lynton allan > Medium > blacklight art

Unique to the world of pastel art is a medium called Black light art.

This art form enables the artist to create works of art that are invisible under normal light but come alive and glow fluorescently under an ultraviolet light (black light). To see it will take your breath away. The medium is a pastel made from rare earth minerals such as yttrium, europium and sulfides. The range of vivid colours is white under normal light so if drawn on a white surface, remain virtually unseen. However when the image is exposed to a black light, they glow with fluorescent brilliance in a darkened room.

The challenge with black light is that you are truly painting with light and because of that, there are no dark colours. So to create shading and detail you need to view an image similar to that of a negative and leave the areas of shade and detail clean or partially clean. Under the ultraviolet light these areas become dark giving you the desired effect.

© 2003 Lynton Allan