Pixel art glass: tinted and transparent

Draw tinted glass in shades of one color: everything behind it turns into that color. Draw transparent glass with a glare: a few diagonal stripes that are lighter and less saturated than what's behind. Never use layer transparency. Try both below.

This sprite is wide. It's easier to draw on a computer, or with your phone turned sideways.

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Tinted glass: one color

Pick the tint, here a blue. Then draw what's behind the glass, the frame divisions and the shadows all in shades of that one blue. A monochrome palette is what makes the eye read it as colored glass. It works for glass doors, glass buildings and skyscraper windows.

Transparent glass: the glare

Clear glass has no color of its own, so how do you show it's there? With a glare. Without it, there may as well be a hole cut in the wall. Take the color behind the glass and make it lighter and less saturated: that's the glare. Parts of objects behind a glare stripe also turn lighter and less saturated. The window body stays darker and more saturated, the glare lighter and softer.

Why no transparency

It's tempting to lower a layer's opacity and call it glass. Don't. Every semi transparent pixel mixes into a new color you never picked, and keeping the palette consistent becomes very hard. Choose the glass colors yourself, and you stay in control of every pixel.

Your turn

Draw a small shop window with something behind it: a plant, a lamp, a poster. First in its own colors, then add two diagonal glare stripes and recolor the parts under them lighter and softer. Then try the same window tinted green.