Does any one know how to paint a falling rock?

Question:A friend asked me to paint a falling rock for his birthday and I have no idea how to paint something in motion. He said "if you threw a rock in the air , what would it look like on the way down?" Web searches aren't really helping. Links or examples would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all.

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: A friend asked me to paint a falling rock for his birthday and I have no idea how to paint something in motion. He said "if you threw a rock in the air , what would it look like on the way down?" Web searches aren't really helping. Links or examples would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all.

To show motion in away that does not look like a cartoon, consider that your painting is a representation of a something that is happening rather than a frozen moment. You must capture everything that happened between point A and point B in a single image. This subject was a big deal as photography emerged in the mid 1800's (at the same time as impressionism). At this time, a photograph had to be considered as period in time rather than a moment in time due to the long exposures required to capture an image. Many impressionists seemed to parallel this consideration in their paintings. This is a good genre to look for motion or how it is percieved within a single image. Look also at early photography to see how a time period plays out within a single image. If you have a camera, try to figure out how to set it for a long exposure (maybe nightshot or low light setting) and try to snap a picture of a rock as it falls. The long exposure will capture the motion. You may have to do this when it is not so bright as this setting will let a lot of light in. Remember, if you put the rock in motion, everything else in the painting that moves should also have motion for a consistensty to your 2-d illusion. If you go with the frozen moment approach, it will be hard to make the rock look like it is falling. You will have to make it appear suspended in the air without it looking like it is another layer of imagery. This can be done by using techniques in creating atmospheric perspective, making sure that the detail within the rock is just noticable enough to make its position within your sceen believable. The viewer must be made to recognize this as a frozen moment in the falling of a rock- probably not something seen everyday and thus hard to recognize. I would go with an impressionistic approach and show some motion. Look at paintings by Renoir and Monet. Notice how the leaves in the trees seem to shake in the breeze by how these artists treated edges and form. Also look at other paintings from the second half of the 1800s. Many artists from this time period tackled the perception of motion. I hope it goes well.

To Melintoasstoface's answer- wouldn't that be considered a sinking rock rather than a falling rock?

a falling rock looks like a rock unless you want to add motion, but then your painting perhaps becomes a cartoon

I would get a big vat of paint, drop the rock into it, and there you go! Oh, wait, you're talking about how to paint an image of a falling rock, not how to paint a falling rock.....

hi,a rock will look the same when falling as when stil.... he sounds like he wants a landscape painting with rocks and one falling... the image that came to my mind was a scene of a cliff with rocks tumbling.... if you can get a photo of this scene you could paint it... maybe you ust want a falling rock on its own with a bold backround>....heres a few images i found that might help after i googled... falling rock in motion+image

good luck xx