Painting in Reverse: Chandelier Prism Ornaments

Several months ago I read about an artist named Andriy Khomik. He is a phenomenal painter that paints his creations in reverse onto glass. I was blown away by his artwork. After spending a long while surfing through his online gallery, I decided that I wanted to try painting my own work in reverse onto glass.The idea of creating a piece in reverse was daunting, but I began saving sections of glass for the express purpose of painting in reverse. Time went by and my glass collection grew, but I never lifted my brush to the glass, at least not until I found a glass canvas that spoke to me and removed the paralysis caused by the idea of a painting in reverse.

My husband and I were out picking through garage sales. We had been to several and hadn't found anything worth mentioning until he found a rubber maid container filled to the brim with old glass prisms. He loves antiques, so he carried the box to the owner and asked if he'd take $5.00 for the entire box. The guy hem-hawed around about it, but eventually caved in on the price. My husband was the proud owner of "140 year old glass prisms." The man had rescued them from a building demolition and had always wanted to do something with them, but never found the time. As soon as I saw the beautifully crafted prisms I knew they were going to be painted in reverse.

Prism Christmas Ornaments
Materials:
Paint brushes
Foam plate
Water jar
Paper towels
Silver fabric glitter glue
Acrylic paint: gold, white, red, yellow, green and brown
Hair dryer, optional
Ribbon
Scissors

Painting in reverse is not as complicated as it might seem. All it takes is a little planning and dissecting of the subject matter. The first thing to remember is that the last thing you would typically paint in a traditional painting will need to be the first item painted in reverse. Every piece of the glass Christmas tree ornament is painted a piece at a time but backwards.

Using the glitter glue paint a five-pointed star. Allow the glue to dry. Once dry, paint a light gold color over some of the star area. Do not paint the entire star light gold, but add darker gold over the top of the light gold color. This will allow the light gold to highlight the darker gold through the glass. Turn the glass over periodically to make sure you are staying in the lines and that your painting looks like you want it to.

Now, paint the entire Christmas tree shape with the glitter glue. It will be hard to see so make sure you are working in a well lighted area. Allow the glue to completely dry before adding any more details.

Turn the glass over and look through the front of the glass. Make sure that your tree's basic shape appeals to you.

Using red, yellow and gold paint, add Christmas tree balls to your glitter tree. Space the Christmas balls out across the tree's surface. I once heard a white house tree decorator say that Christmas ornaments should always form a triangular pattern, so I typically use this pattern for painting my Christmas ornaments; however, the placement choice is completely up to you. Allow the Christmas tree balls to dry thoroughly.

Add light green strokes to form the Christmas tree highlights. Don't go overboard with highlights. Turn the glass over and make sure that your tree has enough highlights before adding medium green branches. Finish the Christmas tree with dark green branches.

Paint a glitter glue tree trunk and allow it to dry. Add light brown vertical strokes for highlights and then finish the trunk using a medium to dark brown color.

Add a glitter glue snow drift allow the snow drift to extend above the base of the tree trunk. Add white paint to the glue. Turn the ornament over and make sure that your white completely fills in the snowdrift area.

Once the scene is completed in reverse, you can add the scene back onto the underside of the glass. Just paint the Christmas tree in the opposite order. You should start with the dark green and end with the Christmas balls on this side of the tree. Make sure that whatever you paint on this side of the ornament does not extend past the tree on the opposite glass side of the ornament.

Add a ribbon bow to the top of the ornament to finish off the design.

References:

http://www.paintingonglass.com/home.asp