Tips for Painting your windows this Halloween!

Painting your windows for Halloween is pretty fun! Try to keep it simple and just follow these tips;

Know what size windows you have, and how much space you want to use. Are you going to cover the entire window? Do you need to look out them? Are your windows tinted? Tinted windows may become damaged if you paint on them.
What type of paint do you want to use? Do your windows become foggy or steamed over? If so, you will want to use the oil base craft paints. These are a little more expensive, but you don't want your paint job to be running down onto the floor. Oil base paints are a little more time consuming to get off. You may need to scrape this off your windows with a putty knife. The other paints I would suggest is a craft paint with an acrylic base. You can get them in tubes, but buying them in the bottles is better. They are cheaper, and they blend better if you need to mix them for the right color. An example of mixing them would be to add shadows to your picture to give it depth and to make it look 3-D.

To paint your windows, you need to remember that you will be painting in reverse. What is on the top goes on first. So any stripes and shading or shadowing you need to do, goes on first, and the background colors are last. So if you are painting a pumpkin, the stripes and the face need to be painted first, then the stem, and then the orange for the pumpkin. The more layers the item has, the more difficult it will be to do.

Here is a simple way to do a window; paint or color on a piece of paper, in the size you want on your window, your scene you are using. You will need to paint this in the reverse way of how you are putting it on your window. So if you are going to put a pumpkin on the right side of the window, you will need to paint it on the left side of the paper. When you are done on paper, have someone help you hang it, painted side to your window, on the outside. Tape it fast all around so that it can't be blown off or torn off by a curious child. Then, go back inside and start painting. Remember the rule, what is on top goes on first, and start following what you have on paper.

A very important thing to remember is if you are painting one color over another, you need to let the first color dry good before you apply another color over it. You can do this with a blow dryer if you are in a hurry. This prevents smearing and blending of colors. Remember that you may want to add shading or shadows to your picture, and mix before hand some little cups of paint mixed with gray or black to shade with. It only takes a drop to change the color. When shading, drag a wide flat brush with a small amount on the tip, away from the item that is deeper or needs to look like it is shadowed. Start from where you want the shadow to be the darkest and pull to where you want the brighter color. It doesn't take much length to create a shadow, an inch or two long is all that is needed in most cases. Making a shadow of something from where the sun is hitting on something, and you want to create a shadow figure of the item on the ground behind it, takes only gray. You don't need to add any other color to it, and should be done in a solid shape of the item that is casting the shadow. Build your item in layers, and when done, you will have a three dimensional look to your window from the outside. If you don't like the way it looks on the inside, simply cut the paper you painted on to fit over what you painted on the inside, and tape it in place with clear tape to the inside of the window, so that it is facing inside. To clean off oil based paint, you can use a paint scraper or a putty knife if you used oil base, and then vacuum up any flakes. If you are going to scrape it, wear a mask so that you are not breathing in small particles. If you used acrylic, you can either scrape it off or you can wet it and wash it away. If you need to, you can use paint thinner to remove any stubborn spots. Remember if it is a tinted window, you may not want to use anything other than water to remove the paint.

Happy Halloween from Penniman Painting