I can't believe I'm painting rocks

Thank you Mike.

Thank you RocksInNJ ! That was exactly what I was thinking when I looked at that particular slab of pet wood - "That kind of looks like a cave - think I'll put a tiger in it"

Thanks Beth.

I used acrylic paint on these applied with regular artist brushes, all bought at Joanne's.

I also used Posca pens (bought online)for the white whiskers and some of the fine black lines.

I coated the tiger and lion with acrylic lacquer spray. I found out (the hard way) that you have to apply the spray in very light coats or the black Posca pen ink will run. I used about 6 or seven coats on these & probably could use more. I lightly sanded between coats after about coat 3. I sprayed the lacquer in my heated cabbing cubicle, because you need to apply it above 50 degrees F.  You also need good ventilation when spraying the lacquer.

I coated the cougar with high-gloss (Formby's) tung oil finish, bought at Ace hardware, applied with a brush.  Using the tung oil I didn't have the running problem with the Posca pen ink,  like I did with the lacquer spray. I used 3 coats of the tung oil. It looks awful when you first apply it, but after about 6 hours it levels out. Tung oil takes about 12 hours to fully dry at room temperature, whereas the acrylic lacquer dries in about 5 minutes when applied in a warm environment.  I will probably just use the lacquer spray in the future and just be real careful on the first few coats.

The acrylic paint is water clean-up, but the tung oil needs mineral spirits for clean-up.