Showing posts with label Cartoons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cartoons. Show all posts

Wednesday 24 August 2022

Accuracy in Following the Cartoon


A question arose on Facebook that resolved itself around the need (or not) to accurately follow the cartoon. The question itself was whether a pictured piece should be re-cut. It was a relatively complicated piece, which in its current state left two significant gaps between the glass and the cartoon line.

The vast majority of responses, was along the lines of don’t worry, just adjust the neighbouring pieces to fill the gaps. (“enjoy yourself” was another theme).

To follow the majority view - make adjustments in other pieces to allow the problem piece to fit - encourages bodge. It does not encourage development in the skills of the craft. It does not encourage long term enjoyment. It pushes improvement well into the future.

The cartoon is the design in line form. Its purpose is to control the construction of the piece. It is important to follow the cartoon to express the design. This means striving to cut and fit the glass to the cartoon as accurately as possible. Line is important in stained glass, as everyone knows. If the glass is not fitted accurately, the lines will not flow according the cartoon and the design.

This is not to say the cartoon cannot be modified. It is important to look at the cartoon in detail once you have been attracted by a design. You need to look at each piece and determine its difficulty. Can I cut it? Is the design overly complicated? How might I modify the cartoon to make easier to cut pieces, and still maintain the overall design? Ensure the cartoon is drawn with accurately thin lines for the form of the craft – copper foil or leaded glass, and fused glass.  Revise your cartoon to respond to the answers to this review of it.

Whatever method you use to score and break your glass, fit the piece to the cartoon as accurately as possible to avoid excess work later. The grinder is there to make fine adjustments to the cut piece so it will fit the cartoon.  If the glass fits snugly within the cartoon lines, there should be little, or no, alteration required to the cartoon during the rest of the construction.

This is not about the methods you use during the construction of a piece.  That is open to many approaches to achieve the same end. It is about an approach to the craft.  In particular, it is about how the cartoon is used to guide the work.  If the detail of the cartoon is optional, the final result may vary from the original conception significantly.

Craft development is about striving to perform the actions as accurately as possible throughout the work. The increased skill level that this develops, provides long-term enjoyment.  And each completed piece will give a feeling of accomplishment.

 

Wednesday 2 March 2022

Accurate cutting

Cutting glass pieces accurately is a matter of practice whether done by hand or by person-guided machines.  Computer guided machines rely on accurate instructions being given to it. This is mainly about human-guided cutting with some information on saws.

Hand Cutting

The right approach to cutting is necessary to accuracy. 
  • ·        You need clean flat surfaces with only a little flexibility, with no glass shards, bumps or warps that would make scoring the glass more difficult. 
  • ·        You need to work at a comfortable height – usually about 10cm below your elbow. 
  • ·        You should be moving your torso and sometimes your whole body to score, following the cutline.
  • ·        Your elbow should be at your side and your wrist should be fixed. 
  • ·        You need to work at a corner of the workbench to be able to move your body around as you follow a curve.
  • ·        Your cutter should be at right angles to the glass (side to side)
  • ·        The cutter should be angled back toward you slightly, so you can see down the barrel to the scoring wheel.  Also, so any unevenness in the glass will not cause the cutter to stall.
  • ·        The pressure should consistently be about 2.5kg or 7 pounds. Do not listen for the sound, as it varies between opalescent and transparent glasses.  Heavy pressure on any glass causes unwanted break outs. Score to the pressure, not the sound.
  • ·        Keep a consistent speed. Variability in speed also translates to uneven pressure. Even when you could go fast in scoring, keep to a steady pace.
  • ·        Score and then break each line before going on to the next.  Do not score all around the piece in one go. It does not allow for any adjustment, if the cut is not accurate.

Oil filled cutter in classic hold


These approaches to hand scoring apply to all the ways of assisting accurate cutting.

There are at least three methods to assist accuracy in addition to the basic requirements, which apply to any method you use. 
  • ·        My preference is to score the glass directly over the cartoon. This involves no extra pattern making.
  • ·        Drawing the lines from the cartoon on top of the glass and then moving the glass to a separate cutting surface is the preference of many.
  • ·        Making pattern pieces with the space for the foil and tolerance already cut out is a preference of many copper foilers.


Each of these assistance methods are acceptable, although the more steps involved in translating the cartoon to the glass, the more chance of introducing inaccuracies.  The accuracy of the final piece depends upon the skill with which you can manoeuvre the cutter around the glass.  This requires practice. With practice, accuracy will improve.

