My First Attempt at Painting with Light Beams

Posted at 4:31 AM on December 4, 2008

Last night I decided to paint with light and see if it was anything I’d be interested in. Gathered up a small flashlight, tripod, Canon Rebel XTi dSLR, and I was ready to start shooting. Got my composition set with the lights on, put the camera into manual mode, set the exposure to 15 seconds, opened the aperture, set the self-timer, flipped the lights, and hit the shutter.

Painting in the dark with light beams reminded me of blind contour drawing. It lends itself well to gestures and large expressive strokes giving off an eerie glow sometimes. I’m a big fan of blind contour drawing, especially with pens and ink washes so this was right up my alley. There is something about the unpredictable nature of the lines and compositions that really appeal to me. That and there’s always that element of surprise when you finish and get a good at the work you produced.

I found it hard to create fine lines with my flashlight or do any sort of small details and lettering. I’m going to look into getting a laser pointer or small LED flashlight with some power for future experimentation. I think if I use a larger flashlight to paint broad strokes and then go back in with a laser pointer for the details, I’ll get better results.

Or I could just buy some cheap LED’s and other assorted parts to assemble my own LED Light Drawing Pens.