Jewel Case/Glass Painting

For when you want to do an anime glass painting, but you don't have any sheets of glass conveniently hanging around.

-Old Jewel Cases (CD cases that aren't paper sleeves)

-Acrylic paints

-Paper cut to the shape of the case

-Pencil

-Reference images

-Alcohol markers (optional)

-Black paint pen (ultra fine tip Sharpie works as a substitute)

Your CD case is most likely to have a booklet or piece of paper with lyrics/original album art in it. Remove this from the case by opening the case and sliding the booklet to the left. Using the booklet as a template, trace the dimensions on a piece of regular paper with your pencil. Cut this shape out.

Pull up your ultra-handy reference photo and freehand it onto the cut-out paper. If this is too daunting, tracing it will also work. Just make sure to fit the details you want onto the square. When you finish, slide the paper into the case where the booklet used to be.

Take your paint pen (or Sharpie) and carefully trace each pencil line below onto the plastic layer above. Be VERY CAREFUL as this is the definitive lineart depicted in the final product.

Once you finish the paint/sharpie lines, open the case and remove the paper. You will be applying the paint to the backside of the plastic layer, so you will be painting a mirror image as you work. Start with the smaller details, i.e. eye color before the white of the eye, shadowed details before main skin tone, etc. This will take a very long time, so make sure to have lots of patience. It will pay off in the end.

Side note: when I say 'paint', it's less 'painting' and more 'globbing it on inside the lines'. You want an opaque color to appear, but you don't want hair color to spill dramatically onto the 'background'.

If you want your finished painting to have something behind it, take your paper (if you haven't thrown it away) and color in a background with the markers (or other mediums if you want). I colored mine with different colors for inside the drawing and outside the drawing. However, this step is ENTIRELY up to you. You don't even have to do it if you don't want to.

Congratulations! You've made your own miniature glass painting!