Machines

Glass saws of several types are available to assist in getting accurate shapes.  Mostly they are narrow thin diamond coated blades or diamond coated wire.  The wire-based saw can cut tighter and more intricate shapes than the band saw can.  But you should think about the nature of glass before you get too intricate.  The breakage rate of intricate pieces in stained glass is relatively high, even in the early life of a piece.  In fused glass it is not so difficult as they normally are supported by a base piece of glass.

Accuracy in using these saws relates to:
  • ·        Manipulation of the glass to follow the line exactly.
  • ·        Permanency of the guiding lines drawn onto the glass.
  • ·        Accuracy of the drawn lines.
  • ·        Accuracy of the pattern pieces.
  • ·        Allowing the machine to cut rather than forcing the glass into the blade.
  • ·        Maintenance of the machine.
  • ·        Maintenance of the blade or wire.


Your accuracy will increase in the use of hand scoring or machine sawing of the glass with experience.  But, the degree of your critical appreciation of your cutting results is directly related to the accuracy of cutting.  The more you say “that is good enough” the less quickly you will improve your accuracy.

Wednesday 9 February 2022

Fitting Glass in Leading


Even though you think you have cut the glass exactly to size, it always seems that some adjustment is needed to areas of a piece to fit both into the lead came and be within the lines of the cartoon.

The temptation is to trim the glass to the amount of overlap of the cartoon line.



Note the extent of the overlap of piece #7 on the right.

In the above photo it would seem to be easy to just trim the straight line off the piece.  If you look carefully at the left side of the piece, you will see a gap between the glass and the lead came.  This means something more is happening than just being too large.  If you were to cut the glass down to fit within the cartoon line at this point you would find it too small in the end.

To find out what is going on underneath the lead came, you will see that I have made a line with a felt tip pen at the edge of the came.




When pulled out from under the came the line shows there is more glass under the came at the lower left than the middle left.  This indicates that the lower left needs to be adjusted rather than the right edge.




Groze or grind the glass to an even amount of glass between the felt tip line and the edge of the glass. This may have to be done several times to get the proper fit.  In this case I used the grinder because of the extreme texture of the glass.





This photo shows the glass fits at the bottom right, but needs more adjustment at the top right.  But it does fit under the came at the left side now. The amount of adjustment can be judged by marking the glass and grinding a portion away to fit.



An alternative example of the advantages of checking the glass is fully fitted within the came is shown here.



Here the blue piece shows it is slightly too large at the top.  The temptation is to refine the edges and reduce the size slightly.  Before doing that, it is advisable to check on how the glass is fitting into the came.  Again, run a felt tip marker along the edge of the came before pulling it out to adjust the size.




This shows there is a little bit of glass not broken off at the left side of the bottom tip.  Also, there is a larger space between edge and felt tip mark on the right than the left.

The first thing to do is to take off the excess glass on the lower left of the bottom tip and try the piece again.  That may be enough to allow the glass to fit into the came and match the cartoon.



The excess glass was ground away and a little taken from the bottom right side too.



This shows that just removing that small piece of glass has allowed the blue piece to fit correctly into the came and to fit the next piece of came to be placed without causing the panel to grow in size.



When a piece of glass is too large in leading, you need to check that it is fitted properly within the came, before adjusting the outer edges.  A method to do this accurately is described.

Wednesday 29 August 2018

What Cartoon Lines Represent


A frequently asked question by novice glass workers is whether to score at one side of the line or in the middle.  This question revolves around the meaning of the cartoon lines.  What do the lines of a cartoon represent?


Meaning of Cartoon Lines
The lines on a cut line cartoon represent the space required between pieces of glass.  This will vary, depending on the style in which you are working.  In most glass working, a matrix of lead or foil is used.  The space required by these materials needs to be represented in the cut line cartoon. You may have other cartoons for other purposes – painting, came width, foil width, etc., but the lines in the cut line cartoon are there to represent the space required between pieces of glass.

An example of a cartoon for painting


Lead Came
In general, a 1.2mm line is required for standard lead came. This is close to the line made by a new bullet pointed felt tipped marker. If you are working with high heart cames, you will need a 2.8mm wide line. Some chisel point markers, if used on the sharp edge have this approximate width.

