Wednesday, October 25, 2017

Stained Glass-inspired Watercolor Paintings


Third and fourth mixed-grade homerooms looked at the art of Louis Comfort Tiffany, an artist known best for his work in stained glass, especially his lamps.

Tiffany loved the lower quality of glass from the bottling industry, full of bubbles and impurities.

These impurities led to a naturalism in his stained glass, full of more varied shades and tints.

One major focus of this project inspired by Tiffany's stained glass was to create a variety of tints and shades of at least one color.

Artists began with drawing vases of plants and flowers from life, including ones from the EES landscape such as ferns and crab apples.


Zooming in or out with hands as view-finders let students explore composition.


After the observations were completed, students added backgrounds and borders before moving into outlining with black glue.

When the glue dries, it leaves a raised surface that acts like a tiny retaining pool for the watercolor as it is applied.


 Some artists applied salt to create the bubbling, speckled effect of the glass.


In addition to traditional watercolors, these artists tried watercolor pencils as well, which are applied like a regular colored pencil then liquified with water on a brush.



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