Where To Buy Rocks To Paint? (It’s Super Easy)

When I first started rock painting, the first question that popped into my mind was where to buy rocks to paint or where can they be found. It’s actually not that big of a deal in fact since just about any rock can be painted on.

You can easily buy rocks from a craft store, landscaping store, dollar store, garden centers, or pick a few of them from your yard. However, opting for a landscaping store will be much cheaper than buying rocks from the craft store. 

Craft stores tend to be much costlier whereas a landscaping store, you’ll be able to pick and choose the type of rocks you want while saving an incredible amount of money.

If you’re not close to landscaping stores, hardware stores or any of the above stores mentioned, you can buy rocks online. There’s plenty of rocks to choose from Amazon and pick rocks that are specially for rock painting

But one of my favorite places to find rocks to paint for free is outdoors (if you have permission in certain areas) especially near lakes or even at the beach.

You’ll want to make sure to find rocks that have a smooth, flat surface since this will be much easier to paint on.

With rough-surfaced rocks, because of the texture, you’ll often find it difficult to create consistent designs and patterns. In fact, you’ll be more frustrated than anything else.

Supplies You May Need

Besides having the correct rocks, there are a few other supplies you may need for rock painting that will help you create beautiful designs that look good in the end.

The first thing that is a must-have for rock painting is a good sealant.

Sealing painted rocks have many benefits such as preserving the quality of the painted rocks while also making them resistant to any external or environmental damage.

When you seal your rock paintings, this will ensure that your designs stay vibrant and beautiful for much longer.

See also: How To Seal Painted Rocks To Preserve Its Quality

The next rock painting supply you need is good quality brushes and thick coverage paint. In this case, using acrylic paints are great for rock painting.

And lastly, you may need painters tape (but this is optional) if you’d like to do fancy designs and not get paint in any particular area.

Preparing The Rocks

Once you have your chosen rock, it’s time to move onto more important matters and that’s cleaning the rocks.

Usually, there’ll be some fine dust or dirt on the rocks so it may be a good idea to clean the rocks before painting on them. You can easily do this by running it under water or using soap and water to really clean the rocks.

After you have finished washing the rocks, wipe them with a paper towel, and allow the rocks to fully dry before putting any paint on.

As soon as it’s dry enough, you can start with painting a base layer for the rocks. This is optional but sometimes it’s good to give the rocks a  few coats of paint before beginning.

If you’re curious to know in detail, head over to our guide that will show you every step to preparing rocks for painting.

Time To Paint

Here comes the fun part, actually painting your rocks.

Now with rock painting, using acrylic paint is one of the best ways to paint with but you can also use sharpies to paint rocks if you don’t have acrylic paint on hand.

With rock painting, you can do many different designs ranging from solid block colors to dot paintings or even painting on an inspirational quote or a few positive words, just about anything goes.

As long as you have a clean, flat-surfaced rock, you’ll find rock painting so much more enjoyable.

See also: What Kind of Paint Do You Use On Rocks? (Tips & More)