The glass is scored at the inside edge of the cartoon line.  This can be done by scoring directly on top of the cartoon, often with a light underneath.  You can make pattern pieces when the glass is too dense for enough light to come through.  If you must, you can draw the score line on the glass. You can score around pattern pieces, but if your scoring wheel goes over the pattern in any place, the scoring pressure will not be delivered to the glass.


Example of came varieties


Copper Foil
In copper foil, a much thinner line is used as the space between pieces of glass needs only be approximately 0.4mm. This is approximately the width of a sharpened pencil or ball point pen line.

The scoring is at the edge of the line as for lead came.  Also, you can score directly over the cartoon, draw on the glass, or make pattern pieces as for lead came projects.


Fusing Cartoons
When preparing a cartoon for fusing, the lines need to be as fine as possible.  The pieces of glass require no space, as they will be butted against each other.  However, unless cutting by computer controlled instruments, the cutting cannot be completely accurate, so the same size of line as for copper foil will do.

As you are going to try to butt the glass pieces together in fusing projects, you score along the middle of the cartoon lines.  As much as possible, cutting over the cartoon will give the best result.  Of course, there are many times when the light is not good enough and pattern pieces will be required. 

Another approach is also possible. Having scored and broken the first piece, you can place it on top of the glass to be cut for the adjoining one.  With a very fine felt tip or fountain pen, trace the edge of the first piece. Score down the middle of that line to create the best fitting second piece.  And so on through the whole project where the glass is not too dense to use a light box.


Conclusion

The line widths in a cartoon are determined by the space required between pieces by the assembly method.  The thicker the matrix material, the thicker the line and vice versa. 

Wednesday 4 July 2018

Grinding to Fit


In copper foiling, a considerable amount of work goes into getting the pieces to fit with just enough space to accommodate the copper foil and a thin space for the solder fin to join both sides.  This of course, promotes consistently narrow solder lines without the solder melting through to the opposite side.

Grinding to pattern
Many times it is necessary to grind to fit pieces together with this degree of accuracy.  Those who draw onto the glass or stick pattern pieces to the glass, often grind to the template or the drawn lines.  This can lead to inaccuracies in relation to the cartoon.

The object in scoring and breaking the glass is to be as accurate as possible.  This reduces the amount of grinding required.  It saves time. It makes the whole process easier.  Still, we all have to grind relatively often.

Grinding to cartoon
In my view, when grinding to fit, you should be trying the piece out against the cartoon, rather than the template or the drawing on the glass. This will tell you how well the current piece fits in with the rest of the pieces you have already fitted to the cartoon. 


The cartoon drives the assembly of the whole piece.  Thinking you can just make small adjustments as you work along, creates increasing difficulties in making the whole fit together.  If you follow this principle of fitting to the cartoon, you are judging the accuracy of the piece against the cartoon lines, rather than any template or drawing on the piece of glass.  This means that the fit will be correct and the whole will go together with the minimum of difficulty.

Saturday 11 March 2017

Drawing an Oval

Need to draw an oval for a panel? Here's how:
  • Set out the long axis horizontally.
  • Set out the short axis at the half way point of the long axis at right angles to the horizontal.
  • Measure half the short axis on each side of the long, horizontal axis.
  • Calculate half the measurement of the longest line. In this example the long line is 340mm and the short axis is 200mm long.  
  • Half the long axis is 170mm.
  • Use that as a diagonal measurement from the end of the vertical axis. 

  • Measuring from the end of the shortest line, mark off this amount on the longest line, right and left. You can use a ruler or compass set to the correct length, both will work.
  • Insert a pin at both these points.

  • Place a piece of thread, string - or in this case a quick release tie - round one pin. Tie a knot in the thread at the far end of the longest line.
  • Put a pencil inside the loop. Pull the thread taut and begin to draw the oval.  Keep the tension even throughout the drawing to avoid a lopsided oval.

For a leaded panel, the space occupied by the lead came will need to be accounted for in the measuring of the dimensions.

This is a simple method that does not require much in the way of tools, but its accuracy is a result of the degree of attention to details.

Wednesday 14 September 2016

Line Widths for Cartoons


The lines for copper foil and lead cartoons need to be of different sizes.  Only a small width is required between glass pieces in copper foil.  This allowance is for the two thicknesses of foil and a space for the solder to run through from front side to the back side.  In leaded glass a wider line is needed to allow for the width of the heart of the came.

