Painting Rocks and Making Pool Life!

Carrying on from my post yesterday, my rocks have been sitting in the sun all afternoon.  The sun has gone behind the trees and I think my tag is dry.  The thickest rocks at the front may still be a little damp but I am going to wet things again when I paint so I am going for it!

I squirted a tiny drop of Broken China refill ink on my craft mat and added a little bit of water and then brushed it across the sky area of the tag.  While it was wet I took a dry piece of tissue and lifted some of the ink to form fluffy clouds.  This worked really nicely and I will do this again on other projects.

Before I start painting I looked for some reference images on the internet and print them out.

I also remembered that I had some really tiny shells stored away in the attic (not sure why they are up there!)

This afternoon when my tag was drying my hubby said, 'Yuk what is that soggy toilet roll for?' and if he could see this after a coat of dark brown acrylic he would think I have lost the plot!

That's better!  Now it is starting to take shape.  I have dry brushed on a lighter shade of brown.

A shade lighter again and I think that is light enough and I am happy with the shadows that have popped up now with the addition of the lighter paint shades.

Looking at my reference pictures I think I would like to add a bit of seaweed to bring my rocks to life.  I could do with some of that flower soft but I don't have any.  I remember a while back after a heavy session of paper distressing creating paper dust that was not unlike flower soft.  So I took three shades of scrap card and ran my scissors along the edges of them until I had created these three piles of potential seaweed!

A bit of PVA glue and a bit of patience I got an effect I was happy with.  Sorry that my picture is a bit dark.  I'll take a better photo tomorrow in daylight so you can see the colours better.

I sprinkled some sand on the bottom of my rock pool.  The scale is a little out but they could be a bit like shingle rather than sand (artistic licence!)

Next up I had to think of a way to populate my pool but to keep things fairly flat - thinking ahead to how I am going to add the water.  I tried cutting out small images of starfish and things but they looked a bit naff.  Then I thought 'air drying clay' but that had all gone hard as it has been years since I have played with that.  Fimo it is then.  I made starfish, mussels, sea urchins and sea urchin shells.  I think everything is a little bright at the moment but I am happy with how it is taking shape.

That's it for tonight as there is a curry with my name on it waiting next door.  I am going to think about if I should bake the Fimo or not  I might just give it a blast with my trusty heat gun before I add the water to my rock pool.  That is when it could all go horribly wrong.

I'll post again tomorrow.  Fingers crossed I can show you a finished tag and not a 'back to the drawing board photo!!'

Night Night x