Uploaded October 2024 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Painting Glass With Watercolor: My 3 Best Tips
🌟 My Retro Gumball Machine tutorial is available on my Patreon ($6 tier). All of my Patreon-exclusive tutorials are real-time, fully-narrated, and include downloadables (outline drawing, reference photos, supply lists, etc.).
👉 Check out everything I'm making available on Patreon here:
Patreon.com/erika_lancaster_artist
1. Bring in a variety of colors
Glass is transparent and highly reflective. Because of this, it's important to bring in
colors inside and/or around the object, as well as walls.
Observe color changes in reference photos and plan how you will be bringing these colors in as you're painting.
2. Develop different values/tones
Because glass is highly reflective, it's important to develop strong highlights, as well as midtones and darks throughout it.
Observe these value changes in your reference photo. If they are hard to see, desaturate your photo completely to see only black, gray and white.
This will help you see which areas are lightest, which are midtones and which are darkest.
3. Use both wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry techniques
For believable results, you need a combo of soft gradients and shapes with sharp edges. Observe references to see where edges are lost, and when they are sharp.
Avoid outlining the glass and see value shapes as abstract and irregular. Glaze for contrast and depth.
#watercolortips #watercolorpaintingglass
Painting Glass With Watercolor: My 3 Best Tips
🌟 My Retro Gumball Machine tutorial is available on my Patreon ($6 tier). All of my Patreon-exclusive tutorials are real-time, fully-narrated, and include downloadables (outline drawing, reference photos, supply lists, etc.).
👉 Check out everything I'm making available on Patreon here:
Patreon.com/erika_lancaster_artist
1. Bring in a variety of colors
Glass is transparent and highly reflective. Because of this, it's important to bring in
colors inside and/or around the object, as well as walls.
Observe color changes in reference photos and plan how you will be bringing these colors in as you're painting.
2. Develop different values/tones
Because glass is highly reflective, it's important to develop strong highlights, as well as midtones and darks throughout it.
Observe these value changes in your reference photo. If they are hard to see, desaturate your photo completely to see only black, gray and white.
This will help you see which areas are lightest, which are midtones and which are darkest.
3. Use both wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry techniques
For believable results, you need a combo of soft gradients and shapes with sharp edges. Observe references to see where edges are lost, and when they are sharp.
Avoid outlining the glass and see value shapes as abstract and irregular. Glaze for contrast and depth.
#watercolortips #watercolorpaintingglass
