How to shade stained glass

Video demonstration

Jun 08, 2018

This is a technique we use a lot. The reason we didn't film it earlier is, we didn't have a place where we could teach it properly. But now we've made a course on shading with its own collection of videos on how to master this particular technique and medium. Here's a taster so you see why we love this way of working.

As you know, we really like our tinted glass. It gives the lines you paint a welcome lift. Maybe you remember jumping as a young child and your father holding you from behind and lifting you up higher. That's how a bit of colour in your glass can help your tracing. That’s why we often start with tinted glass like this:

And yes, you could begin with an undercoat, but today—since there'll be a lot of shading later on—you trace and flood on bare glass:

And you let the paint dry.

Now this is Tracing Brown by Reusche mixed with a particular medium we mentioned in an earlier post:

The Glass Painter's Method

It's not just the Batman who wears a mask

First the process, second the backstory, and then we’ll talk about the why. The process The sea-horse you see above: You apply a wash of paint, and blend. (“Paint mixed with what?” you ask: good question - we’ll get there soon.) You wait several hours - this depends on how warm and dry your work-place is - then copy-trace. That is, you put your glass on to…

7 years ago · Williams & Byrne

If you let this medium—details coming up—dry before you paint another layer on top of it, you can carry on and on and on.

For instance, you can now apply a wash, and you needn't be the slightest bit worried about your painting, because it won't be damaged:

So that's the first wash.

And now you do something else, like sweep the studio or paint another 11 pieces, because you want this wash to dry, which might take several hours.

Then when it's dry you cut some highlights, so:

And now you can apply a second wash. Remember, none of this is fired:

And again you do something useful instead of twiddling your thumbs while this second wash dries.

Your patience will be rewarded because, when the second wash has dried, you can cut new highlights or restore some old ones:

And you don't even need to stop here. If you want to, you can add more shadows. We didn't though - we fired it here. But we could have carried on: it's amazing, this technique.

We'll stop talking now and let you watch. This is one of several technique we use to shade - glass paint mixed with three-hour gold size, then thinned with white spirits / mineral thinner to whatever consistency you need:

Here's the design in case you want to paint it for yourself if not this way then another. We’ve put it on a square: