HOW TO PAINT A MINION ON A ROCK

I've been pretty busy the past few weeks so I haven't had a chance to do much sketching. We've been taking the boys on "treasure hunts'" searching for painted rocks. I did have time to paint a few and since the boys like minions that was my subject. I'm trying to get a dozen or so painted before I go and hide them around Albany.

My first trio, Kevin, Bob and Stuart from the Minions movie are almost finished. Then I'm going to try to do some of the more notable minions. I haven't seen Despicable Me 3 yet so I don't know what new/different minions may be in that one.

Kevin, Bob and Stuart (with the guitar). I'm not quite finished with Stuart.
Future minions have the first coat of yellow paint on them.

Rock painting is definitely harder than painting on a flat piece of canvas. The contours and porous surface of rocks are a lot to deal with -- at least for me.

Here's a few progressive photos I took while painting Stuart. I use craft paints from Walmart and a mix of cheap watercolor brushes and a small short-haired red sable brush for details. Oh, btw, I find reference photos online to use as a guide.

Finding the right shape of rocks is probably one of the hardest parts about painting minions. Unless you are just going for a painting on the rock instead of a painted figurine that I'm trying to achieve.  

Stuart in the raw. Finding "pill-shaped" rocks is the hardest part
unless you want to just use the rock aa a canvas and paint 
the minion onto it. Be sure to wash the rock before painting it.

I usually sketch out some ideas  on paper first.

A quick sketch with a marker to see if Stuart
and the rock are compatible. The paint is opaque (with two coats)
so I don't have to worry about the marker showing up through the paint.

The first coat of paint is applied. The marker is still barely visible.
I generally sit the rocks out in the sun to let it dry between coats.
This week we are at plus-100 degrees so they dry rather quickly.

I forgot to take a photo of the pencil sketch I do once I get the yellow paint on. Sorry. I then proceed to apply a loose painting of all the features with a wide paint brush. Pencil doesn't erase very well on rock so you need to be close to your final version although applying more yellow paint works as good as an eraser.

I then go in with a small brush (I use a red sable flat brush with really short hair) and hit all the details as well as fill in close to the edges to finish up where I used the wider brush, such as on the blue overalls.

I then ink the borders and fill in the black areas such as the mouth, gloves and boots. I generally use either a black permanent marker or in Stuart's case, I used platinum carbon ink I had in my Pentel brush pen.

I use a white Gelly Roll pen to add the seams to his overalls and highlights around the fingers in the gloves and twinkle in the eye. Then I add any shadowing (which is proving to be difficult for me to find the best way to do that.)

Finally I use a sealer -- just clear spray paint -- and Viola!

All that's left is the details--Shadowing, highlights, hair, etc. Then
applying the sealer.

And that's how I paint a rock ... Interesting, yes? Not really. It's only rock painting after all, but the boys like 'em and that's what matters. 

Oh, you can check out Linn County rocks on Facebook to see rocks from my area that people paint and find.

Have a great week and if you happen to be around Albany in the next week or so keep an eye out for minions. They may be hiding in a spot near you.