How to paint rocks?

[Hadier]

Hi yah guys, I was wondering if anyone has a good formula for how to paint rocks. I am working on a GW Saint Celestine conversion and i based her up on some rocks but now that she is primed i have to figure out a way to get a natural look.

 

Thank You

[muttmutt]

Hi yah guys, I was wondering if anyone has a good formula for how to paint rocks. I am working on a GW Saint Celestine conversion and i based her up on some rocks but now that she is primed i have to figure out a way to get a natural look.

 

Thank You

 

Well I always start with a really dark grey base coat. Then add a little bit of Fortress Grey to the base coat mix, may take 2 or 3 layers to get the look just right to your liking. Then add a layer of Fortress Grey. Next a mix of Fortress Grey and Skull White for the highlights. And if you want to add a little more white to the mix for the extreme edges and highlights. To me it looks good but everyone is different. Right now I'm work on getting brownish rocks to my like. Hope that helps!

[KatieS]

I use mostly grays for my rocks, but the key step is washing with brown. I basecoat with a dark gray (Vallejo Black Grey or MSP Black with just a small amt of grey added to get a very dark grey). Then I wash with a medium to dark brown like Vallejo smoke or Muddy brown. Then I drybrush a few times with progressively lighter grays. I find the brown wash really adds something...

 

Here's an example, the rocks on her base were done this way:

 

[Hadier]

So would a good set of steps be like Stormcover Grey, than wash Muddy Brown, than Stormy Grey, wash again, than Shadowed Stone with a final stage of Muddy Brown wash or is that too many? also would those be the right colors?

[Joe Kutz]

Hi yah guys, I was wondering if anyone has a good formula for how to paint rocks. I am working on a GW Saint Celestine conversion and i based her up on some rocks but now that she is primed i have to figure out a way to get a natural look.

 

Thank You

 

It would be good to be able to see the "rocks" or at least get an idea of what kind of rocks you want them to be. Sandstone, limestone, shale, granite, basalt and many other common stones all have different coloration. Depending on what the stones look like that you used - my limestone or shale colors would look out of place.

 

For the most part, I like to use a light base coat - followed by a contrasting ink that is much darker. The contrasting color has a tendency to "go gray" when the two colors mix. Light doesn't always mean white light - just lighter than the ink you will use. A granite can be handled with a dark red and a violet ink. Limestone with a creamy color and perhaps a blue grey ink. Once that is done, I come back and use glazes and dry brushing that covers a dozen or so different colors. The reason for this is that very few stones are monochromatic. When the eye sees monochromatic stones - the brain tends to think concrete pavers. When the other colors are added into the mix - you end up getting a more realistic look for the viewer which means you get to spend less time painting rocks in order to get the viewer to think...rock.

[KatieS]

So would a good set of steps be like Stormcover Grey, than wash Muddy Brown, than Stormy Grey, wash again, than Shadowed Stone with a final stage of Muddy Brown wash or is that too many? also would those be the right colors?

 

I only do the wash once, the drybrushing afterwards usually won't cover it up at all. I also go with much more contrast than these three colors seem to give. I can't give you an exact match, because I just lighten it up by adding white, but the type of contrast I go for is more like the entire Stormcover triad from Stormcover to Cold Stone to Icy Gray. My final drybrush is closer to white than black. So for example I'd base coat Stormcover, wash with muddy brown (maybe mixed a little with Walnut brown to make it a little darker), the drybrush somewhat heavily with Cold Stone, then drybrush lightly with Icy Gray. Of course, some of that depends on the texture of the rocks you have too, this sort of scheme was perfect for the mini above, particularly the ridges in the rocks because it really highlights them. Smooth rocks are a whole different story...

 

And these are just basic gray rocks too, as Joe mentions, you can alter the technique with different colors for different effects, but for a simple base like that, I like my gray rocks

[Hadier]

Thanks for the advice guys you were asking about what the rocks look like.

 

 

the brown are large rocks and the green thing in the pictures is a helmet

[mattmcl]

If you can get the latest copy of No Quarter, the magazine published by Privateer Press, they have a fantastic article this month on painting rocks and stone, with great pics.

[Kang]

Laszlo Jakusovszky's technique for painting/texturing granite has worked quite well for me a time or 2, mostly for stone bases. The pix you posted don't work for me from here (stupid filters!), so I'm not sure if this would work well with the type of rocks you're using, but in any case it's worth a look. Note, it involves spattering paint on with an old toothbrush, so you have to either do the rocks first or attach them to everything else later.

 

Good luck!

 

Kang

[Jabberwocky]

Another nice tutorial is over at Necrotales-- http://www.necrotales.com/necroTutorials/tut_base_rock01.php .

Hope this helps!

[paintminion]

All my reccent projects are on stone/rock/cliff bases, and my technique is to start dark, drybrush (yes drybrush) lighter and lighter, wash dark again, stiple some different colors on, such as grays with browns, or light browns with grays., sometiomes over the wet wash, stipling until even as in wetblending. Layers of paint and wash and stipplling, and wet brushing and just going at it with a frenzy, until you have achieved the right color.

 

Yeah...doesn't help you much. It's terribly difficult to describe, but it only takes me a short time now, and most of my stone has some extra blue, purple, reddish tones, maybe green in there too, just enough to make that mottled composite look. So anyway, if you want something more complicated, that I can do. ;-)

[eastman]

I really like the wet on wet painting techniques for stone, since the colors can mix to form interesting effects.

 

The key is to just keep doing until it looks right, then stop. As an example, I paint marble using 3 colors (brown liner, linen white and titanium white) and just go back and forth with them until I like the look. As my grad school advisor was quoted as saying "don't think, just do".