Lesson 7: Applying Paint and Etching Cream to Glass
Part 2 - Brush Strokes
The shape of your brush and the way you manipulate it on the glass will have a profound effect on the finished look. Here are a few of the most common strokes that you'll find useful.
Basecoating is simply filling in the design element with a solid covering of paint. Usually this is a medium tone somewhere between the colors you will use for your shadows and highlights.
Comma strokes use a round brush - a perfect shape for most flower petals and leaves. Lightly moisten the brush with a thinner or dilutant. Then load the brush fully with paint. Start at the head or wide point of your comma shape, touching down and pressing so that the brush bristles fan out and cover a wider area. As you draw the brush toward you, start decreasing the pressure and you'll see that the line gets thinner, like the tail of the comma. You can use this as a straight stroke, or curved to the left or right.
Dots are often used as little accents, or to create texture. If you are stenciling flowers, you will use dots to form the little stamens and pistils of flowers, as well as the spots on a lady bug and more. You can create a nice, round dot by using the end of your brush handle dipped in paint and then touching it vertically onto the painting surface.
Line work comes in handy in narrow spaces, or when you need to add detail. You will get a better line with slightly thinned paint – generally the consistency of ink. There are special brushes for lining, with long, thin bristles. Dip the brush into the paint then roll the brush lightly between your fingers to form a fine point. Use an even pressure for a consistent line, or vary the pressure to get a more calligraphic effect.
Stippling creates a textured effect. You can use your old, familiar stenciling brushes for this, or any old worn brush you have handy – or they make brushes especially for stippling. You simply load the brush with paint and them pat on paper toweling to remove the excess. Then start pouncing – just as you may recall from traditional hard surface stenciling. On a transparent surface you'll really see how these strokes appear.
Sponging
Some people prefer the look that sponging gives to painted glass. Depending on your sponge you can get anything from a highly textured look to a fairly smooth, frosted one. Sea sponges will, of course, give you a lot of texture. But the sponges available in the cosmetic department are extremely fine textured. Paint pounced on with these solidly look frosty or suede-like. The edges of the plate pictured at left was sponged with a cosmetic sponge.
You can also buy little sponge brushes used for applying eye makeup that are useful in smaller areas.
Sponging eliminates the problem of brush strokes. However, since you probably won't find any sponge brushes as fine as bristled liners, you will have to be extra careful when working in tight areas not to go out of the lines and smudge areas that should be left unpainted. Keep cotton swabs or a damp paper towel on hand to wipe up mistakes like this immediately.
BONUS HINT: Painting a straight stripe around a bottle or bowl. You can mark the area off with masking tape to ensure a straight, sharp edge - but how do you make sure your line is level? Simply fill the bottle or bowl with water to get a perfect guideline. Of course you need a level surface if you want a perfectly level guideline. But of you want a slope, place the vessel on a sloped surface and you get the same effect.
