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There are many options available when selecting a method of reproducing stained
glass graphics. The obvious,
and my first choice, was to try simulating actual glass using "real stained
glass" samples and patterns from the
web. Free patterns, however, are not public domain graphics. The stained glass suppliers are bound by exclusivity to providing these patterns for "real" glass art. Permision from the pattern creator would have to be ascertained for use as graphics. An exceptional source for both is
"Spectrum Glass". They have graciously allowed me to use their glass samples for graphics, but the patterns I use will be composites of clip art and dingbat fonts that are not a problem in terms of copyright(s) infringement.
My header on this page uses some of their glass samples.
The pattern, however, is of my own design.
Other alternatives include the use of Flaming Pear's "Blade Pro". There are several approaches using this filter and tutorials for same provided by the author of each technique. Rather than list them here, I will give examples of my renditions of each, on this, and subsequent pages. Links will be identified with each image. |
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Can't remember exactly where I got this image from, it was kind of chopped up a bit at the bottom and took a while fixing the butterfly wings with the paint brush at size 1 and 2 settings, colour black. Since it already had thick lines around both the butterfly and the fish, I didn't create "lead" edges. I simply applied Blade Pro preset amrpewter.q9q. to the existing ones. I also used Blade Pro on the black areas with preset black iridescent.q9q. The frame is a wood grain with "Web Graphics on a Budgets" bevel.q9q preset applied to it, changing the white light to a brown colour in the wood grain. It's not a "Rembrandt", but it gave me ample opportunity to see what creating a pattern would be like. Would really like a "Wacom" tablet for my birthday! ;-) If I was physically able to make real stained glass art, I would. The glass samples are beautiful! |
The Rose, a beautiful flower that I just had to try to render in stained glass. The graphic is the letter "J" from the font Flora Deco. It literally took hours to clean up the image. Had to add the top petal edges and clear the black areas on the flower and stem before I could use the Spectrum Glass samples as colour fill. The frame was simply a matter of using the shapes tool at various dimensions of an elipse. Once I had the lines a reasonable width I followed "Mike McKnelly's Lead Edges Tutorial". I was rather pleased with the outcome, but it sure was a lot of work! ;-) For my next project I want to try combining images for a full picture. |
 Well, this is the next image, but it's not quite as detailed as I had planned. Guess the scene will come later as I improve my bezier line skills. ;-)
I named this one "Butterfly Scroll". The graphics are from dingbat fonts; top and bottom curls being the letter "I" from the font Borders, and the butterfly is the letter "L" from the Butterflies font. Both were printed in black (antialiased) and then I added a bezier curve on either side at 2 pixels and used the shapes tool to extend the wings with a circle and a rotated elipse. For the lead edges I used Cheroke's pewter preset after selecting all lines at 75% tolerance and flood filling with white. A lengthy process, but I didn't want them any thicker than they already were. The fills are "Spectrum Glass" waterglass samples, except for the main background which was their clear hammered glass. I then put the image on a wood grained pattern fill as a base and made the frame with a slightly grainier wood fill and used "Web Graphics on a Budget's" bevel; changing the left hand light colour to one of the woods colours.
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