Father's Day Rock Portrait - Red Ted Art

Easy Father’s Day Rock Portrait brought to you by our guest poster Bonnie from Make It Your Own. This is a fantastic Art Project for Father’s Day to make with kids. Easy to follow process with adorable results. Dad Rocks!!

This would make a great Father’s Day Gift ideas that kids can make! Love. Over to Bonnie!

Father’s Day Rock Portrait

Our youngest just LOVES rocks! Our one neighbour has a large rocked area in front of their home and everyday when he was little he would collect one on the way from picking up his siblings from school (to the point that I would often sneak them back in my pockets!).

Once the snow melts here in Canada, he is back to his collecting and it truly is to our delight, as we love getting creative with rocks. Our daughter is getting into collage, so we wanted to combine these two materials to create a portrait of her and our favourite guy- dad!

Whether you make a portrait of your father, grandpa, uncle or mentor, this is one that they are going to want to hang on their wall, complete with a special, appreciative message on the back. For me, these kid-made, personal gifts are my favourite and we hope you like this one too!

Dad Rock’s Art Project – Materials

Printables: 1) Speech Bubbles: 2) Message: (click on red button below for download)
Clean, dry rocks that are head-shaped
Paint Pens
Thick paper such as cardstock
Paint
Materials to create texture: sponge, bath poof, fork etc.
Scissors
Glue gun/ glue sticks
Pencil/ eraser
Wooden plaque

How to make your Father’s Day Rocks portrait

Preparing Dad and Daughter’s clothes

Paint your thick paper using various techniques. So for example, you might paint it a solid colour and then add dots with a pencil eraser, scrap paint across your page with an old gift card, use a bath sponge to create texture etc. We have some further ideas here where we created paper for a flower garden.

Be sure to include some painted paper to match the skin tones of your hands. Let your papers dry overnight. You could also simplify this process by using scrapbooking paper or by using markers to draw your clothes.

Making dad’s rock head

On your clean, dry rocks, sketch out the face and hair for you and your dad. We then traced over these with our favourite Posca paint pens. Here is where you can purchase them US/ Canada/ UK (affiliate links added for convenience)
One tip to keep in mind with the paint pens is to layer the paint- so for example if you were creating the eye, we did a white circle and let it dry and then added the colour for the iris, let it dry and added a dot for the pupil. Be sure to shake the paint pens prior to use and to be careful about not decompressing the tip, rather just touching it to your rock. One other thing that our daughter finds helpful is to paint a closed line around the perimeter of a shape (like the face) prior to filling it in so it is almost like a “fence” as she calls it, containing the paint as it dries. We have used these paint pens with large groups of kids and they always yield the best results as they are easy to work with like a marker with vibrant results on the rocks. If your rocks are porous, just do a few coats! If you want to add more details to your rocks, we like the Micron brand pens for finer details.

Shaping your clothes for the Father’s Day portrait

On the back of your painted paper, draw the shapes for your clothes. Cut them out and manipulate them on your plaque and with your rock head, making sure that they work together before you glue them on. We glued them with a bit of the clothes off the edges and trimmed them to fit the curve of the line.

We bought our plaque on Amazon, but have since seen them at both craft and dollar stores. You could also use a wood slice. US/ Canada/ UK (affiliate links added for convenience)

Gluing your artwork to a wooden plaque (or use a box frame)

You want to use a good glue to attach your rocks and pieces on- we found that a glue gun was sufficient.

Add your printable Father’s Day messages

Print out your templates. We put many “You Rock” speech bubbles on a page in case you are using this in a classroom or with a group, along with some blanks ones.

Print out the “I love my_____ because templates” and write what you like and appreciate about your special person, gluing it onto the back of your plaque.

Tuck away your project to give to your dad with excitement on Father’s Day!

Final Father’s Day Dad Rocks portrait!!!!

Purpose of this Father’s Day Art Project

Using nature to create
Recognizing and celebrating people in our lives
Working with different materials

Safety Notes

We suggest that you use a tray and a smock to protect your clothing and surfaces.
Use scissors and a glue gun with care and direct, adult supervision.
Small items such as rocks can be a choking hazard, therefore be sure to keep them out of the reach of children ages 0-3 years of age or those that tend to put things into their mouths.
Follow product directions as recommended.

Thanks so much for having us Maggy! It has been a pleasure to be here on Red Ted Art. If you like this project, find more of ours here: Instagram, Website

Here are a few ideas from Bonnie to get you started:

Need more Father’s Day Art ideas? Take a peak at these: