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wikiHow to Paint a Scene of Colored Glass Vases in Watercolor

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Perhaps you have seen a collection of colored glass displayed in the window of a home as you passed by. The glass bottles in this lesson will teach two things: How to get the two sides of a vase to agree without doing them freehand and how colors will change seen through different colored glass.


  1. 1
    Make a bottle-shaped template. Start with a piece of basic computer paper; fold it down the middle, lengthwise.  Put the fold on your left and draw half of the bottle or vase.  Press hard to imprint the lines through the 2 layers of paper.  Open the paper and draw the other side of the bottle. If the imprint isn't strong enough, do it again, or hold the paper up to a window and trace. You have made the first bottle.
  2. 2
    Make five bottles of varying shapes exactly as you did the first one.  Use a half sheet on its side to get a squatty bottle.  Aim for variety in shapes, sizes and neck configurations.  Cut out the five bottles to use as patterns.
  3. 3
    Draw a pencil line two or three inches up from the bottom edge of a sheet of 11 x 14" watercolor paper in "landscape" alignment.  This line will represent a shelf or window ledge.  Place the patterns or templates you made along this line, arranging and rearranging until you get a pleasing pattern of bottles in a row. 
  4. 4
    Remove the templates and replace three tall bottles, allowing them to overlap a little and sketch them in pencil.  Remove the paper templates.  Place the remaining two bottle shapes, completely overlapping the ones already drawn on the paper.  Draw them and remove the templates.
  5. 5
    Activate your watercolors and make puddles on your clean palette of the three primary colors.  First paint the bottles in the rear, one each color. Remember, these bottles must be completely painted even though there are bottles standing in front of them.  Allow to dry completely.
  6. 6
    Paint the two vases in the foreground any color you wish.  Note what happens where the bottles overlap. Again, dry the entire paper thoroughly.
  7. 7
    Paint the background any color you wish. Wet the background well and glide on color you've mixed and made into a big puddle. Blue usually reminds people of the sky and yellow the sun.
  8. 8
    In front of the bottles, put shadows being cast, as if the light was coming from behind. Make the shadows colorful the way they look when light comes through colored glass.
  9. 9
    Add your final touches. For fun and to add a little drama, add the image of a mischievous cat as seen through one of the bottles. Is the cat thinking, "Should I give this bottle a tiny push?"

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  • Can I mix more than four colors?
    Yes! There are no rules in watercolor painting. Use as many as you want, and don't be afraid to get a little red in your blue or vice versa - glass reflects all kinds of colors, so there aren't any mistakes to be made!
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    • If desired, paint contrasting patterns on some of the vases to add interest.
    • Vertical stripes ought to contour and mimic the outside edge of the bottle or vase.
    • Play with this classic watercolor concept of visual color mixing to see if you can achieve an orange by putting a yellow bottle over a red one, and vice versa. Try to make violet by layers blue over red, or vice versa. The possibilities are endless.

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    Categories: Watercolors


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