Acrylic Wet-Wash Painting Technique for Rocks & Cliff Terrain

We completed the paint job for Frankenstein’s castle and the final result was a convincing aged and dilapidated stone look. Since the movie castle appears to be growing right out of the mountain top we want the cliffs and rocks to look similar to our castle paint job but not exactly the same so you can’t distinguish them apart.

Painting using a wet-washing technique with acrylic paint is a great way to enhance sharp rocky edges and crevices. Instead of a black basecoat like I used for the castle, we’re going to start with a white basecoat – more precisely about 2-3 coats of a 50/50 mix of white and Mod Podge (to seal the foam).

Before we start painting we’re going to wet the surface and then water-down all the colors we use, letting them seep and become darker in crevices while thinning out and appearing lighter on raised edges. By using similar colors to the castle the two components should look similar enough so that they match but the different painting techniques will allow each one to shine in their own way and not let the castle get lost in the mountain.