Painted stained glass is a cheap effective way to create realistic looking stained glass, perfect for an elegant addition to your set.
The first thing you are going to need is a flat, built to the size you want your finished stained glass to be. This is done by taking flat pieces of wood (mine were approx. 2 1/2” by 3/4”), and stapling them together. Make sure the edges are flush, and use an extra wide staple gun to attach them. If you don't have access to a staple gun, you can use wood glue. Just make sure you give it ample time to dry.
The above photo shows the way the wood should be lined up.
Once your flat is built, you need a piece of muslin, slightly larger than your wooden frame. Stretch the muslin over the frame, and staple the edges on the back side of the frame. Make sure the muslin is taut. Start with one side, staple it down, the stretch it out and staple the next side. This works best with an upholstery staple gun. You want it stretched as tight as you can get it.
Next you need to size your material in order to prep it to be painted. In other words, your muslin needs to be starched. The mixture should be 50% water, 50% starch. Using a paintbrush, apply liberally to the surface of the muslin that you will be painting on. Make sure every part of your painting area is covered. Let dry. This may take a couple of hours.
Once your muslin has been stretched, stapled, starched, and dried, you are ready to begin. It is best to find a sample picture of what you want to do, and use that as a reference. Using a pencil, sketch the image you want onto the muslin. If the image you are doing is particularly detailed and difficult, you can print it off as a transparency, and using a projector, trace it on instead of free-handing it.
After you have the outline sketched out, you are ready to begin painting. You will need your sample picture, paintbrushes, paint, and some sort of container to mix paint in. The first color you will want is black, to do the lines. This should be fairly thick (don't water it down much if at all) so that you don't see through the lines. In a real stained glass these would be metal and are not transparent.
This picture shows black paint that is too watery.
After you have the outline done, wait for it to dry. Otherwise you will get black in your colors and you will be unhappy with yourself.
Side note: NEVER use white paint when painting stained glass. It has an opacity to it that takes all transparency from the color. You want to see through the “glass.” Don't use white!
Below is a quick peek at the picture with light behind it. That's how you get the stained glass effect.
The finished product with light behind it
No comments:
Post a Comment