Now it’s time to make rocks. What kind of rocks are you going to make? Google rock images and have an idea of what your rocks look like in real life. Take equal parts of the pool putty and knead them together until it is thoroughly mixed. Make little blobs the approximate size of the rocks you plan to portray. Use caution not to leave fingerprint impressions in your putty. Stick the blobs on the base randomly as you would imagine a rock out-cropping would look. For this demo, I will be stacking rocks on top of rocks. Also remember that real rocks will be in different sizes so alter the amount of putty in each blob. Do not let your blobs of putty sag or they will look like sand bags or feed sacks. Keep an eye out for sagging through the entire rock making process.

Figure 30 blobs of putty on the base in the general shape of rocks
Using a tool to prevent finger prints, continue to give shape to your rocks. Add texture to your rocks by pressing and stippling them with a piece of foam, a real rock, a terry cloth rag, or something similar against the surface of the putty. Now carve your rocks with a sharp pointed tool to create cracks and crevasses in your rocks. Start with some deep cracks and then add more detail with a lighter touch, fine tuning while continuing to add cracks and crevasses. You may have to re-apply texture to the rocks as you work on them.

Figure 31 piece of granite gravel used to texture the putty

Figure 32 shaping the putty into rock shapes

Figure 33 Checking the fit of the figure and the tree

Figure 34 Pointed tool used for making cracks and crevasses or use a scalpel

Figure 35 further defining the rocks and making cracks and crevasses

Figure 36 I am adding roots to this project, so I am fitting them at this stage to make sure they fit over the rocks

Figure 37 completed making cracks and crevasses

When you are satisfied with your rocks, let the putty harden. The warmer the work area, the quicker the putty will set. (While waiting on the putty, you can work on the tree.) Once the putty has hardened, coat the rocks with a sepia oil wash, making sure it gets down into all the cracks. Then start wiping the sepia off until you like to look of your rocks. If you wipe off too much, add another coat and repeat. Look at pictures of real rocks. Many rocks have different colors in them, such as a vein of iron or white quartz. You can add this to your rocks by adding streaks of the appropriate color. While this is drying, it is a good time to move onto building the tree. Skip forward to the tree section.

Figure 38 sepia covered rocks

Figure 39 Sepia wiped off the rock surfaces leaving paint in the cracks

Figure 40 sepia oil paint further wiped off of the rocks

Figure 41 a little orange added to give the rocks some interesting color

If necessary, repeat the above section on painting the rocks. You can wipe off the oil paints or apply more until it looks right to you.

That is all there is to making rocks. In the last section, I will add some green to the rocks to simulate moss. In part four, I will make the tree.