On cartoons for different methods, draw the lines in the appropriate width.  For copper foil this width is ca. 0.8mm.  This can be accomplished with a ball point pen or fine felt tip. 

For leaded glass panels, a thicker line of ca. 1.6mm is required. A bullet tipped felt pen is usually appropriate, if it is not worn down at all.

A cartoon for fused glass should use the finest line possible, as the glass pieces will be in direct contact (ideally) with each other.  As in copper foil, a ball point or fine felt tipped pen will be appropriate.


Wednesday 7 September 2016

Cutting from Cartoon

The cutting of glass directly over the cartoon without patterns is variously called trace cutting, English or European method. The advantages include a more direct process with fewer operations, making for less chance of inaccuracies.  These make this method quicker than using patterns or templates to draw or cut around. The disadvantages are that you still need to make patterns for opalescent or very dark glass, and there is no pattern to guide any grinding required.

To employ the method, use a strong contrast ink for drawing the lines of the cartoon. Draw these in the appropriate width - for copper foil (ca. 0.8mm).  This can be accomplished with a ball point pen or fine felt tip.  For lead, a thicker line (ca. 1.6mm) is required - a bullet tipped felt pen is usually appropriate, if it is not worn.

leadlightdesign.com


To cut, place the glass over the appropriate part of the cartoon and cut at the inside edge of the line. It is best to cut and break one line at a time.  Re-set the newly cut edge along the cutline and score the next line.  Break it and repeat the number of times required to cut out the whole shape.  Which line should be the first to be scored and broken is described here

Although the glass is normally only three millimetres thick, there is some possibility of a refraction of the light if you look from the side of the cutter.  As described elsewhere, you should be holding your cutter upright in the left to right plane and angled slightly back toward you so that you can look with your dominant eye along the barrel of the cutter and head.  This ensures you are directly above the cut line and do not have any refraction caused by the glass. 

Translucent glass may, and opalescent glass will, need a light box to assist in the scoring.  This increases the light coming through the cartoon and glass to enable a sharp image of the lines to be seen.  This means that if you intend using opalescent glass, your cartoon should be done on translucent paper to allow the maximum light through.

freepatternsforstainedglass.com


For black, dense and strongly opalescent glass, pattern pieces will need to be cut, as the insufficient light will pass through the glass to be able to see the cartoon accurately.


The reduction in the number of operations to guide the cutting of the glass also reduces the occasions for small errors to creep in.  It does increase the accuracy of cutting and speed of building a panel.

Thursday 15 August 2013

Assembling Foiled Pieces

Keeping foiled pieces together while assembling them prior to soldering is sometimes a problem.

If the panel is rectangular - or at least one with multiple straight sides - you can use short battens of the length of the sides. Nail or screw them down to a board so that about one half of the panel is contained. So if it is a rectangle, two sides will be enough. If it is six-sided ,three pieces would do.


An assembled piece illustrating the two battens - although with a leaded panel

For ease of assembly, a copy of the cartoon should be fastened to the board first and then the battens fixed on top of the cartoon. The pieces can then be placed against battens and held there with pins or nails until the next pieces are ready.
Illustration of the cartoon fixed by the surrounding battens

Some prefer to tack solder the pieces together as they foil. This can be done in combination with the use of battens. However, leaving the soldering iron idling while foiling and using it only occasionally is very hard on the iron's tip and your electricity bill. I prefer to assemble the whole and then solder all at once.

Illustration of placing pins all the way around an oval panel

For circular or irregular shapes a slightly different approach is required. You can use multiple pins or nails along the perimeter to hold the foiled pieces together. An alternative is to cut a piece of scrap window glass to the shape of the external perimeter of the panel. Hold it is place with nails or pins and proceed as with a rectangular shape.

Placing nails all the way around an irregularly shaped piece

Wednesday 15 February 2012

Pounce Wheel

The pounce wheel is used in reproducing images and comes from a time before photocopying or carbon papers. It gets its name from its use together with a pounce bag. In the past the pounce wheel would make holes through the paper or card along the design lines. The paper or card is put over the material which is to have the imaged copied onto it. A small bag of black powder would be dabbed (pounced) on the cover paper leaving black dots on the surface below. These could then be used to trace the same image many times in what ever medium was being used.


