Transcripts
1. How to Paint Glass Introduction: welcome to how to paint glass. My name is Shelly Cleaver. I'm a still life painter in Sydney, Australia. I'm looking forward to taking you through the step by step process of painting a transparent glass object and showing you just how easy it is. Let's get started.
2. History: throughout our history, you will find examples of paintings where artists have represented glass objects. The interest has not disappeared and continues today. The fascination with paintings representing glass and transparent objects is not only from the side of the artist making the works. People are fascinated by how an artist can do that. It seems like a kind of magic. So in this class we're going to learn exactly how to do it, and it's not as difficult as you may think.
3. What You Need: to complete the class project, you will require a stretch, canvas or board. You require paint. It could be oil or acrylic. I'll be using oil. You need painting medium paintbrushes, a glass object and a non glass object to create your still life set up.
4. Setting Up: we're now ready to set up her still life so we can paint it for a project. I recommend that you placed the glass object in front with the non glass object partially behind the glass. This allows for the distortion to occur through the glass object, and that helps to convey the illusion off glass.
5. Day 1: I prepared my canvas with a colored ground, which was made from raw umber burnt sienna and what this has now dried, and I'm ready to begin painting. I begin by mapping in the basic shapes off the composition, finding where those objects sit on the canvas and trying to get the proportions right. I'm doing this with my brush and with the raw number paint. - Now that I've mapped in the basic shapes of the composition, I'm going to start painting in the background. This doesn't need to be perfect. It's simply a starting point, just roughing in the blocks of color. Now that I've mapped in a dark color on the background, I've decided Teoh makes a lighter version of that color to start defining the shadows on the background and to lighten up the entire the entire surface. Now I'm starting to block in the color of the objects, starting with the white ball at the back of the composition. - Now I'm starting to think about the glass jaw, and I'm just starting to find the edges of that object. These marks won't necessarily stay like this. It's more a matter of getting a sense of the object mapped into the painting. I'm using a mid grey just to map in the lines of the job. But these will change in time as my observations improve and some of them may end up being grains that actually reflect the background. Blacks from the the surface, the objects of sitting on. So don't worry too much about what you're putting on he now it's matter of just making some progress in representing that job. Visually, as the objects is sitting on a black surface, I'm just, uh, blocking in a darker color across that part of the painting. And as the final part for today is painting, I am just mapping in a basic red to show where the lid would sit. Now I'm going to leave the painting to dry overnight, and I'll come back to it tomorrow afternoon and develop it further
6. Day 2: So it's my second day of painting, and the first thing I'm doing is mapping in the darker shadow on the background. That's helping me to actually find the form of the jar and create some contrast in the painting. I'm now gonna work across the rest of the background in a lot of color and start building in a little bit of detail into that background because it is fabric. There are sum's subtle lines and shifts in Latin shade. So I'm now revisiting the glass jar, and I'm observing the lighter areas in the in the job that actually of reflecting that lighter background color. So if you look at your glass object, you will find that actually, within that object, there are small parts off color in various locations around the glass that relate to the background. So you want to observe these and detailed them in the painting. Now I'm putting in the darker ground that the objects are sitting on, and this will really help bring the painting to life. And again, this darker color does actually show up in the jar in various spots along the edge and along the top, and you want to just start mapping these date housing. - There are often tricky parts in a painting that you can't quite get your brush, too. So don't be afraid to just turn your campus upside down. It's a really useful approach. So now I'm working back onto the White Bowl, just looking at the tonal qualities of that and developing the shape of the Ellipse and then working in the jar where the ball is actually distorted and making sure that the edges in that distortion of quite soft, because when an object is distorted through glass, you really don't get hard lines. It's quite a soft image, So try to observe that phenomenon in your own glass object and with thesis alit object behind. You should see a section where it is quite very soft edges. You need to make sure you replicate that in your painting. So after painting on Day two, this is where I got up to. I think we've made good progress. You can start to see now that the reality of a glass jar is starting to come through the painting. It still needs more development in more detail, but it's it's it's good progression
7. Day 3: it's enough Day three of working on this painting, and I'm starting by looking at the job particularly and just starting to work in some of the darker areas in the jar. And this process is really just about refining the image and seeing where the background color is reflected in the glass jar, because often the colors are dispersed, even on the bottom of the jar, you may find some color reflected coming from another location nearby, so it's important to try and just look and see what colors are wear and start mapping and tonally the darks, the lights and really building up the details. - I'm now starting to look at some of the reflected light that's hitting the glass of the job. So I'm putting in a soft white gray across the jar where I'm seeing these highlights, and this will help bring the painting to life and really solidify the illusion off a transparent glass object. I don't need to use pure white for this because there is really actually pure white out in the world. If you held up a white piece of paper next to that area that you think is white, you're most likely to find that it is a soft grey of some sort. - It's also important not to be fixated just by the objects. The background plays just as an important part as the objects doing the painting. So try to observe any subtle shifts in tone or light color. Mine is a fabric background, so I'm just alluding to Cem folds in the fabric, and I'm trying to make sure I've got a consistent source of light so you can see on the left hand side is lighter than on the right hand side, So this is our finished painting. After several days of working, you can see that we have represented the illusion off glass. This could be refined further than it has been in this painting, but that wouldn't be very interesting. Few Distin watch in the class, So I hope that this class is really taking you through step by step, showing you how to build up a painting and how to not be overwhelmed by the idea of representing glass, that it's simply a matter of looking and representing what you're seeing in paint on a two dimensional surface. I really look forward to seeing your projects. If you'd like to share images of them on the class, we can all learn from each other
8. Thanks: thanks for joining us in this class. How to paint a glass object. I hope that you found it helpful. And I hope that what you've learned here helps you move forward in your own artistic practice by taking you through step by step, how to build up a painting and how to paint a glass object. I hope you now have the confidence to attempt this yourself and to see see your work. Now be able to convey the magic of a transparent object. Thanks for joining me.
9. More Art Classes: I've made lots of classes on painting and drawing and water colors. Color theory, endless classes for you to take, and you'll find that each one you do your skills will develop and grow. So let's have a look at how to follow me on school Share. Here is the full I button. Click on this, and if you hover your mouse over this part here, it'll take you through to my profile as well. Under my profile, you'll see all of the classes I've created, and you'll be able to see the range of classes you could take. So here are highlight a couple of my classes color mixing basics for absolute beginners. Copying the masters with Shelly Learn to paint. Watch me work. Embrace fear in the creative process. Begin is charcoal drawing how to paint gloss and beginners figure drawing gesture. I'm creating new outclasses all the time on I'm really looking forward to the opportunity to support you as you develop your own creative skills and make your way on your own creative journey. So let's start making stuff
10. Brief Teacher Introduction: so from a creativity is central to what I do. It really feeds. May I think creativity is vital to our well being and is worth pursuing and is worth investing time in. My name is Shelly. I'm a Sydney based artist, Andi. I work across many mediums. I studied oil painting at the National at School in Sydney. It was a beautiful sandstone jail with a very traditional Italian based structure, so we learned drawing every stage of education. By taking these classes step by step, you'll build your skills, your knowledge and also you experience and confidence. And that's the thing that's worth pursuing, because in the end, you're an artistic practice could really sustain you and sustain your life. So I really hope that these classes help you on your creative journey. And they make doing these creative activities less scary and give you some confidence to move forward in your in practice. Thanks for stopping by. I really hurt my classes of helpful for you. You might even say my to studio assistants Ali and Millie in some of the classes
Shellie Cleaver, Visual art + academic writing classes
