Author: Pierre Labeau, Contributing Editor

The reason that so many people have trouble painting a glass is that they are prone to overcomplicate it. I operate under the KISS theory: Keep It Simple, Stupid!

The secret of painting clean, crisp glass is to minimize the number of reflections and highlights. Simplify it as much as possible. Use only the light and reflections to indicate the shape of the glass. Brilliant lights appearing next to the darkest darks. See how much black there is in a glass.

Three or four values are all that are needed to indicate the transparent walls of a clear glass object. Keep it simple. The more secondary lights and reflections put in, the less transparent the glass will look.

There isn't really any trouble in painting a glass. The trouble is usually our need to add things that aren't necessary. By the way, the same rules apply to painting tinted glass.