Octopus Painted Rocks – Aquarium Visit
My family loves to visit the aquarium. We live in a small town, but there are two that are just over an hour’s drive away. Both of them have wonderful fish and aquatic life on display. My kids get to pet the stingrays and feed the turtles. It makes for a very fun afternoon.
One of our favorite marine animals is the octopus. This guy is fun to watch. He is never in the same place and always seems to find himself in a different position every time we go to visit. The children flock to his tank. He is a bright orange color and loves to show off. We decided to paint some octopus rocks and add them to our rock collection.
Supply List for Octopus Painted Rocks
• Smooth, flat Rocks
• Acrylic sealer, spray or paint on
• Acrylic paint markers in assorted colors
• Acrylic paint in assorted colors
• Other supplies: table cloth, paper plate, pencil
If you’re looking for recommendations for paint pens, check out my review here – 8 Paint Pens for Rock Painting – What I Use
Choosing and Priming Your Rocks for Octopus Painting
When choosing a rock for a project, keep in mind that the size and shape matter. I would not want to paint The Statue of Liberty on a tiny pebble. 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 in diameter 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. A primer coat can be any color you choose. Mostly I will use white, but I will use other colors depending on what I am painting.
Here is some more information on priming rocks if you would like to read further.
How to prepare rocks for rock painting?
Octopus Painted Rocks Design 1: Line Drawing
I have not done a basic line drawing on a rock before, so this was a fun project for me. A line drawing is just that, lines, no filling in of empty spaces. I began with two coats of blue paint for the primer. I drew my line art with a pencil. For the octopus, I drew a round head and eight tentacles curving in different directions.
Then I went over my pencil lines with a black paint marker.
I added the octopus suckers to the underside of each tentacle with simple black dots.
Octopus Painted Rocks Design 2: Simple Drawing
Let’s make this one a bit harder. We are going to draw a full octopus this time and color him in. I began with two coats of light blue paint for the primer. Then I make my drawing in pencil. I drew a found head and eight tentacles, they all went in a downward direction but curved in different ways.
Then, I began my coloring. I started with a deep purple paint marker and filled in the entire octopus.
I added some detail to the octopus tentacles. I drew a line on the underside of each one with a lighter purple and followed behind with a pink marker and dotted on the suckers.
Finally, I added the octopus eyes with white and black paint markers, the mouth with black, and outlined the entire drawing with black.
Octopus Painted Rocks Design 3: Coming out of the Water
This time, let’s look at the octopus from a different perspective. We are going to pretend the octopus is poking up out of the water. We will be able to see his head and a few tentacles. I started with two coats of light blue paint for a primer. Then I drew my design in pencil. I drew a round head and four tentacles that were all pointing upward.
I began coloring all of the sections with deep orange. I went ahead and added two different shades of orange to all the sections for some shading. I also colored the octopus eyes white.
Next, I added water around the bottom of each of the sections to give this project some depth and the illusion of movement. I used two shades of paint marker and simply layered them with a round shape.
Finally, I outlined each of the sections of the octopus painted rock and finished the eyes using a black paint marker.
Octopus Painted Rocks – Sealing the rocks
I decided to seal the octopus 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 Octopus Painted Rocks
Sharon Patterson shared a beautiful octopus rock. She encompassed the entire rock with the shape of the animal.
www.artpal.com
Although I did find these octopus rocks on sale on Etsy, I do think they are a great example of a simple octopus shape.
Cute Octopus Painted Rocks Set of 2 | Etsy
Here is an elaborate octopus painted rock that I found on Pinterest.
Octopus painted rock | Painted rocks, Rock painting art, Mandala painted rocks (pinterest.com)
Top Take-Aways from my Octopus rock painting Project
- Have you ever been to an aquarium? What other sea creatures could you paint on a rock?
- Try drawing a picture from different perspectives. We went from a line drawing to a two-dimensional creature and then to an animal in motion.
- You do not have to use white paint to prime a rock. Use a color that is appropriate for your project.
For more fun tutorials on aquatic creatures check out Fish Rock Painting – Nemo and his Friends
and 3 Cute Whale Painted Rocks
Happy painting!