by Basic Painting Skills.
In this article we show your the basics of how to do Glass Painting,there are plenty of “how tos” as well as some basic hints and tips.
The first thing we are going to paint is a lightcatcher, also know as a suncatcher or roundle. These are generally one of the easiest things to paint as they are flat (they are also one of the easiest things to outline as you can get the design behind!).The paints we are going to use are solvent based, nice flowing paints with bright colours…..we will be using both pearl and transparent. The other equipment we will use includes; two paint brushes, a spirit level, a craft knife and a roll of kitchen towel!
The brushes are worth an extra look. Up to a year ago we used the normal brushes but now we use these solid ones. The main benefit is how easy they are to clean….one wipe and that’s it!!! Yes we were skeptical to start with but just give them a go. You will notice there are two different ones here, one normal round one and one wedged shape.
The first thing to do is to put you roundle on top of a piece of white paper and to make sure its level. To do this put your work on a board then use a spirit level, add of remove bits of paper/card under the board until its completely flat. This is done because we are using a flowing paint, if the work isn’t level it will cause shading on one side. If it is level you will get a lovely smooth finish.
Start with the darker colours, think of it as “flood filling” rather than painting. Load your brush well holding the bottle over your work. The solid brush will produce less air bubbles than the old fashioned type….any bubbles you do get should be lifted off with the tip of the brush.
Leave one colour to dry first before you move onto the next, half an hour should be sufficient for most solvent paints to be “tackie” dry. Don’t worry if you spill bits of paint on clear areas, you can lift them off with a craft knife when dry. You must however avoid dropping it into areas you have already painted.
The Pearl Paints take a bit of preparation. You need to stir them with a cocktail stick or the end of your paint brush. Then put the top back on and give it a shake. Finally leave it for a few minutes for the air bubbles to settle.
There are a multitude of different techniques you can use when glass painting and we will look at many over the next few months however for this roundle we will simply drop multiple colours into the same area. It is best to start with the darker colours and move to the lighter ones, in this piece we finish with a clear which will give it a mottled effect. Its worth experimenting on some spare glass and working out the best ratios of paints to use, and which colours, to give the best results.
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Start with the
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Add the Dark
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Finally drop in
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A few more tips to help you along your way; most of them are no more than common sense:
- Try not to work over an area you have already painted. Move smaller pieces of work round, or if the work is larger, move around it yourself.
- Take care of your paints. Avoid cross-contamination and always replace the lid if you are not using it for a while.
- Avoid stirring up dust or bits near wet work.
- The paint will be touch dry within half an hour but will not be fully dry for a couple of days.
- When dropping colours into each other you will get different result depending on the length of time each is left.
Well thats about it for the first Roundle. The paints used in this production were a mixture of Rainbow Glass Paints and Vitrail, the Outliner was Gallery Glass. We hope you enjoyed this look at Basic Painting Skills and find it useful.
