Types of Glass Colours & Liners available

Once you finalize the thought of creating a Glass Painting yourself, you must be aware of the type of glass media you're going to use.


This will help you select the proper media for your Glass Painting depending on your requirement.



There are mainly two types of Glass Colours & Liners widely available in the market.

1. Water Based Glass Colours & Liners
2. Solvent Based Glass Colours & Liners

The major differences between the two are as stated :

• Nature-wise
• Water Based Glass Colours & Liners are temporary in nature whereas Solvent Based Glass Colours & Liners are more or less permanent.
  [N.B. Temporary in the sense that the painting might wash off totally if dipped in or exposed to water for long period of time. More or less permanent in the sense that it is less likely to be destroyed unless scratched with a sharp object.]
• Medium-wise
• The medium of Water Based Glass Colours & Liners is water whereas the medium of Solvent Based Glass Colours & Liners is thinner.
  [N.B. Nothing much to say here except that water is freely available whereas thinner (or N.C. Thinner) is to be purchased separately. Also the medium is only required either to dilute the colour if it gets too concentrated; which often does if stored for a long period of time or to lighten the shade; if required.]
  [N.B. Be very careful while adding water to the entire colour. Unlike thinner; even half a drop of water will cause severe changes to the colour concentration.]
• Effect-wise
• Solvent Based Glass Colours are smoother than Water Based Glass Colours which are generally sticky in nature.
  [N.B. Due to the stickiness, almost anything, if kept in contact with the painting, will get permanently glued to the painting; thereby destroying the painting. Thus Glass Paintings done using water based media must be handled with extreme care.]
• Expense-wise
• Solvent Based Glass Colours & Liners are much more expensive than Water Based Glass Colours & Liners.

Some important points to be noted :

• You can use both water based and solvent based media in the same painting but NEVER mix a water based media with a solvent based media.
• The solvent based media generally has a strong & disturbing solvent odour.
• The visualisation of the complete painting does not vary with the type of media used. 

Overall Conclusion :

Solvent based media is much superior in almost all aspects from the painting point of view rather than water based media. If finance is really not an issue then just go for it.

But if you're a beginner; it is always likely to test the process of glass painting with water based media.