ideas of other items that can be made from stones such as pendants, magnets, paper-weights, Christmas decorations, and games.

Stone Craft by Flozart
Flozart shows you how to create interesting stone sculptures out of ordinary rocks! "Mother Nature is the artist, you simply put it together. Stone craft requires no special talent. Anybody can do it. All you need is a little imagination and a bit of free time." Features a list of tools and supplies you'll need, tips for finding stones, and step-by-step instructions for painting, gluing, sealing, and assembling your project together. Visit the unique gallery of Flozart's stone sculptures showing a variety of people, birds, mammals, and objects.

Spotlight

Pet a Rock: How-to Rock Painting

By Patty Donathan

Rock painting is economical, fun and easy to learn. It's perfect for all ages and levels of ability. All you need are smooth rocks that you find or buy, regular acrylic craft paint, varnish and brushes. You can start with a simple ladybug and work your way up to more realistic dog and cat rocks.

I started painting rocks in 1999 after buying a book called “Painting Animals on Rocks” by Lin Wellford. I was intrigued that something so simple and unusual as a rock could be turned into an animal. I had the desire and passion to learn how to turn rocks into “3-D” animals. You actually take the whole rock and make it look like an animal. It helps to have the correct shape of a rock for some animals, but the easy to find round or oval shaped rocks make great cats, dogs and other animals.

I created my rock painting Web site, Pet A Rock, to share pictures of rocks I painted and provide information called “How To Paint — Step by Step Pictures for the Beginner.” I took step-by-step photos of how to paint a rock and typed up instructions for various projects. You'll find FREE instructions for a raccoon, hosta plant, colt, rabbits, gnome hut, house, barn, daisy plant, and skunks.

I also have sections called “Books To Help You Paint,” “How To Repair a Damaged Rock,” and “Supplies For Rock Painting.” Although I have a lot of free information on my Web site to help anyone learn to paint rocks, I also wrote a “Rock Painting Tips” book for those who want extra information.

Along with rock painting, I started collecting memorabilia related to the old 70's Pet Rock. There is a section showing pictures of the original pet rock, the manual it came with, and more!

Rock painting has allowed me to make a nice little home business for myself. Once I felt confident and built up my inventory of painted rocks, I started selling them at craft shows. Before long, people asked if I could paint their pet on a rock. Since my goal was always to be able to do custom pet orders someday, I nervously accepted my first order. The customer sent me photos of their pet and I painted it on a rock. With the help of my digital camera and the Internet, I'm able to send my customers progress photos of their pets as I'm painting them. This allows me to make any changes, per the customer's suggestions if they have any. Once they approve the finished rock, they make payment and I mail it off. Currently I get most of my orders from my Web site, so I have slowed down on the craft shows.

My favorite part of my Web site is now the “Your Pet” section. It shows all the pets I have painted for customers along side the photos that were sent to me for reference. 

So if rock painting sounds interesting to you, check out my Web site at www.petarock.com. •