Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Arts and Crafts/Glass Painting

Glass Painting
General Conference Arts and Crafts	Skill Level 1 Year of Introduction: 1938

Requirements

1. Know the primary colors, the secondary colors, and how to mix the primary colors to obtain the secondary colors.

Red, Blue and Yellow are the primary colors. Green, Violet, and Orange are the secondary colors. Red and Blue make Violet. Blue and Yellow make Green. Red and Yellow make Orange.

Mix this		and this	To make
Yellow	+	Red	=	Orange
Blue	+	Yellow	=	Green
Red	+	Blue	=	Purple

2. Know the materials used in painting, mounting, and hanging a glass painting.

• Glass
• Paint
  • transparent paints - allow light to pass through them
  • opaque paints - achieve the desired color, but are not transparent
  • Other mediums for frosted, iridescent, or crackling effects
• Paint brush
• Sponges - can be used instead of or in addition to paint brushes. Good if you want to paint the entire surface a single color.
• Rubbing alcohol - for cleaning the glass before painting. Don't paint dirty glass!
• Paper towel - also for cleaning.
• Sticky stencils (optional)
• Patterns - can be placed on the inside of a glass and then the design can be copied (similar to tracing).
• Hooks and string with some method of attaching them to your artwork

3. Make and display a glass painting for each of the following designs: animal, flower, and landscape or seascape.

Begin by thoroughly cleaning the glass with alcohol and a paper towel. You can use a picture frame (paint right on the backside of the glass), a drinking glass, or a jar. For glasses and jars, place the pattern on the inside of the vessel. It will help if you tape the pattern to the glass (flat or round) so it doesn't move around as you paint.

Then begin your painting. If you drip paint on the glass by accident do not despair. Once it dries you can scrape it off with an X-acto knife, but care must be taken. You don't want to cut yourself or scrape off too much of the surrounding work. If paint drips on an unpainted section, you can simply wipe it off before it dries.

If painting on a round object, your painting surface will likely be oriented in a vertical position. Be careful not to use too much paint in the brush, or dripping can almost be guaranteed.

If using a picture frame, a background can be cut from matte or poster board, and the paint can be applied on the reverse side of the glass.

When painting on the reverse side of the glass, the painting can be realistic or abstract. Realistic reverse paintings are more challenging to create as one must, for example, in painting a face, to put the pupil of an eye on the glass before the iris, exactly the opposite of normal painting. If this is neglected the artist will not be able to correct the error as he will not get in between the glass and the paint already applied. In other words, you must work from the foreground to the background rather than painting the back ground and then laying a foreground over it.

4. Make a silhouette painting and mount for hanging.

A silhouette is a view of an object or scene consisting of the outline and a featureless interior, with the silhouetted object usually being black. The term was initially applied in the 18th century to portraits or other pictorial representations cut from thin black card.

The term has been extended to describe the sight or image of a person, object or scene that is backlit, and appears dark against a lighter background.

To make a silhouette on glass, it is easiest to start with a picture frame. Place a reverse-image pattern behind the glass and color it with opaque black paint on the reverse side of the glass. Allow this to dry, and then (if desired) paint a background over the silhouette using colors. As long as the original layer of black paint is dry, it will not be affected by the background you lay over it. The finished product should be viewed from the front.

The background is not necessary, or it can be a printed design on a piece of stock card or paper that lies behind the glass in a frame. The silhouette can be the main feature of the piece, or it can be an accent if placed off to the side, in a corner, or along an edge of the glass.

Here is a small gallery of images to give you a few ideas:

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5. Make a hand-painted mirror picture by removing the back coating of the mirror from the picture area and painting the design on the back of the mirror glass.

Decide where on the mirror you would like to paint the design. Do you want it in the center? In a corner? Once you decided, flip the mirror over and use masking tape to mask around the area you wish to paint. Remember that this is a reverse-image, so if you wanted your picture to appear on the right, you will have to mark the area on the left. Once the area is masked, apply some paint stripper to the area within the tape. Read and follow the directions for the paint stripper. It will tell you how long to let it set before scraping. It will also tell you what kind of gloves you will need to protect your skin.

Once the paint stripper has done its work, you should be able to scrape most of the paint off and rinse the mirror. If you can't get it all scraped off, use steel wool to get that last little bit.

With the mirror backing removed, you should now have a transparent area in which to paint your picture.

History

Reverse painting on glass is an art form consisting of applying paint to a piece of glass and then viewing the image by turning the glass over and looking through the glass at the image.

This art form has been around for many years. A number of clock faces were created using this technique in the early to mid 1800s, but it started to become popular again in the late 1990s. The painting can be realistic or abstract. Realistic reverse paintings are more challenging to create as one must, for example, in painting a face, to put the pupil of an eye on the glass before the iris, exactly the opposite of normal painting. If this is neglected the artist will not be able to correct the error as he will not get in between the glass and the paint already applied. No such care need be taken with the abstract form, but with this form you do not have a good idea what the piece will look like until you are finished painting it. This process is not like stained or leaded glass work in that it is not intended to hang in a window with light coming through the piece. Hanging on a wall, framed or unframed, with a lot of light directed towards the piece provides best viewing.

References

• http://www.hangyourglass.com/
• Wikipedia article on Reverse painting on glass