Painting Rock Terrains

If you are at least a little bit like I am, you probably feel like your minis deserve to explore the world. You may have already painted water bases and rivers for your mermen and pirates to roam around, deep forests and gloomy taverns where the violence is always prone to happen. But what about your mountain giants, hoarding dragons and other creatures that delve into caves and rocky outcroppings? Don’t you think the golems and traditional dungeon creatures deserve a little love? Today we are gonna help you paint this kind of terrain, versatile and home to lots of creatures and creepy crawlies. Let’s talk about painting rock terrains.

Make a Rock, Make It Pop

Even though we step on rocks during most of the time in our lives, be they in the form of buildings, mixed with asphalt, or just loose among the land, rocks are everywhere. But there are those we usually call “rocky”. Think about the rocks that you find the most interesting or that make you think “that’s the kind of rock I want for this zombie werebear mage cave!”. You may want a plain rock pattern for a rocky base, but why not make it more interesting? Search for images of your favorite terrains and try to take some of that into your rocks. They may be desert rocks with an orange or beige shade, or maybe some icy blueish rocks on a frozen mountain. Trust your gut and what kind of scenery or base for whatever creature you are painting makes sense to you. 

Texture, Texture, Texture 

When you think about stepping on a stone, on gravel or something like that, what comes to mind? Of course your minis won’t have that same feeling when you put them on top of something but what if we can make it LOOK LIKE it has the same feeling to it? One of the most traditional ways to make textures is using sponges, but you can also use a ball of aluminum foil to make some bumps and odd textures if it works for the material you are working with.

Remember, unless you are thinking about polished stones made by dwarves in an ancestral home with the precision of a method that has been around for ages, or a modern ultra-futuristic laser-engraved cavern, rocky terrains normally have imperfections, bumps and so on. Think about authenticity before getting angry because your rock pattern is not perfectly regular.

History Can Be Found in More Than Books

So you found your favorite primer and shade for a particular kind of stone and want to paint it in a lot of stuff. But you are worried it’s all gonna look the same and a little boring, maybe? Well we have found lots of artifacts from real world history amongst earth and rocks. What if the rocky base for a feral vampire has bloodstains? Or a little bit of debris on that cavern floor where the cyclops leaves what’s left from his meals? Maybe you can even make something that looks like animal footprints, depending on how soft these rocks are or how long they have been around.

If lots of weird stuff can be found in the real world, what can be found on the rock terrains you paint is up to your imagination and only that!

Loot Studios can help you paint highly detailed minis, statues and props. Choose your favorite bundle from our previous releases or sign up for Fantasy or Sci-Fi to receive a new bundle every month. You can also check out some tips at our YouTube Channel.