How do I paint on glass or tile digitally?
Choose glass or glazed tile as the surface in Easel by Zaweba. Slick surfaces let paint sit on top and wipe clean, as they do in real life.
To paint on glass or tile digitally, open Easel by Zaweba and choose glass or glazed tile as your surface. Paint behaves the way it does on those materials in real life: it sits on top rather than soaking in, and because they are slick surfaces, they wipe clean. That makes them very different to work on from paper or canvas, and much more forgiving.
Easel's wider surface list, raised to 37 in version 1.1, includes glass, glazed tile, mirror, whiteboard, aluminium and slate alongside papers, canvases and boards. Each one has its own tooth and absorbency, and every tool reacts to the surface you pick.
Why glass and tile feel different
Paper and canvas have tooth, a fine texture that grabs pigment, and paper also has absorbency, so watercolour sinks in and spreads. Glass and glazed tile have almost none of either. Paint slides, brush marks stay visible, and thin colour can bead or streak rather than spreading evenly.
The upside is that nothing is permanent until it's dry. Slick surfaces such as glass, tile or synthetic paper wipe clean, so you can take paint back off and try again. That is how real glass painters and tile decorators work: lay down colour, wipe away what you don't want, and refine.
Setting up a glass or tile painting
Start a new picture and pick glass or glazed tile from the surface list. Choose your medium. Thick paints such as acrylic, gouache or oil give the most control on a slick surface, because they hold their shape. Watercolour on glass is unpredictable, which can be lovely for abstract work but tricky for detail.
Lay in the main shapes with a broad brush. Don't overload the brush, or the paint will pool. If a passage goes wrong, wipe it back while it's wet and try again. Once you're happy with the base, add detail with smaller brushes and let each area dry before painting next to it if you want clean edges.
For crisp borders, masking tape and stencils work on any surface. Lay down tape, paint over it, then peel it off for a hard edge, which suits tile patterns and lettering on glass.
Working with paint that won't soak in
Use opaque colour for strong designs. On a white tile, bold opaque shapes read best. On clear glass, think about what the picture will sit against, and lean on opaque paint where you want the design to stand out.
Think in layers. Because wet paint on a slick surface moves easily, lay one colour, let it dry, then add the next. Easel's drying speed slider runs from 0.25 to 4 times, so you can hurry the waiting along.
Keep the tilt level unless you want runs. On a tilted canvas wet paint runs downhill, in proportion to how wet and thin it is, and on a slick surface that can happen quickly.
Other slick and unusual surfaces to try
Mirror works much like glass. A whiteboard gives a modern, office-style surface, and slate and aluminium are good for sign work. If you want a surface that does the opposite of glass, try rice paper, whose fibres make paint bleed along them, or wet plaster for fresco, where paint goes into the surface instead of sitting on it. Switching between a slick and an absorbent surface with the same brush is one of the quickest ways to understand why surfaces matter so much.
Saving the design
When you're done, export as PNG, JPEG or TIFF, at 1x or 2x. If you want to carry on with the design in an image editor, Edit in Paint by Zaweba sends a PNG over. Save the .zeasel file too, and any wet paint will still be wet when you open it again.
Glass and tile are a good change from paper, and Easel by Zaweba makes them free to try as often as you like.
