Mother’s Day Rock Painting Ideas

The 2nd Sunday in May is Mother’s Day. So there is still time to create a unique piece of art for your beloved mother. Instead of the annual Mother’s Day card, how about a unique mother’s day painted rock in her honor?

Too difficult for you? Oh no, I’ll show you step by step how to paint a beautiful one-of-a-kind gift.

What you need to paint a mother’s day rock

The most important is a good idea of what motif you want to paint on the rock. Other than that, you need your usual rock painting utensils.

  • A nice rock about the size of your palm
  • POSCA pen PC-8K chisel-shaped white or any other acrylic paint suitable for priming
  • POSCA pen PC-1M bullet-shaped black or any other fine liner for the outlines
  • POSCA pen PC-3M bullet-shaped dark red or any other acrylic paint marker
  • 6 paint markers in the color of your choice
  • An acrylic clear varnish that sticks well to stone

Step 1

Find a suitable rock. The rock I chose is the size of my palm. It’s almost round so I can draw a nice big and almost symmetrical heart on it. Then I want to fill the heart with different patterns and shapes based on the ‘Zentagle technique’.

Clean the stone before you start painting the Mother’s Day Rock.

Step 2

Draw a symmetrical heart on your stone with a pencil.
Now prime the heart with white paint. I use a thick white Posca pen which is chisel-shaped. (PC-8K)

Step 3

Allow the primer to dry thoroughly and then use a thin, black pen to trace the outline of the heart. I use Posca’s PC-1M bullet-shaped, 0.7 mm.

Step 4

Now draw a small heart inside the big heart and paint it in a color of your choice. Here I use ‘dark red’ from Posca, PC3M, ball shape, 0.9 – 1.3 mm. Again, trace the outline of the little heart with the thin, black paint pen.

Step 5

Now the real fun begins and there are no limits to your imagination.

Above I said that the Mother’s Day heart should be painted with elements of the ‘Zentangle technique’, or ‘Zentangle inspired. If you haven’t heard of Zentangle, here is a short explanation:

What is Zentangle?

Paisley pattern background, credit rawpixel.com

Zentangle is a free drawing, which originates from very delicately drawn, often recurring patterns.

Zentangle was invented in the USA by a former Zen monk, Rick Roberts, and his friend, the calligrapher Maria Thomas. Their idea was to bring art closer to as many people as possible in a simple way through a combination of meditation and art.

Originally, the Zentangles were drawn on a square, white paper tiles with a black pen. Anything that deviates from this technique is called ‘Zentagle-inspired art’.

Now divide the big heart into different sized areas. To define the areas, you can orientate yourself on the contours of the two hearts, or incorporate other geometric figures.

I decide to lengthen the arcs of the hearts and make them overlap. However, the newly created lines do not cover the small heart. I have now different sized compartments, which I outline again with my fine black Posca pen.

Step 6

Paint the areas in different colors. I choose the bright colors for this heart because I want to draw in patterns with my black pen afterward.

Step 7

Draw in various patterns with the black fine paint marker in each of the compartments. If necessary go over the black tracings again. Then add highlight dots in white to the small heart.

Step 8

When the paint has dried properly and sticks to the rock then you should seal the rock with a clear coat so that your work of art is weatherproof and lasts for a while.

mother's day rock

More Mother’s day rock ideas

I have been painting hearts to give away on Mother’s day, unfortunately, I couldn’t give a mother’s day rock to my own mother, she passed away a few years ago, but I know that she would have been very happy about it.

But they will make nice presents for other members and mothers of my rock painting group on this special day. Feel free to copy and have fun doing so.

mothers day rocks