Two Pounce Wheels of Different Sizes

As the photo shows, the pounce wheel consists of a pencil-like holder with the spiked wheel at the end. The wheel is on an angled axle similar to a bicycle to make it easier to follow straight lines by pushing away from your body. This allows a clear view of the line being copied. The smaller wheel is useful for tight curves.

The pounce wheel still retains a use in transferring images through opaque materials, although the full pounce process does not need to be used.

To copy part of one stage of a design onto a new one without using tracing or carbon papers you only need to layer a new sheet of paper under the current design and run the pounce wheel over the parts you want to copy. As you move the wheel along, it punctures through the top layer into the lower layer. Normally, the puncture marks are all that are needed to be able to reproduce the original lines.

A crude pounced design

You can also get symmetrical images by folding the paper along the centre line and running the pounce wheel over the line. Unfold the paper and use the puncture marks to make lines symmetrical to the other side.

You can use the wheel to create mirror images by running the pounce wheel over the card, turn the card over and draw using the puncture marks.

Tuesday 10 January 2012

Light Box

Light boxes are in many ways a development from the glass easel. These were used in studios to wax up the painted glass and display it as it would be seen in a window. Sometimes the glass painters painted across all the glass at once, so this method enabled them to see the results immediately.


Nowadays people tend to use back lighting for these and other purposes, so the light box has become more popular. Some of the uses are outlined here:

The light box is very useful when tracing or altering designs. The back lighting enables you to use other paper than tracing papers to transfer the design elements. You can fold the paper along the lines of symmetry to check on how the lines match, or to copy the lines from one side onto the other side at the designing and cartoon stages.

The light box can help select glass colours either initially or when the main pieces have already been established. The combination of the glass over light shows how they interact with each other. At later stages when the main glass is cut, it can help avoid unwanted bright or dull areas.

Possibly the most common use is in cutting dark or opalescent glass. The additional light allows you to see the cartoon through the glass and so cut directly from the cartoon. This can be enhanced by blanking out the excess light from around the glass or cartoon.

The light box enables the arrangement of the cut glass pieces to be assembled to view the colour balance and have a virtual view of how the panel or window will look as a finished piece. An additional step toward the result is gained if each piece is outlined in white-board markers – use black pens - to represent the lead or copper foil and their widths. This stops the light between the pieces from causing you pupils to contract, and gives a more accurate representation of the appearance of the final pane.  White-board markers can just be wiped off the glass without using spirits.

The light box is important in painting. The back lighting shows the effect of the painted line or level of shading immediately. This allows adjustments to be made quickly and accurately before firing,

Depending on how the light box is built, it also can be used as display lighting. This can be as up-lighting or backlighting.

Additional notes:
Light box requirements
Flexibility
Top surfaces
Lighting

Thursday 5 January 2012

Paper

The traditional approach to cartoons meant three versions were necessary. One with all the drawing details, one with the cut lines, and one for layout and leading.

If you are doing a leaded or copper foiled panel without details for painting on glass two copies are the maximum required. I make do with one original, as I have no place to keep the glass pieces laid out while cutting and beginning to lead, nor do I make templates for cutting.

The paper you need is one that is stiff enough to avoid changes in shape or wrinkling with changes in humidity. The paper also has to be robust enough to stand up to lots of movement. Cartridge paper from a roll works well, but is often seen as expensive. Brown wrapping paper is usually stiff enough, although thinner than cartridge paper.

Tracing paper is very useful, if you do not have a light box, as you can trace details from one version of a cartoon – whether new or from an old one – into another. However it changes shape when exposed to high humidity. To transfer the cartoon to more stable or more opaque paper, you can use a pounce wheel to transfer through the tracing paper for the final cartoon.

Two pounce wheels

If you have a light box you can use it to make the transfer, or you can stand at a window with the two sheets of paper taped together to trace the design onto the final cartoon paper.

If you need to make pattern pieces you will need a second copy to cut up. Here you need paper or card that lies flat. You may also find it useful to cover the main cartoon with a water proof covering if you are going to do a lot of grinding and fitting over the cartoon. You can do this by oiling your paper (as for stencils) or by sticking clear vinyl over the cartoon.

Monday 5 December 2011

Reworking Designs

Principles of design practice for stained glass, 5

Having created the design, you should consider re-working the designs for a variety of reasons. Some of these are:

- to save time in the later stages of the work. It all too easy in the excitement of creating a new piece to want to get directly on with making, however this often gives construction or design difficulties that have to be solved in the making, leading to compromises. In general far too little time is spent in the design stage. Time spent on the design will be more than saved in the construction and will produce a more satisfactory piece.

