Free Willy
A tradition we have at our house is family movie night. We have used family movie night to watch some great cartoons, kid-friendly movies, and introduce some classics to our children. I was very excited one day when I was surfing through Netflix and found they were streaming Free Willy. My kids had never seen it before so I knew this would be our next family movie night adventure.
I will try to have a theme for these movie nights and make them real events for everyone. I will make dinner that goes with the movie (fish sticks in this case), have snacks and tickets, and sometimes even a craft project. I loved creating these whale painted rocks and my family thought the whole night was a blast.
Whale Painted Rocks – Supply List
• Smooth, flat Rocks
• Acrylic Paint, Assorted Colors
• Paintbrushes of assorted sizes
• Acrylic Paint Markers, Assorted Colors
• Acrylic sealer, spray or paint on
• Other supplies: table cloth, paper plate, pencil
If you’re looking for suggestions for paint pens to use for rock painting, I reviewed some of my favorites here: 8 Paint Pens for Rock Painting – What I Use
Choosing and Priming Your Whale Painted Rocks
When choosing a rock for a project, keep in mind that the size and shape matter. I would not want to paint The Empire State Building on a tiny pebble. Also, keep perspective in mind. Yes, these rocks are whales which are huge, but I don’t need them to be huge on all of the designs. I normally purchase rocks at Hobby Lobby or on Amazon. Purchased rocks tend to be flatter and bigger than what I find out on a stroll in the park. But I live in Oklahoma, we are not exactly known for having an abundance of rocks.
The rocks I chose were about 2 to 3 inches long and had a flat surface. I will often put a primer coat of paint on the rock before painting the design. A primer coat helps to fill in holes, it provides coverage when your rock is a darker color and will help the paint for your design adhere to the rock better. I chose not to use a primer coat on these. I am using some dark gray rocks that were not porous, so I did not feel it was necessary.
Here is some more information on priming rocks if you would like to read further. How to prepare rocks for rock painting?
Whale Painted Rocks Design 1: Tail Spin
I wanted to start with a simple design and a simple background. I painted one coat of white on this rock as a primer. Then, I went over the majority of the rock with different shades of purple. The only spot I left was a round area at the top for the moon. I used a darker purple at the bottom and lightened the shade as I went up. I mixed the dark purple with white paint for different variants of the color.
Next, I drew a whale tail using a pencil and colored that in with a gray paint marker.
Then I added some detail. To the tail, I added some lines with a silver paint marker. I also added some white paint to the water and a bit of darker purple around the moon.
Whale Painted Rocks Design 2: Blue Whale
This blue whale is going to take over the majority of the rock’s surface, so I picked a decent sized one. I did not feel comfortable attempting this drawing on something smaller than 2.5 inches across. I began with the water. Using a dark blue, a light blue and green, I kept brushing those colors over the face of the rock, blending them as I went with a thin paintbrush. Once dry, I drew my blue whale outline with a pencil.
The main colors of the whale are medium blue and white. The whale’s belly is white and the rest is a medium blue shade. I used a thick black paint marker to color the eye.
Finally, I added the details to the whale. I used a light blue paint marker to add some spots to the whale’s body and tail. I avoided the face area. I used a thin black paint marker to add the striping to the white belly.
Whale Painted Rocks Design 3: Killer Whales
Willy was a killer whale, so I wanted to spend a little time on this rock and make it special. There are three distinct sections to this rock; the brown sand, the blue water, and the light blue sky.
After I had these three parts sectioned off, I began working on the water and the sky. I added white clouds, some green mountains, and some darker blue waves in the water.
Next, it was time to add the killer whales. I painted a simple, black whale outline. I added the white spot for the belly.
For the finishing touches, I added some seagulls in the sky with a simple V shape and blended some more blues in the water.
Sealing the Whale Painted Rocks
I decided to seal the whale rocks using a spray acrylic sealer from ModPodge. I made sure to do this step outside. Spray sealer can give off some strong fumes and you don’t want to have that linger inside the house. I set the rocks on a protective surface so I didn’t get the sealer everywhere. Using a paper plate or plastic table cloth works perfectly for this step. I sprayed a light coat of sealer and let it dry. Be sure to follow the package instructions on your sealer.
More Inspiration for Whale Painted Rocks
Roberto Rizzo has an amazingly realistic blue whale painted rock on his website. It is stunning.
https://www.robertorizzoart.net/rock-painted-blue-whale/
I would definitely say that a Narwhal counts as a whale rock. This cute one was painted by Carissa at I love Painted Rocks.
https://www.ilovepaintedrocks.com/2018/05/narwhal-painted-rock-tutorial.html
This uncredited design on Pinterest is a great example of scale. The whale is huge and that poor fisherman is in for a rough time.
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/772085929846676985/
Top Take-Aways for my Whale Painted Rocks
1. Acrylics are easy to blend. Place a drop of two colors close to each other on a paper plate and mix with a paintbrush. It is easy to expand your color collection by simply adding some white to a darker color.
2. Try drawing your subject from different angles. In this project, we make a whale tail, an up close whale and some far away whales.
3. Movies can provide great inspiration for your projects. What other characters could you paint on a rock?
Happy painting!