Craft Lightning | How To Paint a Dandelion Wish Rock

Hello friends!  Today I’m teamed up with a BUNCH of other painters, showing you a step-by-step tutorial how to paint a dandelion wish rock.  This is for beginner painters who are comfortable taking the next step in their artwork!  Today I’ll show you how to use different paintbrushes to create certain lines for this crowd favorite.

If you haven’t tagged along on a Craft Lightning journey before, it’s pretty cool.  You can check out the work of many other artists all week long, creating quick crafts!  Every round of Craft Lightning features 15-minute-or-less projects (excluding drying time, which – if you paint rocks – you already know about). This month’s theme is PAINTED ROCKS, so how could I not join in?

In many posts, I share photos of simple and easy-to-paint designs, and always affiliate links to buy your supplies!  Today I’m going to take you step-by-step through some ways to use your brushes to create this design.  If you love tutorials, then enjoy today’s post, and be sure to grab a copy of my new book, Painted Rocks for Beginners on Amazon or at your local bookstore.

Here’s how to paint a dandelion wish rock:

Supplies:

• Smooth rock, about 3 inches wide
• Acrylic paints in the following colors: Turquoise, white, mossy green, black, and brown
• 3/4″ Large flat brush
• #8 Flat brush
• #0 Round/liner brush
• Satin (or matte) brush-on varnish
• Palette
• Water + Paper towel
• Craft mat or other protection for your surface

Begin by covering your rock with a turquoise base coat.  I use my 3/4″ flat brush for this step for quick coverage, and I always paint both the top and bottom of my rocks, and it may take a second coat, depending on the thickness of your paint.  Once that’s fully dry, you can begin working on the details!

Take a good look at the above photo, how the #8 flat brush is pressed totally flat, in a thin line.  To achieve this, dampen your brush slightly, and get rid of the excess water on your paper towel, squeezing the brush out as flat and thin as possible.

Holding your brush vertically, paint a bold, long line that will be the stem of your dandelion.  You can also paint small green leaves – the part that opens up when a dandelion turns from a flower into a puff.  Add a brown oval at the top of the stem – this will be the attached seeds of the dandelion fluff.

When the brown paint is still wet, rinse your brush well and form it into a thin, flat line again.  Using white paint, begin at the center of the dandelion and brush thin lines outward, about 1 1/2 – 2 inches long.  They do not all have to be the same length!  You just want to keep the longest lines in a very circular shape.  You will drag some brown outward with these white lines, and that’s good!  You’ll want that little bit of darker center so that you can see the contrast.

Now, switch brushes to your #0 round or liner brush.  Using white paint, criss-cross tiny, thin lines at the edge of the circle to form the “fluff” part of each seed.  You can place these at both the ends, and slightly inward from the outer edge, as the photo shows.  This will help your dandelion to look more three-dimensional.  This will give you the chance to make the outer edge of your “puff” more round, if you got a few white lines that got carried away!

I felt that the light brown wasn’t quite dark enough, so at this point, I needed to add a little bit of black to the center with my #0 brush, and then paint a few more white lines to blend it.  I also took this opportunity to paint a few flyaway seeds (the wishes!) along the side, as though they had caught the wind.  Just add a thin brown or black oval at the bottom of each seed.

Using your #8 flat brush, you can add some green grass along the edge.  The key to making it look more natural is to paint it angled in slightly different directions, at different heights.  I also painted the word “wish” (cheesy, I know).  You can also thin out the center of your dandelion at this point if you feel it looks too fluffy, by using the #0 brush and adding some of the background turquoise color back in, close to the center of the dandelion.

Finally, allow it to dry, then add a coat of brush-on varnish to the whole rock to seal it well.  On the backside, you can add a personal note to a friend or a local hashtag, if you like to paint and hide kindness rocks for others to find!

Thanks for joining me today as part of Craft Lightning, and happy painting!

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