Painting/Drawing a Brick or Stone Wall - Various Methods

Below you'll find a variety of methods for painting or drawing brick and stone walls.

Hand painted arch on foam board.

Picture by Kelly Moreland

Hand Painted Wall
Don't be intimidated against painting a wall by hand.    Take the  wall above...it looks amazing and a lot of time went into it for sure.  BUT, take a closer look.  This wall is doable!  The larger bricks aren't drawn with perfect lines...and they are better for it (because real stonework from that period might often be a little imperfect).  The larger stones are not done with technically challenging shading but with a blotchy loose texture that allows some of the white underneath to show through.  The solid painted stones around the arch pop against the textured larger stones. 

At another church they did these simple cardboard "stones" using the brown of the cardboard and just a little bit of paint details...

But if hand-painting still makes you nervous, there's some extra tricks you can employ below....


Sponge Painted Wall

Picture by Becky Burns

A simple way to create a brick rock wall is to paint bricks using sponges and  paint.   The sponge creates the grainy texture of bricks.

One benefit to this is that even children can help with this type of wall (and probably would have fun doing it). Also, sponge painting can be done on nearly any material, including cloth (like the picture at right). And if painted on cloth your "wall" can easily be rolled up and stored for later use.

While it's less three dimensional than some other methods, it's simple and effective.

The picture to the right was graciously provided by The Nelson's Blog.


Stenciled Wall Painting
You can also use stencils and spray paint to help create your brick or stone wall. There are various places which sell stencils (you can see some I found on Amazon below), but since a stone pattern is not very difficult you might consider making your own.

You can use spray paint or sponge paint in several different shades of brown and/or grey to create the stone look. I found a tutorial here on how to paint a brick wall with stencils. You can also use plaster for an even more realistic look. Here's some info on how to do that. The instructions are for more permanent features, but possibly could be done on cardboard to get the same temporary look. Not sure how it would hold up...probably would need some extra support.


Wall Painting Tutorials

• Stone Wall Painting Tutorial (Very Realistic)
• Faux Stone Wall Painting Tutorial (Very Realistic)
• How to Paint A Castle Wall (Cartoonish)

See All Rock Wall Ideas Here

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