Starting Scenery: Rocks
This was really tough to fit into 5 minutes as there is just so much to cover… There are so many ways to model rocks and they form such strong structural elements in our scenes. I only managed to touch on a few of the options but there are so many more techniques, materials and ways to paint them that I know there will be loads I haven’t covered!
Painting Rocks
I normally start with bare plaster but if the rock is resin then I will spray with an automotive primer and add a zenithal highlight. That’s a posh way of saying I spray a light coloured paint from above to represent where light would hit the rock.
I paint a base coat of diluted artists’ acrylics. The later stages will darken it slightly but this is the darkest colour in the rocks. Adding water prevents brush strokes from being obvious and the unsealed casting will draw water out of the paint very quickly.
I do a second base coat in a slightly different colour to add variety. The sealed and unsealed castings take up the paint very differently.
I add a black wash to darken the crevices. I sometimes swap the order of stages 4 &5. This is an acrylic wash but any wash will do.
Finally, I dry brush a lighter colour. I am not a fan of white as a dry brush colour so this is just another shade of grey here. This is generally my finished painted rock.
In some cases, I either dry brush again or I add another wash. I thought the black wash was a little dark so I added a brown wash over the top.
Final Photos
Materials
The Amazon links are all items I have either bought or bought something similar for myself. Clicking on any links to Amazon will give me a small affiliate income which I use to produce more videos at absolutely no extra cost to yourself. Every little helps!
- Woodland Scenics Rock Moulds https://amzn.to/2XPV5qa
- Hydrocal (plaster for casting) https://amzn.to/31LBnwO
Paints
- Tamiya fine grey surface primer ttps://amzn.to/2Po1MJO
- Base coat: artists’ acrylics in pale umber https://amzn.to/31JxzMC, neutral gray https://amzn.to/31Fsd57
- Dry brush: Wedgwood https://amzn.to/30zs3eD, neutral gray https://amzn.to/31Fsd57
- Check out this post for how to make a homemade black or brown wash:
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