Stained Glass Trees ⋆ Natasha Nashadka

Stained Glass Trees

Today we’re trying to imitate stained glass. No easy task because of the special luminosity that makes stained glass glow.

Were trying to turn paper into these and it’s no easy task!

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Materials

pencils
black acrylic paint
oil pastels

Drawing a Tree

To make our stained glass we studied banyan trees which have roots that grow downward from the branches! Their aerial roots are perfect for mimicking the leading that was used in stained glass to hold all the little pieces together.

Banyan Trees

Creating “Leaded” Branches

Painting

We used acrylic paint to paint our trees. An important reminder: make sure your tree branched and roots extend to the very edges of the page!

Our Trees

Adding the Glow

After the black paint dried, the next step is to color in the “glass”. The glowing effect is achieved by blending two similar, aka analogous, colors in each panel. Oil pastels are so rich in color they’re perfect for our colored glass! We found the best way to blend them was with the hard end of a paintbrush.