Painting Glass: Tips on How to Paint Glass
Wednesday April 2, 2008
The first thing to remember when attempting to paint glass (that is, a painting with something made of glass in it, rather than painting on glass!) is that there is no single color or paint that could be labelled 'glass' or 'transparent glass'. The color of a glass is determined by what's around it, what you see through it, what is reflecting in it, and how much shadow there is. You're painting an illusion. You need to suspend your brain's interpretation of the objects and look at the colors and tones. Paint each little shape or bit of color and tone individually and, like a jigsaw puzzle, the pieces will snap together to form the whole. Read more about how to paint glass...
Image: © Marion Boddy-Evans Licensed to About.com, Inc
Comments
I try not to actually paint the glass! My technique is to paint the colours and shapes that I observe in and through the glass. With this method, the shape of the glass just materialises as if by magic.
David
Oh Please!
What about simplicity!
” Suspend your brain’s interpretation of the object”???!!!!!! Give me a break!!!
Where are you from? A 70’s commune?
This site is self serving! And, not to mention ridiculous!
Barb, once you’ve progressed beyond the painting-by-numbers stage you’ll probably find this site has a lot to offer … See you again in a decade or two I guess.
If you stop your brain from going into autopilot mode (”it’s a glass and a glass looks like X”) and instead focus on the small individual shapes of different color and tone, then as you paint these the whole thing comes together like a jigsaw puzzle, looking real rather than a stereotype.