Painting Rocks and Books that inspires us to draw

We love books that simplify and teach us how to draw easily with techniques that anyone with any artistic skills can grasp and become good at. The Ten-Step Drawing Series are fabulous books we highly recommend, as these books are fun and have an approachable way of teaching how to draw for aspiring illustrators, doodlers, and art hobbyists. 

We have been using Ten Step Drawing Flowers book to do drawings of flowers for many projects such as the water lily fabric painted bed sheet and pillow covers. We drew a variety of tropical flowers following the illustrations in the flower book on this canvas cloth and painted it with fabric markers. 

The Ten Step Drawing Animals book teaches how to draw 75 animals that are wild, domesticated, sea, woodland, and pets. Ten-Step Drawing People teaches how to draw a figure from head to toe starting from drawing facial parts of the body then drawing different types of poses and expressions. Ten-Step Drawing Nature book has 60 animals, insects, and plants. We used the ideas on this Nature book to do the drawings of the strawberry and woodpecker on rocks. 

The drawings on these river rocks are painted using a variety of Deco Art acrylic paint. 

For this project you will need...

pencil 

eraser

acrylic paint
paint brushes
acrylic paint markers

rocks

varnish

It is optional to paint the base of the rocks. We had another image on these rocks and wanted to remove it, so we started off by painting a coat of white acrylic paint and let it dry. 

Draw the image on the rock with a pencil. Using small paint brushes paint the image carefully and let it dry between coats. 

I used acrylic paint markers to add fine detail, which was easier than using a paint brush.

Apply varnish and let it dry. This will allow the rocks to retain its colour while it is kept outside.  

These Ten-Step Drawing Series books have been useful for us to learn the basics and gain confidence to do more creative drawings and paintings. It encourage even the most reluctant artists to open up a sketchbook and try their hand at drawing. 

We also like getting inspiration to draw from the How to Draw Almost Every Day and How to Draw Almost Everything from Quarry Books. 

These books teach how to draw cute illustrations inspired by animals, people, everyday objects, patterns, borders, holidays, and more. Children and adults alike will enjoy following the arrows and completing each step starting with basic shapes and then adding details to personalize. 

The tips and ideas for drawing variations are inspiring to draw and make our own one-of-a-kind notes and cards.    

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