Rock Painting Tip: Use Paint Pens Instead of a Brush for Detailing

Sometimes my rock is too small or my hand too unsteady to paint fine details with a brush. Regular Sharpie markers smeared and changed color when a sealer was applied. Micron pens scraped the paint off my rock and dried up quickly.

Update: Monday, October 24, 2016

Since the date of the original post, I have discovered the Uni Posca marker and consider it the best pen/marker for rock painting. This post has now been updated to include the Posca pen. (Click here to see my experiments with the Posca Pen.)


Four pens suitable for rock painting are the: 

• Uni Posca Marker (extra fine tip)
• Elmer's Painters Pen (fine tip)
• Sharpie Oil-Based Paint Marker (fine tip)
• Sakura Pigma Brush Pen (brush tip)

Note: When you click on certain links in this post, I may receive a commission for the purchase of products.
As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
 

While only one of these pens is my perfect solution, they all enable me to add details to my painted rocks without using a brush.

I drew a simple kitty using each pen to illustrate how they perform on a rock. (FYI: Smooth stones are easier to draw on than pitted stones.) 

Uni Posca Marker (water-based paint filled)

Uni Posca Marker - My Perfect Rock Painting Pen

 Pros

• Available in various colors
• Many tips available from extra fine point to extra broad
• Can be used on unpolished and polished stones
• Dries quickly
• Does not blur or change color when sealer is applied

Cons

• None

Elmer's Opaque Paint Marker (acrylic paint filled)

Elmer's Painters Pen

 Pros

• Available in various colors
• Fine tip available
• Dries quickly
• Doesn't smear or change color when sealer is applied

 Cons

• Fine tip is not as fine as I'd like

Sharpie Oil-Based Paint Pen

Sharpie Oil-Based Paint Pen

Pros

• Available in various colors
• Fine & extra fine tips available
• Dries quickly
• Glossy
• Doesn't smear or change color when sealer is applied

Cons

• Fine tip is not as fine as I'd like (I have not tried the extra-fine tip)

Sagura Pigma Brush (archival ink)

Sakura Pigma Brush

Pros

• Available in various colors
• Dries quickly
• You can control the thickness of the line by amount of pressure used when drawing

Cons

• The kitty drawn with the Pigma Brush smeared when I applied a polyurethane varnish (Delta Ceramcoat)

Polyurethane sealer smeared my kitty design

Tip

• After redrawing the kitty with the Sakura Pigma Brush, I carefully sealed the rock with a thin coat of Mod Podge first, then I applied the Delta Ceramcoat  

Apply Mod Podge first then polyurethane sealer when using Pigma Brush

I previously used three of these pens interchangeably but my new favorite is the Posca marker.

How to Prevent "Sharpie" Permanent Markers from Blurring When Sealed

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© Cindy Thomas Painted Rocks 

Painted Rocks: A Painting Project for Teaching Your Child Colors and Numbers

Put your child on the road to learning success using this fun, skill-building, rock painting project.

Painted Rock Ladybugs - A Fun Way to Learn Colors & Numbers

Perfect for preparing youngsters prior to their very first day of school, these colorful ladybugs teach and reinforce basic skills, such as color & number recognition, counting skills, small to large concept, and basic addition & subtraction.

The learning process begins even before you pick up a paintbrush when you and your child find 10 ladybug-shaped stones, counting as you collect them. Collecting rocks and stones is a fun activity too!

Stone shapes perfect for painted ladybugs

You can use this project in two ways:

1. An adult paints the stones and uses them to teach and reinforce colors and numbers
2. An adult (or older sibling) and child do the project together allowing the child to learn colors and numbers as the project progresses 

This rock painting project is available as an Amazon Kindle e-book and is FREE to borrow for Amazon Prime members.

Painting Step by Step: Teaching Colors, Teaching Numbers Using a Ladybugs Painting Project

Don't have a Kindle e-reader. No problem. Amazon offers FREE Kindle Reading Apps for smartphones, computers, and tablets. (I used the free computer app months before I purchased my Kindle e-reader.)

This Amazon Kindle e-book also includes access to the FREE PDF version of the project so you can download it to your computer and print the pages. 


Start painting ladybug color counters now.
 

Painting rocks is a fun, creative, inexpensive project for both children and adults. You'll be amazed how plain, ordinary rocks come alive with a little paint and imagination and can be used as teaching and learning tools.


© Cindy Thomas Painted Rocks

Color Inspiration for Hand Painted Rocks

I recently came across this wonderful book containing more than 3,000 innovative color palettes including a CD with 3,286 downloadable swatch files. It's called "Color Inspirations."

Color theory is explained but what I found much more helpful were palettes for red, red-orange, orange, orange-yellow, yellow, yellow-green, green, green-blue, blue, blue-violet, violet, violet-red, pink, brown and grey.

Each page features 18 palettes for the color harmonies (monochromatic, analogous, triadic, split-complementary, complementary and other) of each color mentioned above, along with the CMYK, RGB, and HEX code to recreate the palette.

Here's a sample of what I'm talking about featuring the color green (in honor of St. Patrick's Day) and 6 palettes from each page:

Green - Monochromatic

Green - Analogous

Green - Triadic

Green - Split Complementary

Green - Complementary

Green - Other

When I'm having a difficult time choosing colors for painting my rocks, I refer to "Color Inspirations" and discover color combinations I'd never thought of using before.

Since I love bright colors, just thumbing through the book brings me joy and delight and sparks my creativity.