Layered Glass Painting

As gifting season is coming in I decided to use my talent as an art student to make layered glass art pieces. Comprised of 7 glass panels each with different background/foreground elements to give it 3d depth effect. It looks very modern and unique and it serves as a great and stylish decoration.

I painted Japanese cherry and mountains in background.

• Glass panels, I cut mine from an old window pane about 30x20 cm ( You can use picture frame glass panels)
• Tempera colors ( this is what I had at home, acrylic and oil paint work as well)
• Some scrap pallet wood stand about 12 cm long.
• Paper towels or cloth for cleaning
• Glass jar with water to store brushes
• Hairdryer to dry the paint faster

• Clean your glass panels and let them dry
• I begin from the background to the foreground of the painting because it is easier to control the position of the tree later.
• Note that once the glass is turned, the painting will be inverted.
• Put black color in a plastic bowl and I took brushes from the water and dried it a little if you don't do that color will be too liquid
• Then I made the shape of mountains (do not be afraid to make mistakes because it is easy to erase it) when I made edges I filled inside of mountains with black color
• Then I took white color and make white edges on each mountain so it looks like snow you can do however you want thick edges of the snow
• White color is mixed with water so that it becomes liquid, dip the brush in and taps with a finger on the brush to make dots on glass so itt looks like snowflakes.
• For drying I used a hairdryer but from a distance.
• Change the water regularly so you don't accidentally mix the wrong color.

• Second glass mountain is lighter because of the distance perspective so for that we will need black and white color tempera and mix the same amount of black and white tempera and you will get the grey color that we need on this glass
• First you make edges when you wash your brush don't forget to dry it a little then start when you make edges you fill-up mountains whit that same color
• Dry it out with hairdryer as needed

• For the third glass panel, I painted the trunk of the tree using brown color tempera mixed with a little bit of black
• Then I added brown branches with a tinny brush so they don't take over my tree but still be visible
• After that I took red color and mixed it with water a bit and taped the brush above the glass to make red dots.

• For the second layer use a small brush for the edges then use a big brush to fill the trunk of the tree, I paint again trunk with brown color mixed with a little bit of black but I used the previous layer underneath so I can see where are my lines you can use a little piece of sponge for holding the glass and don't do it like that if the previous layer isn't dry
• Then do little flowers with little brush but first, you need to do middle of the flower with yellow color than the shape of a flower with red color. Also, use a small brush as it will be easier
• Do the red dots like buds, few of them
• For drying, I used a hairdryer but from a distance.

• For layer 3 of the tree you need a small brush and red color and shape of a tree that you imagined
• Use red color and do red dots in the shape of the tree ,after you do that, fill that circle and you are done.

• For layer 4 of the tree ,you need red color and a small brush again
• Mix little water with red color and when you dip the brush in color and tap above the glass with a brush so that you get red little dots like buds.
• This gives it more artistic effect

• For layer 5 of the tree you need red color and a small brush again
• Repeat as in step above but make it bigger and less dense.

• I used 2 pallet wood scraps that I sanded down a little bit.
• Mark 7 lines on it about 1.5cm apart. Using a table saw I made groves half of the thickness of the board deep and wide enough to fit the glass panel in. This can be made using other tool such as a hand saw or a file if you don't have a table saw.
• Sand down the rough edges and then you can spray paint them any color you want. For me worked black colour.

The art piece is assembled using silicone sealant as it works well with glass and wood. Place the sealant in each grove and push the glass panel in carefully. Mind the correct order and orientation of the panel. Clean any necessary glue and let it harden/dry.