Emma Hady's painted loveliness of ladybugs is a great project to keep your children creative this summer, with the painted rocks making adorable bedroom decorations they've created themselves. You don't have to go for the standard red and black by any means - why not make it even more fun by searching for different coloured ladybugs outside to draw inspiration from?
You will need
Round or oval stones
Acrylic paints in the following colors: red, yellow, orange, black, and white
Medium and fine paintbrushes
1. Take a stone and paint it with red, yellow, or orange paint. Don’t worry too much about the underside of it, as it won’t show.
2. Using the medium paintbrush, paint the head in black paint. Paint a line using the fine brush from the head to the bottom of the ladybug, adding a slight curve either side of the line where it meets the head.
3. Paint black spots (small, large, or a mixture of the two) on one side of the ladybug, then on the other side, making your design symmetrical. You could use a Q-tip (cotton bud) instead of a paintbrush to make small round dots.
4. Using white paint, paint two white eyes on the face; rather than painting them as dots try painting them as “comma” shapes to give your ladybug a bit of character. Mix a little red paint with some white to make pink and paint a small smiley mouth onto the face.
This project is from My First Rock Painting Book by Emma Hardy.