- to ensure the structural stability of the piece. Although reinforcement should be considered from the beginning of the design, this is the time to ensure that the piece will stand up to the use it will receive during its – expected – long life.

- Make sure you have investigated every possibility to answer the challenges of your design.

There are a number of activities that can help with these elements.

Reworking will enable you to maintain the essence of the design while simplifying lines and easing the labour of the construction of the panel. Often the design contains a number of lines that are not essential to the whole design.

As you re-work the design, you can make sure every curve, dip and angle are to your liking and so improve the whole. Redrawing also helps understanding of the design and the placing of lines. It will also help in considering the placement of lead came and the widths to be used.

Make sure the design is still structurally sound. The design should avoid long nearly straight lines with few interruptions, especially those that go from edge to edge in any direction. The lines should interlock rather than have many joins onto long lines.

It gives an opportunity to ensure that you can cut all the pieces. This is the time to look at the negative or background pieces to make sure you can cut them as well as the foreground pieces. Usually people are so concentrated on designing the main image that the background becomes too complicated to cut easily.

Make successive tracings with each change, so there is a record, allowing you to step back wards to an earlier version if necessary.

If this re-working stage leads to the realisation of design problems, there are some things that can be tried:
  • Cropping the design can transform it. The focus of the design can be enhanced by removing some of the surrounding “information”. The change of proportions say from landscape to portrait can make significant differences.
  • Enlarging and using only a portion of the original design can be a solution. This is similar to the cropping operation, but has the added advantage of making the pieces larger and easier to cut.
  • Further simplification of background design lines can be considered. This will bring the focus back onto the main part of the image.
  • Changing relative proportions can transform the design, e.g., by enlarging a busy background, it can be made simpler and easier to read the whole panel.
Elements of Design:

Wednesday 30 November 2011

Design Sources

Principles of design practice for stained glass, 4

Use the everyday visual experience and make interpretations and adaptations. E.g.,
  • draw lead lines on an illustration to make it suitable for stained glass, using the fewest lines possible
  • Use your photographs of interesting subjects and scenes
These may never become useable designs or cartoons, but will increase you abilities to design from the real world toward the abstract.

Make and keep sketches as personal references. These do not need to be finished drawings, just a reminder of the thing(s) that caught your eye. Many artists always carry around a notebook to record these observations. Even if you only make drawings on paper napkins, make a folder to keep these separate sketches together.

Take photos of shapes and interesting images. These can then be used later to develop images.

Make up composite images by using overlays or collage. This helps develop your compositional abilities.

Work on abstraction in your design practice:
  • Study abstract representations. Dissect – decomposition is a popular word - and analyse how the work is put together.
  • Use geometric design as an introduction to abstract design. This forces your attention to structure, balance and colour.
  • Once the distribution of the physical and visual weights is understood, this enables the jump to more free forms of abstraction.

Friday 25 November 2011

Beautiful Design Lines

Principles of design practice for stained glass, 3

Stained glass is a graphic medium where line and colour are very important. Achieving pleasing lines and forms requires practice and use of various approaches and techniques.

The two dimensional world is one of abstract thought. Work and development are the way to creativity – there is no mystical talent. Practice drawing every day – set aside time to do it, if you normally shy away from drawing as an exercise.

Study and learn from what has gone before. Look at the images and objects you admire and analyse what you like about them and why. Also consider what things could have been done differently. Consider how those changes would affect the character of the piece.

Of course, maintaining your creative attention is difficult, so when blocks occur try some or all of these things:
  • Put the work aside for a day or two before taking it out and looking at it again.
  • Alternatively, pin up the design on a wall where you can look at as you pass by. When you see a change to be made, do it immediately and pin it back up.
  • Get a new perspective, e.g.:
    • Turn it upside down. This will enable you to observe differences and spot inconsistencies
    • Look at it in a mirror. You might see people studying still life or live subjects together with their drawing in a hand mirror to get a new perspective that will help spot difficulties.
    • Put the design on the floor and climb a ladder to look at it. This provides distance and changes the angle at which you look at your design.

Remember that design tends toward realism or abstraction. You need to work on both forms, remembering that glass is a graphic medium that tends toward abstraction. Working on both forms develops your flexibility and knowledge. Having a working knowledge of both enables you to have a responsive approach to the client.