Glass Painting

As I've previously mentioned, I have recently been practising with painting on glass. Having never practised art on glass before (and stubbornly, at present, not using books etc to guide me) I am learning as I go, and using these early attempts purely as a way to learn.

As a predominately kinetic learner (those tests in school taught me something I suppose!) I always learn through trial and error, figuring out what works and what doesn't, and ultimately become more confident as I go along. When I look back through a project, it's great to see that progression right there on the pages of my sketchbook, and I can see how each piece aided the next in one way or another.

What I quite like about glass is the way that it distorts the light as it passes through it in a very similar way to water does, which is so difficult to capture in acrylic paint or ink. I only really noticed this in my first test piece; however this might not translate on camera:

As you can see I haven't really paid too much attention to detail - that will all come later on. Unlike acrylic, glass paint is quite thick, very similar to nail varnish actually - in the same way as when you knock drying nail varnish, the glass paint is not very forgiving to mistakes and certainly doesn't like to mix with other varieties of the paint, e.g pearlescent.

Unlike the piece above, my next trial pieces were quite 2D in appearance, using household objects as a canvas. Here is a small storage jar and a beer glass with a few dolphins painted on:

These trials are not meant to be works of art and so my drawings here are quite childlike, in fact they are very similar to the drawings I used to design when I worked at the Sea Life Centre, Birmingham in 2010 for face painting - quick, simple and easily recognisable!

Following on from this I decided jellyfish would come back into play. I wanted to see how they would translate to the glass, and I attempted to use the paint to create more shadow and depth.

It is worth mentioning here that I am not using normal brushes to apply the paint to the glass but clay shapers. These are a bit like rubber brushes, meaning less cleaning and better control over where the paint goes.

Available to buy here from Artifolk.co.uk

The final test is yet to come. For the paint to set and become dishwasher proof, they need to go into the oven for approximately 30-40 mins at Gas Mark 5/6. As I haven't tried this before, I have no idea what will happen and I'm quite worried that the glass may shatter in the heat. Fingers crossed! More coming soon, including the completed version of this:

If you have any comments, advice or just want to get in contact, please leave a message in the comments box below or use the contact page to send me an email!


Caroline