Reverse Glass Painting, The Affordable Way To Do Reverse Glass Painting

By Sally Willson

My name is Sally, and I'm here to let you know that after 8 years of pursuing my passion, (while working a full time job) it's so much easier than I would have expected to stain glass windows.
The materials that I use to paint with are bought entirely at local art supply stores. The windows that I paint in can either be purchased used from construction companies, and I've never paid more than $5 for a window sash in the rough, or picked up from the side of the road where remodeling is being done, my personal form of recycling when the opportunity arises.

The work put into partially refinishing, refinishing completely, or painting can be tiresome, but isn't it worth doing? The stained window, or reverse glass painting that you will end up with will be so worth having!

When you see something that really strikes You as being beautiful or meaningful, you already have your starting point. What was it? Cala lilies, a light house, a grove of birch trees? Maybe a bunch of grapes? All of or any of these would be an excellent starting point. Keep in mind that this is going to be the main subject of the reverse glass painting, and if it's going to be a stained window, it doesn't need ANY background, just the beautiful part. That's what you want, right?
The next thing you'll need is nothing more than a basic sketch of your subject that is at least somewhat close to being the same size of the window sash, or pane of glass that you want to work on. Maybe you had something pretty on a calender, or in one of your own photos? Have a post sized enlargement made at the local office supply store if you don't want to draw the sketch yourself. If you take this route, though, you will need to put mental blinders on to the small details and background.

Tape your sketch to the back side, or the viewing side of the glass.

Now, as I said earlier, the paint you will need for your project is readily available at most art supply stores. One of these paints is called liquid lead (there is no lead in the paint, it's the texture that gives it the name.) It comes in a one or two ounce bottle with a tapered tip dispenser, that when the bottle is held upside down at an angle, and squeezed, will allow a thin strip of the paint directly on to the glass for you to form only the outline of the main subject of. As an example, if you are doing the bunch of grapes,outline only the leaves, most, but not all of them, and the grapes. Again, most of the individual grapes, but not all of them. If you outline the complete circle shape of every grape, it's going to look like a bunch of purple or green balls run amok. With a few arcs, or partial circles added in, it will look a lot more like grapes. The one ounce bottles of colors were probably right beside the liquid lead in the art supply store, so lets choose two shades of green, two shades of purple, a bottle of some kind of white, and blue will make a good background color.

After the liquid lead has dried, you can carefully drop some of the dark purple into the grape bunch area at he bottom of each of the grapes. Have a small round paint brush ready, and repeat the process, with the lighter purple at the top of each grape. Carefully the light purple into the dark with the brush. Rinse out the brush every couple of grapes, so that you don't end up with just one purple.

When the grapes are finished, go to the leaves. a drop of the darker green at the bottom of the leaf, and a drop of light green toward the top of the leaf. Same process Push the darker green toward the lighter green, rinsing the brush every two or three leaves When the leaves are done, you can complete the painting by filling in the background with mostly blue and a few drops of white sprinkled here and there. Be sure to let the white mix with the blue, so that you create lighter spots, and not white dots. That would be distracting.

The final step is to turn it around, remove the pattern you had taped on the glass, and admire your work. Congrats!

Copyright 2007 - Sally Willson
Most of my website is devoted to my work in reverse glass painting, how ever for a few more ideas, or a look at my how to section, please take a few minutes to visit.
Happy painting! http://reversepaintinglady.com
email me at sallywillson@yahoo.com
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