If you are a teacher looking for a new art craft project your kids can try, reverse glass painting projects might be just what you are looking for. Reverse glass painting is a process in which images are painted onto one side of a piece of glass that can be viewed from the other side. The result can be quite impressive. There are a number of ideas to try.
Combined Landscapes
One project the kids can do using reversed painting is to paint the bottom of a pane of glass with flowers, plants and animals, while leaving the top part unpainted. These panes of glass can then be placed against the classroom windows to create the illusion of overlaying the outside scene with the plants and animals in the painting.
Fish Tank Decor
If your classroom has a fish tank, use the overlaying concept in a different way. Have the children paint panes of glass with underwater scenes of things like divers, sunken treasure and mermaids, leaving most of the pane clear. These panes can then be placed against the tank so the fish seem to be swimming through the scene.
Storybook
A group project is to do pages of a storybook. Each child creates one page of the storybook. The story itself can be one you and the children make up, or it can be based on an old fairy tale. Once the storybook panes are finished, they can be framed and hung up in sequence on the wall.
How It Works
Tell the children to keep in mind that they are painting in reverse, and that the images they paint will be reversed when viewed from the other side. Paint the details like eyes, lips and hair first to ensure they are the right way around, and then paint larger parts of the picture like the head. Let the details dry completely before moving on to other parts of the painting so they do not get smudged. The drying can take a long time, since you are painting on glass. You could also do this using transparencies and colored markers instead of glass and paint if the children are very young.
