How to Hand Paint A Glass Lantern

I painted 10 glass lanterns for my husband’s coworker this week. His daughter is getting married on October 19th, and she wanted white lanterns dripping with hand painted wisteria. I was more than happy to oblige, since purple is a great fall color! I rarely paint on glass, and generally prefer porous surfaces like clay flower pots, wood, and brick. So, a tutorial describing How to Hand Paint A Glass Lantern seemed like a good idea.

Materials Needed:

• small white lantern with glass panels (not pictured)
• liner brush
• 1” stencil or pouncing brush
• 1/2” stencil or pouncing brush
• 1/2” angle brush
• Apple Barrel Multi-surface (This type of paint adheres well to nonporous surfaces like glass.) 21954E White, 20346E Pure Pink (this one is GLOSS, which also adheres to glass), 21977E Wisteria, 21978E Princess Purple, 44845E Light Yellow, 21968E True Green, 21973E Summer Sky, 44848E Milk Chocolate, and Folk Art 2934E Licorice.

Instructions:

If your lantern is dusty or dirty clean the glass surfaces. You can use alcohol, glass cleaner, or water to do this. I use whatever I have on hand. Pour a little bit of Princess Purple, True Green, and Light Yellow onto a styrofoam plate or paint palette. Use the 1” pouncer brush (or a scruffy stencil brush) to pounce in the background greenery. I mixed the colors together a little bit, then dipped the pouncer in my paint concoction.

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Use the bottom edge of the 1/2” angle brush, or the liner brush to wiggle in the stems with Milk Chocolate, White, and True Green.

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Now for the part I like; painting the wisteria. Pour small bits (nickel-sized) of Pure Pink, Princess Purple, and Sky Blue paint onto your styrofoam plate. Dip your 1/2” pouncer brush into the paint and pounce in those wisteria! Painting wisteria is a lot like painting grapes. The shape is triangular, narrowing toward the bottom. I painted the wisteria to show varying shades of pink, purple, and blue, changing the colors hues just a little bit as I went along.

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Highlight the wisteria using the same pouncer brush and a mixture of Pure Pink, Wisteria, Sky Blue, and White.

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Now it’s time to add some detail. I examined pictures of wisteria and wisteria leaves on my phone to get a better idea regarding the exact shapes of the petals and leaves. If it happens to be spring or summer, go out and find the real thing. The stems have perfectly matched leaves on either side, with one downward-facing leaf at the end. I dipped the liner brush into Licorice and True Green, True Green and Light Yellow, or True Green and White to paint the leaves different shades of light and dark.

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At this point, the wisteria look like pink and purple blobs. Time to add some flower petals! I used Wisteria , Sky Blue, and White to swish in the petals with my liner brush.

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Finish things up with some True Green, White, and Light Yellow squiggles using your liner brush in random places.

For the tutorial on the Fall Wreath above, read my guest post on flusterbuster.com.

Happy Fall!

Kristie

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