The book shown below, starts with a pair of handmade paper “rock” covers (www.stonenote.com), and with painting techniques, you make it look like any of the possibilities shown to the right. For purposes of this demonstration, Sue Denniston will used the plain black slab shown beneath the book, and the combination of colors necessary to make it match the book cover.

Faux stone from Stone Note comes already painted black.

What You Will Need:
Faux Rock from www.stonenote.com
Craft Acrylic Paints: Purple, Yellow Ochre, Raw Sienna, Cream
Scruffy brushes

What You Do:
Though you may be working on a pair of book covers, the procedure is the same as Sue uses on this slab (soon to be a picture frame). These colors will match the covers of the book shown above - roughly. The best thing is that there are no mistakes in this procedure. Each piece will be unique and you can’t do it wrong. Sue uses inexpensive brushes because the wear and tear would not be a good thing on your expensive painting brushes.

Step 1.
Believe it or not, the first color to apply is purple. Though it’s not very obvious in the finished piece, it adds a tone that enriches the look of the “rock”.

Drybrushing means that you load the brush with paint and then brush most of it off on a scrap paper. When you lightly move the partially loaded brush over the rough surface of the faux rock, color will be deposited unevenly over the high points of the surface, leaving the black showing through from behind, and accenting the texture.
Step 2.
The second color is Raw Sienna which is applied in exactly the same way. If you wait for the purple to dry before applying the raw sienna, the second color will stand out more. If you apply wet over wet, you will have some blending of color.
Step #3.
For the third coat, Sue puts down the brush and replaces it with a small square of fabric. She likes to use old sweatshirt material for this. You fold up the square and use it to “burnish” the piece with a Cream acrylic - rubbing very lightly over the surface of your piece. If you dilute the paint with water, it goes on more like a glaze and lets the color beneath show through to some degree.
Step 4.
As a final step, you “play” with overglazing - using the Yellow Ochre and Raw Sienna you applied earlier, and going back to the brush as painting tool. Water both paints down significantly on the palette, creating the glazes, and alternate between the two, until you get a finish that pleases you. This again is a drybrush technique.

Allow your book covers to dry while you create the pages that will go inside. . .
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