Doodle Rocks

I love the idea of painting on rocks. We pick up so many on the beach in the summer, and the flat, smooth ones seem to want some sort of decoration. And I've seen so many lovely ones, some of my favorites being those by JenMun(a). Mine are nowhere near that nice; hers are just so stunning. I'm still figuring out the proper tools. Jen at PaintCutPaste gave me a hint when she said she used a script brush for hers. Saturday, after parent/child art class, we actually (for once!) didn't have to rush right off to someplace else, so we went into the art store and I bought a script brush. I also bought some acrylic ink in white and black--Jen is using white ink for hers.

Well. The first two I did are on the right--the heart and the spiral. The black ink showed up fine, but the white didn't show up at all. I've since read that the brand I bought might have to be stirred with a toothpick to get the pigment to really mix in enough. I added to it with a silver metallic Sharpie. You can sort of see some white lines behind the silver lines surrounding the spiral--that's the ink. It kind of looks like dried milk, not quite what I was hoping for.

The three on the left were painted mostly with liquid acrylic craft paint. I really do love that stuff. It's cheap and accessible, which is not a bad thing when it comes to art supplies! The weeping willow-ish tree is all purple. The far left, which is supposed to mimic leaf veins, is red paint with some black ink added in after, and the "Choose to be Kind" is a mix of metallic Sharpie and red and purple acrylic craft paint.

I don't know German in the least, but by clicking on links in JenMun(a)'s post (and using Google translate, which is only so-so), I'm thinking she used fine-point markers for the drawings on her stones, after painting them first. I may try that next. In any case, as the title says, I was doodling here--trying it out, randomly adding things, figuring out the best way to approach it. I carved out a few minutes here and there over the weekend to play with paint and stones. I'm not done playing! I definitely like the last two best--the leaf veins and the weeping willow--and I will build from there.

Do you give yourself time to play with something new, with no idea how it might turn out?