Kiln-Fired Stained Glass Painting
Techniques | Recipes | Mastery - written and presented for you by Williams & Byrne the glass painters
It is our strength that we learn from our experiences, and it can also be our weakness. So we are both blessed and cursed when we pick up a tracing brush.
Blessed – because we already know to grip it like a pen.
Cursed – because we expect it to function like a pen.
And it doesn’t.
Or so I thought until I learned about the pens which astronauts use to write in zero-gravity space: I’ve just discovered a helpful similarity …
At best we’re used to hard-nosed pens and pencils.
At worst we always use a keyboard or a touch-screen on our smart-phone.
That’s why I owe you this reminder about how to hold your tracing brush …
You’ll also find a very helpful video, so you see exactly what I mean.
First this line, then this one …
When you trace a stained glass design, you trace one line after another. So you trace the first line, and then the second, and the third and so on, until you’ve copied all the lines.
My point to you today is, you must study the design before you start.
But not just that, because the crucial bit is this: you must decide the sequence of your lines.
Decide?
Yes, decide.
In a moment, you’ll get two walk-throughs. But to start with, just take your design and …
I promise you a great video in a moment – how to mix your tracing paint.
But just let me tell you first about a funny thing which happened at the airport. (Thank goodness David likes dogs.)
All set now to paint the fierce lion tomorrow: tracing (outlining), then flooding. And once the flooding is dry, I’ll pick out his highlights using “the chalk method” – just like you do with stained glass lettering.
Your trace lines – your outlines, or contour lines – these lines can only be as good as your paint and tracing brush allow.
So if your glass paint is badly mixed, or your tracing brush is wrongly shaped and loaded, your trace lines can’t be right.
End of story.
That’s why today I want to show you the right and the wrong way to load your tracing brush.
All I ask three minutes of your time, that’s all I’ll take, and in return you’ll see the difference.
A big problem you’ve maybe met is how, with the design in front of you, you want to rush and hurry and get your tracing finished.
And yet …
In my last post I gave you 9 tips for keeping a steady hand when tracing, or – “How to stop the wobbles“.
The last tip was, not too much wine. (Well, actually, none at all is best. At least before.)
Which reminds me how David’s been teetotal for 30 years.
Not a single drop.
Thankfully, that’s not the secret of his amazing skill, though as I say, you’ll definitely paint better when you’re “dry”.
No, other things also count – like your painting bridge and how you treat it …
