Complete Guide: How to do DIY glass painting?

Learn how to do DIY glass painting with this complete beginner’s guide that will teach you about the material required and instructions for producing your first painted glass project with steps and pictures.

Once you have learned to paint, you need ideas to inspire you! We have got you covered with glass painting ideas and inspirations. Brainstorm different things you can produce with this art form and learn other glass painting techniques and professional tips.

Finally, create and share your beautiful painted glass crafts.

Glass Painting

TYPE OF GLASS:

DIY Glass painting is an art of applying glass paints with a paint brush on the glass surface and various glass mediums. It can be a simple frame clear glass whether tempered, laminated, float, or museum glass depends on the final product you aim to produce. You can use frosted or colored glass as well. Glass paints adhere to any type of glass.

Use glass cleaner or rubbing alcohol to clean the glass surface before starting to paint on it.

Now that we have figured out the glass surface, let’s look into the glass paints and its types.

OUTLINER:

Generally, glass painting is the process of using relief outliner – a water-based thick opaque paste to create a boundary for paint to stay on the glass. You can think of it as a pencil to draw on your paper. Once, it dries, the surface is ready for dropping glass paints.

Choose a design and trace from a printed template or draw freehand.

GLASS PAINTS:

There are water-based glass paints and oil-based glass paints.

Water-based:

There is a large variety of water-based glass paints and even acrylic paints can be used to paint on glass. There are glass paint pens, markers, and textured paints.

Oil-based:

Oil based comes in pearl and transparent tints. The pearl ones have a shinier velvety look while the transparent allows light to pass through the glass panel. You can compare the two types in this Fall Glass Painting.

Comparison:

1) Oil-based glass paints air dry but it takes time to dry. Water-based glass paints may require heating in the oven to make them permanently adhere to the glass. Always follow the instructions on the product for best results.

2) However, in my experience water-based glass paints are easy to use, more available, and less pricier but oil-based glass paints gives more polished and rich results.

Use a paint brush or sponge to apply glass paint inside the outlines you created with glass outliner. Let the paint dry as recommended by the manufacturer.

TYPES OF GLASS PAINTINGS:

The popular art of glass painting dates back to traditional stained glass art, but you can faux produce stained-glass art as today! Below I have shared lots of projects from the stained glass ideas inspirations.
Another fun idea is reverse glass painting – which involves painting on the backside of the glass panel. This prevents the painting from collecting dust and is easy to clean with a wipe.

Let’s look at oil glass painting procedure:

Oil Glass Painting

Learn more about the material and instructions with this tutorial on oil glass painting on a picture frame.

DIY Glass Painting Tutorial

Gilding Gold Leaf

Gilding with gold leaf sheets is a popular technique which gives luxurious touches to your final art pieces. Learn how you can apply gilding on glass with gold leaf sheets.

Gold leaf sheet gilding tutorial

Glass Painting Crafts and Ideas

Now that you have learned how simple it is to paint on glass, let’s get to the glass painting ideas to inspire your next masterpiece.

1) Oil Based Glass Painting

Glass painting maple leaf for Fall. These make great souvenirs for travelers and gifts.

The leaf is painted with transparent while the background is pearl oil-based glass paints.

Fall Art

2) Water Based Glass Painting

Paint any clear regular glass object like these DIY Bowl and Glass Mushrooms with water-based glass paints or regular acrylic paints. Use this guide to learn how you can make it waterproof.

Glass Painting Mushrooms

3) Intricate Glass Painting Ideas

Get inspired by these intricate glass painting ideas for arts and crafts which opens the world of possibilities for painting on glass beyond glass panels.

Glass painting ideas

4) Faux Stained Glass Painting Ideas

Finally, learn how you can produce exquisite stained glass art without breaking your bank with these faux stained glass ideas that imitate the original art.