When the Piece Will Need a Lot of Painting, Here’s What You Must Do

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.

Prototype

The prototype (not stained yet) came out fine:

Stained glass prototype

The prototype we used to test the techniques we planned to use

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As usual, the water-colour design (see slideshow here) is more use to our client than it is to me the glass painter.

Which is why I spent an hour making a pencil tracing.

This copy shows me the key tracing lines and highlights which I need to see in order to do my work:

Tracing and prototype

The design – here’s what I need to do my work

It will be a big piece as painted glass goes (430 mm / 17 inches across) – and worth every effort to make it the best it can be.

Best,

David Williams, designer and painter of stained glass

P.S. I describe “the chalk method” in an article I wrote for Glass Patterns Quarterly (Summer 2009) – see it here.

P.P.S. Is this something you find helpful – writing a plan before you start? I do. I always write a plan. If you don’t, I suggest you do: it clarifies your thoughts and means you are sure about the role each technique will play.

My plan

My plan – 17 steps to paint the fiercest lion