This year’s Summer Reading Challenge has just kicked off in libraries throughout the Solent area. The theme is all about getting creative and will help boost children’s literacy levels over the long summer holidays.
To celebrate this year’s challenge, Ranger Tony has put together this step-by-step guide to pebble painting a bird: a great way to get creative and share your love of wildlife along our coastline.
With this easy-to-follow process you’ll have a great new hobby creating unique paperweights and coasters to share with family and friends. All you need is some simple materials, a picture of your favourite bird and a quiet space in which to paint.
Remember not to take pebbles from the beach: find one in your garden or buy a painting stone from a craft shop or online.
You will need:
- Pebble or painting stone
- Acrylic or poster paint – various colours
- Pencil and rubber
- A very fine liner pen/pigment liner pen – about 0.3mm is a good size (optional)
- Some fine detail paint brushes, including a #000 brush
- A sheet of paper
- Some sheets of kitchen roll
- Cup and water
- Paint palette or plastic tub lid to mix paint on
- Spray varnish – optional. If you’re a youngster, make sure you have the help of an adult.
Step 1: Stetting up your workstation to paint
First pick a bird to paint. You might, as Ranger Tony has done, want to choose one from our spotters’ guide which you can download and zoom into here, or you could choose one from a favourite book.
Before you start painting your pebble or stone, it is best to have a try out on paper first.
Put your pebble or stone on the paper and draw round it with your pencil. Doing this first will give you a proper sense of size and an idea of the level of detail you need to be successful in the task.
Tip 💡
If you are using grey pebbles, you may wish to give it a coat of white paint as a background on which to draw. This will take a bit longer as you will have to wait for your background paint to dry fully. You may wish to do this some time before settling down to draw and paint.
Once you are happy with your drawing, then next step is to copy it onto your pebble or stone.
Step 2: Drawing on your pebble or stone
Time to start re-drawing your favourite bird onto your pebble or stone. Remember, if you are not happy with your drawing you can rub out and redraw the image.
Tip 💡
Take your time at this point and remember, less is more! Don’t overcomplicate your drawing – keep it simple. All you’re trying to do at this stage is capture the ‘essence’ of the bird.
Once you are happy with your drawing, you can emphasise the pencil lines by going over them with the fine liner pen (you can skip this part if you wish), before applying the paint.
Now it’s time to have fun painting your bird.
Step 3: Painting your bird
Gather your paints and paint palette or plastic tub lid. Start by squeezing a selection of colour blobs (ones you think you might need to complete the painting) onto the palette or plastic lid. Be careful when squeezing out the paint: you don’t need to use much.
You will find that using the 000 brush (the smallest one) works the best for painting in the detail of the bird. The larger brushes work well for painting in any background blocks of colour.
Tip 💡
If you allow the paint to dry (which it does very quickly), you can add layers of subtle colour into the painting.
Again, take your time and don’t rush the process. The painting is small and needs a careful and delicate touch.
Once you are happy with the completed work, place it in a safe place to dry thoroughly.
Step 4 – Varnishing your painting
This stage is optional but if a couple of varnish layers are sprayed over your painting will give it some protection, especially if you end up using it as a cup coaster.
However, if you allow the paint to dry fully (24 hours), the painting should be fairly robust. If you do want to use spray varnish and you’re a youngster, make sure to ask an adult for help.
