While you may be old enough to remember the psychodelic paints and colors of the hippies in the 60's and 70's, this is NOT your mother's painting project! Glow In The Dark (GID) painting is making a comeback!

Several years ago, I became part of a group that paints star murals on the ceiling, usually in bedrooms. Back then, the price for the paints, equipment and instructions I bought, though a tiny bit high, was fairly reasonable. Actually, all I want now is to get the paints they have. The quality was good & the stars are visible for many hours, so that is what I was after. Now, however, that same website is charging $ 3000 to $ 4000 to become part of the business. OK, I laugh to myself and turn to Google to find something reasonable.

My search for glow in the dark paint brought up many possibilities, so I opened the most promising and soon had the field narrowed down to three. Then two. I ordered some from each of them.

Glow in the dark paint is handy for lots of applications from painting the stars for this new project to marking flashlights, watches and fishing lures! Who would have thought the fish would care?

But what I want to share with you is the possibility of using some glow in the dark paint for interesting effects in your painting. These unique paints can be used in conjunction with your painting medium of choice or all by themselves.

GID paints are available in both water and solvent based form, so they will be compatible with oil or water based paints. They also come in colors that can be seen in daylight or in an almost invisible type that has only a slight tinge of grey-green, practically undiscernable to the naked eye during the day. However, at night, after they have absorbed light all day long or have been "charged" by having lights on in the room for a while (usually 1/2 hour to 1 hour), they come alive with color and excitement when the lights are turned off and may glow up to 10 or 12 hours. The glow lasts different lengths of time, depending on the color, etc.

The star-filled sky I am preparing to paint is going to use the invisible type of paint on an existing ceiling. The little boy this is for is going to have a space-themed room and this will be the crowning touch. I have done this several times and the results can be quite dramatic. It's not just for kids, either! Adults, too, enjoy the effects of having a star field overhead at night. It can be just a skylight effect or a whole ceiling. Either way, it is relaxing and fun.

The types that have color visible anytime also glow when "charged" with light. But you, of course, will see them as normal colors in the light. They are bright, neon-type colors, but with a little mixing, you can get many hues and can calm them down a bit by mixing complementary colors together. I find this type of bright color is best used as an accent, but the effect is soooooo cooooool when the lights are dimmed or turned out! The GID colors will, of course, GLOW!

GID paints should NOT be mixed with your regular paints, but used alone, as the last layer of paint. If mixed, the glowing effect will be lost because the pigments used to give color to paint will prevent them from being seen.

The invisible paints can be put onto areas or parts of any painting. Just this evening, I was looking out of a window and noticed the moonlight glinting off of wet tree branches in our yard in the dark. I am going to make this my next work! I can just see those glints of light accented with white GID paint ... dramatic!

The two sites where I found the paints I am using are glowinc.com and glonation.com. Although they are not cheap paints and you might find something at your local hobby store, you should be aware that the glow time will vary according to the quality of paint you get.

If you try this, please drop by our forum and let us know how it works or if you have any questions.

Happy Painting,
Paula Devore
Painting Editor

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