What Paint to Use for Rock Painting – Intro
I love a good trip to the craft store. The aisles are filled with inspiration and ideas. But if you are new to a craft, you can easily get overwhelmed. Having lots of choices is a great thing if you know what you are doing.
As you can tell, one of my main crafts is painting rocks. It is a wonderful way to express my creativity. Love including my kids and grandkids in my painting activities. One of the best parts is we learn something every time we set out to do a new project.
I often get asked about supplies for rock painting. Specifically, what to buy. In this article, we are going to tackle paint. I am going to let you know what I use and why.
What Paint to Use for Rock Painting – Types
There are many different kinds of paint. You can easily go to an arts and crafts store and find acrylics, oils, watercolors, latex, and several other varieties. On top of that, there may be several brands of each type of paint. I can picture someone standing on the paint aisle just staring off into space. I think I may have done that myself once or twice.
For starters, I highly recommend using acrylic paint for rock painting. One of the main purposes of acrylic paint is to paint on a porous surface – rocks count for that. The paint naturally fills in the area and doesn’t just sit on top of the surface.
Acrylics are water-based, meaning that they are easy to clean up with soap and water. Before the paint has dried of course. This makes acrylics the more kid-friendly (or beginner adult-friendly) choice.
Acrylics are blendable. It is easy to mix colors with acrylic paints. I also like creating different shades of the same color by simply adding a drop or two of white or black paint. Always blend paint before applying to your rock. Once dry, there is no turning back.
Acrylics are fast drying. A light coat of paint will dry within minutes, leaving you free to work on other sections of your rock.
What Paint to Use for Rock Painting – Cost
Ok, so now we know to get acrylic paint and why. But there are still tons of choices. What now? I guess the easiest way to put this is you get what you pay for. A less expensive paint will tend to be thinner and provide less coverage than a more expensive brand of paint. But let’s be a little realistic. We are painting rocks, not the Sistine Chapel. I prefer to purchase the small two-ounce bottles of acrylic paint. They can be widely found. They are sold individually or in sets. Individual bottles normally run $1 to $3 depending on the finish. Purchasing something with a specialty finish (metallic, glow in the dark, chalk paint) will raise the price point.
What Paint to Use for Rock Painting – Recommendation
Now that you know what to look for, let’s look at what I use. My favorite brand of acrylic paint is Folk Art. It is made by Plaid. I love the thickness of this paint and the variety of colors that it comes in. My local craft store carries many varieties of Folk Art paint, but in a pinch, you can also find them online.
Happy painting!