A cabinet door with three tulipsA narrow panel. The stems are lead lines; each flower head is a cup of three pieces.
A front-door panel with a sailing shipThe sails are big pale panes. The sea is five wavy bands, darkest at the bottom.
A full-size window cartoon with the pieces numberedGlaziers draw a full-size cartoon for every opening. Number each piece like a map.
A glass dome seen from belowRings cut across by ribs, palest in the middle and darkest at the rim.
A kaleidoscope view as a round panelSix matching wedges. Design one, then mirror it round the circle.
A lampshade of leaded dragonfliesA cone seen from the side: wings as long panes round the rim, bodies pointing up.
A lancet window holding one tall treeA lancet is tall, thin and pointed. Run the trunk from sill to tip and hang the colour off it.
A lantern with four glass sides, unfolded flatFour tall panels in a row, one season in each, the same horizon running through.
A rose window with eight petals round a hubA rose window is a circle divided by stone bars. Rule eight spokes, then round off each gap.
A round panel of a lighthouse beamThe tower stands on the centre line. The beam is two pale wedges across a dark sky.
A shield panel with your own four symbolsQuarter the shield. Each quarter gets one flat colour and one simple shape.
A stair-landing window with a landscapeA tall panel: sky in long flat panes, hills as overlapping curves, one winding path.
A suncatcher disc with a hummingbirdA suncatcher is a small ornament hung near a window. Beak, body, two wings, one flower.
A tall light of stacked medallionsCircles and squares alternate up the strip, each with one small picture inside.
A trefoil window with one colour per lobeThree overlapping circles with the middle left open. Thick outline, three flat colours.
A window of plain squares with one coloured roundelA grid of clear panes, and one circle in the middle holding a tiny scene.
Two lancets with a quatrefoil aboveTwo pointed lights side by side, a four-lobed opening in the space between their tops.
Mosaics 16
A broken-plate mosaic of a lizardTrencadís is mosaic made from tile shards and broken china. Odd shapes, wide pale joints.
A cracked-tile rainbow over a doorwaySeven bands of irregular shards. Each band keeps to one family of colour.
A fish built from square tesseraeA tessera is one small tile, usually square. Lay the rows along the fish's curve.
A fountain basin in mosaic, from aboveRings of tiles shrinking toward the drain in the middle.
A house number in mosaicBuild the numeral in dark tiles, then fill round it in pale ones laid in rings.
A mosaic bird whose tiles follow its feathersAndamento is the flow of the rows of tesserae. Let it run along the wing and the tail.
A mosaic drawn on squared paper, one square per tileColour whole squares only. Curves turn into steps, which is the charm.
A mosaic map of your town centreStreets are the pale joints, blocks are clusters of tiles, the river runs in blues.
A pebble mosaic of a spiralNatural pebbles made some of the first mosaics. Small ovals packed tight, two tones.
A pet's face in about a hundred tilesBlock in the lights and darks first. No tile is smaller than the eye.
A plaited rope border in three colours of tileTwo strands crossing over and under. Where one passes behind, break its line.
A pool-floor dolphin seen through moving waterDraw the tiles in straight rows, then bend a few rows to show the ripples.
A Roman floor border in black and whiteRoman floors in Italy often set black tiles on white. Draw a wave or key band in squares.
A stepping stone with a mosaic sunA circle, a smaller circle, wedges for rays. Leave a gap for grout round every piece.
A tabletop of overlapping circles in tileCompass circles first. Every overlap takes a colour of its own.
One eye in very small tilesThe finest Roman work used cubes of 4 mm or less. Dot a grid, then colour dot by dot.
Animals and plants in panes 19
A bare tree whose branches are the lead linesBlack branches divide a sky of many blues. It needs no leaves.
A breaking wave with clear glass for foamLeave the foam unpainted. The wall of water runs from green at the top to dark at the base.
A cat on a windowsill behind real window barsLet the glazing bars of the window do the dividing. The cat is three pieces.
A heron standing in striped waterOne long S for neck and body. The water is horizontal panes in three blues.
A kingfisher on a reed in eight piecesHead, back, wing, breast, beak, tail and two for the reed. Each piece one flat colour.
A ladybird on a leaf, every spot its own pieceTwo wing cases, seven spots, a head. The leaf behind is cut along its veins.
