Painting Colored Glass
When I started this painting, using a wet-into-wet technique, I assumed that the focal point would be the flowers... but as the process unfolded, it became clear that the star of the show is the blue glass vase. Painting glass in watercolor can be a challenge because of the need to preserve highlights. To begin, I dampened the paper (I chose a piece of 300-lb. Kilimanjaro Bright White for this painting). I dropped color into the center area for the foliage, using Winsor & Newton Green Gold, Holbein Shadow Green, and Daniel Smith Undersea Green. As I added color, I used a negative painting technique, going around the shapes of the white daisies. After this step dried, I added washes of bluish-gray (a combination of Shadow Green and Daniel Smith Cobalt Blue), further outlining the shape of the daisies. Before beginning work on the vase, I experimented on scrap paper with pigments. I wanted to make the glass vivid, so that it would stand out despite the proliferation of flower...