Heart of Glass

Moon Prism Power meets acrylic paint

What up, What up, 

At this point, you know how much love a TikTok Trend craft. I decided to try one that had been going around a couple of months ago, painting on glass. Honestly, mine turned out just ok, so at the end of this, please don’t be super shocked that it isn’t perfect. It’s strange, but a lot of crafting is messing up and making mistakes and getting better with practice, but every time the craft isn’t pristine, I feel so vulnerable putting it in a newsletter. I am trying to be more open about that part of the process. It’s certainly a first attempt, but I have the tips you need to make yours look better than mine. 

Technically for this craft, you can paint anything, but for a first try, I would pick something with hard outlines and easy coloring. Personally, I think cartoon characters are the easiest place to start. I decided to go with Sailor Moon as it was my favorite childhood Halloween costume and she’s pretty easy to draw. However, you really don’t need to draw at all for this craft if you don’t want to… more on that later. 

To start you will need to figure out what you want to paint and get a piece of glass. I am using part of an old picture frame which I think is the best. If you are doing this with kids, use clear plastic (otherwise you can do it with them as long as they are old enough to use acrylic paint without eating it.) 

Now it’s time to put down your outline.  You can either use black acrylic paint and a thin brush or a paint pen. I used a paint pen, which while it was easier to make the outline with, it ended up smudging more easily. So if you use a pen make sure to be really careful in the later steps not to smudge it. For your outline, you can draw or paint it, but if drawing is not your strong suit, find a reference and simply trace it. The glass is clear, so tracing should be very simple. 

When you are happy with your outline, let it dry fully. Then it is time to paint on your shadows. Look at your reference and just add a shadow where you see it. It doesn’t have to be exact, but try to keep your lines relatively clean. More than likely, you will need a couple of coats for every color you do. Be careful when adding paint not to smudge your outline. I did this a couple of times and it was unfortunate. If I did this again, I would also make sure my shadow lines were a little cleaner than I did on this one.

While your shadows are drying or in between shadow layers, you can add other colors that do not connect to your shadow areas. A lot of these will be the detailed areas. When your shadows are completely dry and all your layers are finished, you can add in the colors that connect to them. 

You will most likely need to add multiple layers of these colors too.

Since I added white to the eyes, I had to wait to add the skin color to the very end. It was my final color to go down as I wanted to get the mouth and eyes to be fully dry before I went back in with the skin tone. Once the skin was done, however, I did add another layer of white down.  

Now, you are probably saying to yourself, “Rosa, this is a mess.” And you would be right. Because you have to let all your paints dry and then it’s time to turn it around. Carefully flip your glass over and you should have something that looks like this. 

As you can see my outline blew out in a few places and I think I will do this craft again and be more careful about that, but I think this was a fine first try and I believe that you will do even better. This is a fun one for anyone who likes paint by numbers. You can even leave a print out of your reference under your image if you want that really paint by numbers feel. 

I wanted to end this one with a quick note about commitment and follow-through. This week I was really paying close attention to the news about Gamestop stock of all things. If you haven’t heard much about it, here’s a background. But many people have been speculating that there will be immediate regulation from the federal government to take power away from the people trying to stop the stock from being shorted. This is all to say, we have to be mad if the government bails out hedge funds before it bails out us.

I know the democrats are in charge, but if they are putting corporations before you, you still have to be mad. Get mad. Call your congresspeople, your senators. If they can’t give you $2000, don’t let them give companies millions. In general, we should be pressuring our reps. Pressure them about ICE. Pressure them about relief. Pressure them about what you care about. Outside of that, check out grassroots orgs. I am going to hype up The Gathering for Justice this week, but find some in your own community. Just because we have a democratic president, doesn't mean we can’t stop pushing for what we need to change in this country.

as always, stay safe and stay crafting.