Rockin' out some more

This week we painted lizards on rocks.  All these painting on rocks projects do best with practice, but they are fun from the very start.  They all look best when they've had their final coat of clear shiny spray acrylic sealer.

 Next week we are painting animals on rocks, and the group consensus is...guinea pigs!

Rockin' out

Source material for this lesson and several lessons coming up: Lin Wellford's book and video. 

We are going to paint a few rocks over the next 2 or 3 weeks - maybe forever - we love this!

Not having a rocky riverbed nearby, I grabbed a bag of Mexican Beach stones from Lowe's.  They are smooth and dark and it feels good just to hold them.

One of the Sm'Arties, who is not pictured in this post, learned that though tossing and catching the stones is fun, it is not advisable to toss them over your head - unless you catch them EVERY TIME.  Sad lesson. 

We used acrylic craft paint.  Some stones were prepainted white, some black, and some left natural.  I like the natural dark gray.

When they were finished (and they dry quickly - I used a blowdryer on the wettest ones), I sprayed them with a clear sealer.  These have 1 coat.  2 coats is better - more shine.

We think the one with green eyes looks like an alien. 

After Spring Break - lizards!

Painting with acrylics

We have painted with acrylics for 2 classes now - what fun!  We used real from-tube acrylics, and some pretty nice brushes. I showed the Sm'Arties how to be respectful and kind to brushes, keeping them wet (after the first week I modified that directive - keep them damp, not dripping wet - this isn't watercolor), putting plenty of paint on the brush, and how to load more than one color on the brush. 


Week 1:  Just to get used to the paint, I asked the Sm'arties to paint the whole background, let it dry, then do some simple shapes and swoops on top.  We used Acrylic Paper and student-grade acrylic paint and brushes. 

Week 2:  We painted on canvases!  These were to be our Georgia O'Keefe-inspired paintings, though it is hard for the Sm'Arties to remember to zoom in CLOSE on whatever subject they portray.  Nevertheless, we are pretty impressed with ourselves.

See the little speckled egg in the pinecone?  It's a lizard egg - at least, that is what Science Geek told me.

A few painting with acrylics links:
http://www.ehow.com/how_5811214_teach-acrylic-painting-children.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_7676982_paint-using-acrylic-paint-children.html

http://acrylic-painting.blogspot.com/2004/06/buying-acrylic-paints.html

This artist mom paints with her young daughters: http://debrha.wordpress.com/