Tracing Translucent Colors

Create an intricate stained glass pattern. On tracing paper, translucent marker colors seem to glow in sunlight.

• 1.

  Find information about stained glass windows. How is stained glass made? Where are stained glass windows most often found?

• 2.

  Choose an interesting stained glass design. It could be either a real window or a pattern you imagine. Draw lines and shapes for your window on tracing paper with Crayola® Erasable Colored Pencils. You can erase, just in case! Apply principles of visual organization such as unity and balance.

• 3.

  Color your window with Crayola Markers. Try mixing or overlapping colors for interesting effects. Outline areas with a darker color so your design pops from the background.

• 4.

  Hold your design up to a window with light streaming through. It looks SO real!

Benefits

• Students learn the history of stained glass windows, whose use began during the Middle Ages when they were created to teach people about their faith.
• Students apply basic understandings of color, line, form, unity, balance, pattern, and other art elements and principles of visual organization.
• Students create a colorful stained-glass-like design on translucent paper.

Adaptations

• Students with special needs may prefer to trace their patterns from pictures.
• Recreate a window design found in a cathedral in a city you are studying.
• Investigate the meaning of various symbols used in stained glass windows. Start with local windows.
• Ask an artist to demonstrate stained glass techniques. What tools, materials, and techniques are used?
• Assessment: Students present (orally or in writing) the history of their design and the meaning of its symbols.