How to Make Stained Glass Mosaic Painting - 2

Contd. from my previous blog post "Colored Glass Mosaic Painting "

I had leftover glass pieces from the previous painting I hadn't used. They needed a painting of their own. These were mirrors, stained glass pieces in green, and colored glass pieces in blue. Here's the finished result and how I made it:

Choosing a Theme:
I wanted something inspirational. And the glass pieces were blue and green, so I chose a wishing tree. The idea behind this painting is simple- it's a wishing painting. We usually make wishes in wishing wells, or landmark bridges, or temples. But what if I had a painting in my own home that I could make wishes from, and be inspired by all the time?!

The concept was to make sort of a dual shape. It's a tree, but it's also a dancing peacock. Because essentially a peacock makes a wish by spreads its wings. It is wishing to look attractive to its prospective mates. So I thought the concept went well with my color choice and theme.

Planning the Layout:
Like the previous painting, I laid out several ideas on the floor first to choose from. 

Laying the Pieces on Glass:
After finalizing the shape, I laid out the pieces in the shape of a tree/peacock directly on the glass. This time, instead of placing them with edges parallel, I laid them out with corners touching and no parallel edges for more negative spaces in between. The pieces have an embossed floral pattern on them, so I needed to randomize them to make the floral effect as subtle as possible.

Sticking the Pieces:

Then I stuck them on the glass using the putty.

Filling the Gaps and Painting:

Then I filled the gaps with POP and colored it with acrylic metallic green and blue.

You can use a variety of metallic shades here for drama, depending on your theme. These are the ones I used- Camel Fabrica Acrylic Metallic Colors

Then I cleared the extra paint on the mirrors using my regular nailpolish remover and cotton balls.

I also painted the beak of the peacock with the blue metallic paint. Here's the finished result. 

Backdrop:

I needed to make a backdrop because there was lots of empty space behind. I also wanted to mix media in this painting, so I decided to paint a watercolor sky. 

It's sort of a cloudy rainy sky because of my peacock dancing in the rain theme. 

Next, I had to write the words "make a wish" at the top. I wanted it to have a typed out professional look. So I typed the words out in an MS word doc, trying a few different fonts and sizes.Then I printed them to see which size and font I liked the most. Then I went back to my MS doc, and made a pdf of the text, and flipped it horizontally in photoshop. Then I printed it out on a sheet of paper and laid it out behind my glass. 

Then I just easily traced them with a permanent marker on the glass. You can use a thick marker depending on your chosen font, but I needed one with a thin tip for the serifs of my font. This is the one I used - Camlin Permanent Marker in Black.

Framing:

That's mostly it. Then I got it framed with a matching blue frame with it's sky backdrop. Looks beautiful in my living room.