Glass Painting 101

Recently, I along with a couple of friends spent some time creating a miniature glass painting each. We had a great time and it served as an inspiration for this blog. I have a lot of friends who have at some point asked me how to paint on glass and whether it is easy or not. The answer is YES, its EXTREMELY EASY and SIMPLE. So, this is a quick 101 if you want to try your hand at glass painting. I can positively assure you that it does not take much effort and almost anyone can do it.

Supplies needed:
1) A 8 X 5 glass frame
2) A bottle of leading liquid
3) Glass painting colors
4) An old cloth

Step 1: Choose a design and place your plain glass on a design that you’d like to print on. Now start putting the leading liquid on to the glass mirroring the lines and curves of the design. It is advisable to start from a corner and move down. Also, start with smaller lines first. Even amount of pressure while applying the leading liquid on the design helps create smoother lines.

If some lines are uneven, you could remove those lines with a scalpel-like tool and imprint them again.

Laying out leading liquid lines on to the glass

Step 2: Once the entire design has been created, allow it to dry for atleast 24 hours.

Step 3: Start coloring 🙂 The only thing to take care while pouring the colors is that you don’t want a lot of bubbles. If there are bubbles, use a toothpick to remove them. You can try mixing different colors to try out different shades.

Coloring after leading liquid lines dry out

Step 4: Allow the colors to dry. Once dried, invert the frame. A glass painting is always hanged the other way round. The direction which has the leading liquid lines and the colors go at the back and the imprint of the colors stay at the front.

Here’s the final result 🙂

Finished glass painting frame 🙂

Stained Glass Painting

Back after a hiatus, this post is going to be quick and short! It’s been a while since I’ve picked up a paint brush but I really wanted to do a post on painting/art. I have painted on stones and dry leaves but I still haven’t mastered any of those yet! So while I am working on something different to put up here, here’s some more of my glass work. This was done on a 5 X 8 plexi-glass and is not a stained glass piece, but special colors were used to give it a stained glass painting effect.

Stained glass painting

Here’s a quick tip for fellow glass painting newbies:
I think the most difficult part of glass painting is to get the leading liquid (the black lines) on the glass. If you don’t want to go the traditional route, most art stores sell leading liquid lines and you could use those to create the patterns. It only takes a few hours to dry out and is literally a child’s play!

Glass painting on plastic/plexiglass

Glass painting on a medium that is not glass is not very different from actually painting on glass. It is quite a challenge to take care of actual glass and get it framed. I figured that if you are not painting on glass objects but glass frames, and want to avoid getting glass cuts and the maintenance that comes with it especially when you move, it is a good idea to paint on plastic or plexiglass.

Here is a painting that I created on a big photo frame. Just remove the hardcover from the back and it will give you almost the same effect as an actual glass painting. A great place to start is using templates that are available easily from art stores. This is one of my first few paintings created using a template before I moved to enlarging designs from books.

Glass painting on plastic medium

A few tips if you are planning on painting on pseudo-glass or non-glass transparent mediums:
– Allow for more drying time with the leading liquid designs
– Use colors that give stained glass effect as opposed to the regular glass painting colors
– The shading is not as great as on glass so use appropriate tools when mixing the colors

Glass Painting Art

I have been painting since I was a kid and sometimes I find painting a means of relaxation! Painting on glass is relatively easy since design patterns/stencils are available in most art and craft shops. I started with ready made design patterns and then moved on to exporting small designs from books and then enlarging them to fit larger sized glass!

lotuses on water

I used paint to give stained glass effect on a regular glass for this particular painting, since stained glass art can get a bit complicated.

Mermaid on conch

Glass Art: The Easy Way to a Stained Glass Look is a good book for beginners! Just in case you want to try your hand at glass painting 🙂