How to Carve and Paint Miniature Rocks From Styrofoam

yo what's up everyone welcome to small world and thank you for joining me with today's video in this episode I'm going to show you how to carve and paint rocks from styrofoam let's get started I'm using some pink XPS or insulation foam for carving my rocks I start by scoring several lines that run along the length of the piece of foam using my X-Acto Knife then I score more random lines that run vertically next I start chipping away at the foam surface using my fingers and I randomly break off small chunks of foam at a time the score lines help make this step easier in ripping the foam apart like this helps provide a nice realistic irregular texture on the surface there isn't much Rhyme or Reason to this step other than keep removing foam until it starts looking like rocks some back and forth work is more than likely so I start scoring more lines with my exacto knife again my blade isn't the sharpest which is causing the foam to pill but that doesn't really matter since I'm gonna be ripping apart the surface anyways just make sure not to cut yourself then it's just a matter of ripping off more foam using the knife to add more texture and repeating the process until you're satisfied with the look after texturing I go back and rip off chunks of foam along the perimeter of the piece to make the edges look more natural and not just like a rectangular piece of foam any loose bits of foam are scrubbed away using an old toothbrush next I take a ball of aluminum foil and stamp it into the foam surface this helps add a finer texture into the foam and it helps make the rock face look more cohesive and here's how it looks when the texturing phase is complete now it's time to paint I start by base coating the entire piece black make sure that you reach all the little nooks and crannies to make sure that there isn't any pink showing through I'm just doing a generic paint job using the paints that I have on hand but Rocks come in all shapes and colors so you can use any colors that suit your project once the black layer dries I do a heavy dry brush using a dark gray acrylic paint even with this one color you can see the rock texture come to life right away the black color is still visible in the Deep Shadows of the rock while the gray color accentuates all the raised details on the rock and here's the first dry brush layer complete next I do a second dry brush layer using a lighter gray and the only thing to keep in mind is they use less paint than before that way you don't cover up all of the paint on the previous two steps lastly I do a final dry brush layer using a lighter gray color that's almost white this layer does the best job at highlighting the outermost edges of the piece and it really sells the rocky effect in my opinion just be careful not to overdo this step because it can easily overpower the surface if you're not careful and here's how all the gray coats look finished you could stop here if you'd like but I'm going to add some more color to the Rocks along the bottom I'm applying some sap green diluted with water to add some Moss staining effects then I randomly dot burnt sienna along the Rock and I blend any excess using some water I also wipe away some of the paint using my fingers I go back and do a very light dry brush over the burnt sienna layers using a light gray color to bring back some of the highlights then I watered down some white paint and flick it onto the surface to create small speckles I applied a little too many but any unwanted specs can easily be removed using a damp paint brush and here's the final result this is one of my favorite methods for creating rocks because you can carve any shape or Texture that you want and you hardly need any supplies no fancy Rock molds or sculpting tools just some foam an exacto knife and some paints I want to give a big thank you to all of my patreon supporters out there your support is amazing and it really helps make these videos feasible to create so thanks again for everything if you'd like to join my patreon community that would be greatly appreciated and in return you'd get to see my work in progress pictures of my projects before any other platform as well as have access to downloadable content like by 3D print files and PDFs from my previous projects and much more I'll leave the patreon link in the description below well anyways thank you so much for watching and I hope to see you in the next video

Channel: Smol World Workshop

Views: 20,729

Keywords: miniature, xps foam, foamsmith, carving, sculpting, rocks, mini rocks, carve foam rocks, how to sculpt rocks, plaster cast rocks, model railroad rocks, rockface, model railway scenery, model railroad scenery, diorama, action figure display, rocks for dioramas, rocks for dollhouses, scale model rocks, model making rocks, foam rocks, xps foam rocks, miniature rockface diorama, mountain diorama, diy foam rocks, how to make rocks, styrofoam rocks, art, 3d design, sculpture, mini rock

Id: aKqRClzc_jo

Length: 4min 45sec (285 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 11 2023