I finished my first glass painting a few weeks ago, but I didn’t post it because I’m really not happy with the way it turned out. The whole piece was a constant struggle, which is to be expected. It is my first attempt at this technique.
However, my wife really wanted me to post it, and since she’s probably the only one that ever reads this thing anyway I am obliging her.
I did learn a lot from this painting. I tried as many different techniques of applying/removing the paint to the glass that I could think of, to varying degrees of success.
The hardest thing for me isn’t thinking backwards because of the reversed glass. I have the most trouble getting one area perfect before I move on. I’m used to being able to work all areas of a painting simultaneously. Michiyo’s technique requires masking and gilding gold one area at a time. This means I can’t adjust the outlines, color, or shape of an area once the gold has been applied.
I am also used to being able to build up many layers of paint on canvas, something that is extremely difficult to do with glass painting, because of the backwards nature of the technique. I can’t use washes or dry-brush techniques to influence an existing color, so it is difficult to get the same complexity of color that my canvas work has.
After actually trying out the techniques, I’ve also learned what subject matter will work well with the gold. This whole piece I was fighting the gold because I came up with the subject before I knew the process. Now I can plan my next image so that the process supports it, rather than getting in the way.
As the god-awful anatomy in this piece will attest to, I also learned that it is not a good idea to try to use the gold as a value within a human figure until I am much more comfortable with the technique.
Either way, I figure I need a couple more reverse glass paintings under my belt before I have one that I’m happy with.
