Painting Rocks with Metallic Paint Markers

‘Hello, this is Tina from the craft store, your metallic paint markers just arrived!’

I had been waiting for the new shipment of metallic paint markers for a while and Tina had promised to call and let me know when they arrived.

A short time later I sat in my car very excited and drove to my favorite craft store.

Tina saw me arrive and immediately pointed to a pack of Posca pens. I took the package, thanked her, and drove home. With the new special pens, I wanted to realize some metallic rock painting ideas.

The POSCA Metallic Paint Marker

When I got home, I took a closer look at my purchase. The contents of the pack, which I paid around US$20 for, consisted of 8 paint markers in the colors:

Metallic Purple,
Metallic Pink,
Metallic Red,
Metallic Green,
Metallic Blue,
Bronze,
Silver
and Gold.

I was a bit disappointed here, as I already had gold, silver, and bronze in my collection. You can actually always buy them individually, whereas the metallic pens are only available as a set. I would have liked new colors to be added, such as a metallic orange or metallic yellow.

The set I bought is only available in the tip strength PC-5M. Unfortunately, I cannot replace the tip of this pen with the finer PC 1MC, i.e. it is not possible to paint very finely with these pens.

But this tip can be taken out, is reversible, and can be cleaned with water. There are also replacement tips that can be purchased separately.
The packaging reveals that the metallic pens can also be used on stone, gravel, paper, metal, cement, wood, textiles, plastic, glass, leather, and much more. The design must be fixed with a fixing varnish.

Like the other Posca pens, these paint markers are water-based acrylic paint, the color result should be opaque and matte.

Enough reading and information, it is now time to put the product to practical use.

Using the POSCA Metallic Paint Marker

Like all POSCA pens, the Metallic Paint Marker must first be prepared for painting.

To do this, shake the marker with the cap on. You can hear the rattling of a ball that is in the pen and ensures that the paint mixes well.

Then it’s time to pump: press the tip of the marker several times onto a piece of paper so that it absorbs paint.
Now draw a few scribbles on the paper until the desired color intensity is reached.

The Paint marker is now ready for use.

You may need to pump again during your painting.

In order to have a color result that was as authentic as possible, I tried out the metallic pens on an almost white natural rock.

I loved the metallic purple, the Metallic blue, and the metallic green but was disappointed with the metallic pink and metallic red. I wished both colors would be brighter.

Gold, silver, and bronze have the same effect as the ones I had already purchased separately as mentioned above.

The beetles were my first try with the metallic paint. I chose those because I thought I can’t do anything wrong, however, I was not overwhelmed with the results.

Same time a little girl asked me to paint a butterfly for her on a rock. I thought pink and metallic is a good combination for a 5-year-old. Again, I was disappointed by the result. The little girl however loved it.

I was about to ban the metal pens when an idea came to me.

I noticed that the metallic color really stands out in combination with white and black. I decided to try it with a pattern. I opted for bubbles, in each of which I smudged 2 of the metal colors with my fingers. Then I outlined these bubbles with white and black paint and added some patterns and I think this result is impressive. This rock has been voted one of my favorites and I couldn’t part with it yet.

Since then I’ve experimented more and more with metallic colors and got some very nice results.

How to prime a rock with metallic paint markers

A simple wiping technique is required to achieve smooth transitions when priming a rock with metallic paint pens. Either a make-up sponge or a soft make-up brush can be used as an aid.

First, apply a color of your choice with the Posca pen.

Smudge the paint with the sponge while the paint is still wet.

Continue with this technique, until the complete rock is covered with the colors of your choice.

Here I use the makeup brush. For me, it makes no difference which of the tools I use. Handling with the brush is perhaps a bit easier… and cleaner for the fingers, but I don’t see any difference in the result.

If the transitions between the colors are not smooth enough, apply a little more of the two adjacent colors with the paint marker and smudge the paint while it is still wet.