How to Pick Colors for Glass Painting

Understanding how the different colors of paint are going to work together on your glass paintings is important for any glass artist. Some colors will take multiple coats, while other colors can be applied in a single coat. You can use the way that the various colors of paint work with glass to create specific effects in your painting.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

1. Use clear glass primer with all colors of glass paints.

2. Read labels on your paint choices carefully to decide whether the paint you have purchased is intended to be opaque or transparent.

3. Choose black and white paints that go on thick and opaque. They typically do not require second coats, and can be used to create simple yet striking designs.

4. Paint blues, greens and purples with a heavier coat so that you can avoid a transparent appearance in your paint. These colors will quite often appear more opaque than reds and yellows, but still somewhat on the transparent side.

Tips & Warnings

• Most glass painters chose to make their art resemble stained glass. Black liner is typically used to opaquely outline each primary area of color.
• Reds, yellows and oranges typically go on transparent, and require multiple coats to achieve an opaque finish.
• Many glass paints do not look the same in the bottle as they do on your glass painting. To find out exactly how your paints are going to look when used, create a color chart on a simple sheet of glass that you can label, so that you have a permanent reference for each color shade.