A leaf with every vein a lead lineMidrib, side veins, outline. Colour the cells between in greens that do not repeat.
A lily pond from abovePads are circles with one wedge cut out. Water fills the gaps in dark panes.
A mountain range in overlapping panesFive ridges, each behind the last, stepping from pale to dark toward you.
A night panel: moon, three stars, deep bluesOne pale circle, three four-point stars, and the rest in slabs of blue.
A peacock feather eye as one oval panelOvals inside ovals, then fine panes fanning out for the barbs.
A seahorse on a panel of wavy uprightsThe background is tall ribbons of water. The seahorse sits across them in one warm colour.
A sleeping fox in a round frameThe tail wraps round to the nose. Cut the body into pieces along its natural folds.
A snail whose shell is a spiral of panesCut the spiral across like slices of a roll, each slice a shade warmer.
A sunflower face on, petals as long trianglesA disc of small squares for the seeds, two rings of petals, a plain ground.
A toucan with its bill in three panesThe bill is the subject: three curved pieces, each a different warm colour. The body is one dark shape.
A turtle with every shell plate a paneA dome of five-sided plates ringed by small edge plates. Head and flippers are one piece each.
A wheat field in strips of gold and amberTall narrow panes for the stalks, a low band of sky, one round sun.
An owl built from ovals, facing youTwo big eye discs, a body oval, wing ovals at the sides. Feathers are rows of scallops.
Practice pieces 14
A black-outline colouring page of your ownThick marker only. If every area is closed, it will colour like glass.
A busy subject simplified to under fifteen piecesTry a bicycle or a bunch of keys. Merge, straighten and leave things out.
A circle cut into twelve pieces, no two alikeEvery line runs from edge to edge or from line to line. No line stops in mid-air.
A corner piece that turns a borderDesign one square corner so a strip pattern can run in, turn and run out.
A design where no two touching panes share a colourPencil a letter in each pane before you colour. Four colours are enough.
A marker drawing on tracing paper, taped to a windowBlack lines first, then felt-tip colour. Daylight does the rest.
A panel in three colours and clearChoose the three before you start. Clear glass is the fourth, and it rests the eye.
A panel made with curves onlyEvery line bends and meets another. Think of water, hair or smoke.
A panel made with straight cuts onlyRule lines from edge to edge. Colour it so that no two neighbours match.
A photo traced and reduced to flat shapesTrace only the edges where colour changes. Join any shape that is too small to colour.
The coloured patch a window throws on a floorDraw the window small, then its stretched and tilted copy lying across the boards.
One apple drawn in three, eight and twenty piecesThe same outline three times. See how few pieces it needs before it stops being an apple.
One design with fat outlines and again with fine onesSame drawing twice. The heavy one reads from across the room; the fine one up close.
Your name as a leaded panelThe letters are solid shapes. Break the background into pieces around them.
How it works
Thick black lines, flat colour and no shading: that is the whole style. These stained glass drawing ideas give you a subject and tell you how to cut it into pieces. The Mosaics group swaps the lines for small tiles.
Read the full guide
Draw the lines first, then colour
Pencil the subject as a plain outline. Then divide it: every line must end on another line or on the frame, because in real glass each piece is cut out whole. Go over the lines in thick black marker. Fill each piece with one flat colour and keep neighbours different. Leave some pieces white.
Mosaic drawing ideas work the other way
A mosaic has no lead lines. The picture is made of small tiles with a pale joint between them, so draw the gaps, not the edges. Lay the tiles in rows that follow the shape, the way fur or water would run.
Use a chisel-tip marker for the lines and turn it on its edge for the fine ones.
Work on tracing paper and tape it to a window. Felt-tip colour glows when the light comes through.
Questions and answers
What are the black lines in a stained glass window?
They are strips of metal called came, most often lead, that hold the cut pieces of glass together. Small, fiddly pieces may be wrapped in copper foil instead. In a drawing, a thick black marker line stands in for them.
How do you make a drawing look like stained glass?
Close every shape, outline it in heavy black, and colour each piece flat with no blending. Keep the pieces simple enough that they could be cut from glass, and let a few stay clear.
What is the difference between stained glass and mosaic?
Stained glass is cut pieces of coloured glass joined by metal strips and seen with light coming through. A mosaic is small tiles, called tesserae, fixed to a surface with pale joints between them.