cover image Rock Art! Painting and Crafting with the Humble Pebble

Rock Art! Painting and Crafting with the Humble Pebble

Denise Scicluna. Barron’s, $16.99 trade paper (128p) ISBN 978-1-4380-0532-4

Humans drew on rock before they had written language, using wild berries or minerals or animal blood to draw tales of the hunting and the gathering. Scicluna, a crafter, photographer, and painter, updates the millennia-old craft, showing how to endow the pebble with another life as an owl’s face, jellyfish monster, dinner place card, or pebble pet. Pebbles, actually a class of rocks “larger than a granule but smaller than a cobble,” become cactus gardens, frilly fish, “misfit monsters” and doorstops. Among the pages of colorful inspiration, readers will find advice on selecting and prepping pebbles; sources for those not into hunting down their own rocks; and 250 color photos with instructions suitable for all ages. There are also many photos of rocks, and explanations of terms like metamorphic, igneous, and sedimentary. Most of the pebble up- grades are easily created, though some, such as the “pebble people” representing various nations and occupations, might be better suited for more experienced artists. Scicluna’s rocks are not to be skipped. (Mar.)