Rock Owl Rock On

I had this idea. From Pinterest, naturally. There was a seductively lovely image of a smooth rock, painted with a charming wee critter. Of course the first thought that occurred to me was: I have to do this too!

On one of my trips up to a cottage last month I collected a couple likely specimens for the purpose. These rocks, as you see, were not the smooth-as-a-canvas ones from the pin.
Oh no, certainly not.

These are chunks of the Canadian Shield, and are rough and jaggedy as you can imagine.

The challenge was on: I dug out my high school art materials and set to work. Really, it wasn't all that labour intensive. I had a general idea of what I wanted to paint, and gessoed a silhouette on each rock.

After several layers of that, it was oil paint time! Those, of course, took their sweet time in drying. But now they're all set, and are currently sitting pretty on my mantle.