Painting Cut Crystal

This isn't quite a tutorial, but I typed this up for someone on Reddit (I got a lot of questions on the cut crystal decanter from the Sargent piece) and I thought some folks here might find it interesting!

Here's what I wrote in my reply to the person who asked for specifics on how to paint something like this:

So for the glass (and, well, every thing else that approaches hyperrealism), the key is references. Unsexy, I know, but that's the deal.

Specifically, I went scouring the internet for a few types of references for the decanter:

• Pictures of decanters from the time period (late Victorian or earlier) so I knew what shapes and designs were extant at the time.

• Pictures of decanters from any time period, taken against dark backgrounds and in moderate lighting so that I could understand how light moves through cut crystal.

• Pictures of decanters with liquid in them, so that I could understand how light interacts with the liquid in the bottle AND the facets of the crystal simultaneously.

Then I take all my references and stack them up next to my canvas and get to work.

Pssst: I grabbed some of the refs I used, just to share with you lovely Continuum folks.

For the shape and design of the decanter (specifically the diamond pattern), I spent a ton of time setting up and adjusting grids of guidelines to keep me on track.

Psst: Here is the guideline layer (it isn't perfect, but it doesn't have to be!), so you can see what that looks like:

Then I laid down a stack of paint layers:

• The base layer in a sort of off-white color and low opacity, making the basic shape of the whole decanter.

• The next layer is the ambient environment light diffusing through the glass, mostly concentrating around the edges (the shape of the decanter as a whole is mostly built in this layer, especially the stopper and bottleneck because a lot of light gets caught in those areas.)

• Then an orangey-yellow base layer for the liquid inside, medium opacity.

• Then a highlight layer for the liquid inside in a bright orangey yellow.

• Then a low light layer for the cut crystal design (any places where the orange/yellow liquid color OR the surrounding environment color/light is being reflected/diffused through the crystal)

• And finally, the uppermost layer is all of the extreme highlights, any point where the light source in the room is directly reflecting off the crystal (mostly pure whites and light yellow)

It takes a ton of time and painting and adjusting and blending. I spent about seven hours on the decanter and tumbler alone!