Monument Valley Mural Glow-in-the-dark

As promised I managed to take a couple of photos of the mural in the dark to show the effect with the glow-in-the-dark paint.

The silhouette effect of the monoliths works really well and was worth the extra effort in masking off all the areas I didn't want splattered with glow paint.

Monument Valley Mural - Finished

It has taken a bit longer than expected but the mural is now finally finished.

The ceiling has glow-in-the-dark stars, galaxies & comets and then comes down to the horizon so, when the lights are off, the rocky monoliths form striking silhouettes.
Unfortunately my mobile phone's camera cannot capture this and I cannot find my other (proper) camera at the moment. I need to mount the camera on a tripod and set a long exposure in order to capture the glow effect. It does look stunning but for the time being you will just have to take my word for it :)

Monument Valley Mural

Slowly getting there with this one. Gradually building up the rocky forms in a monotone way with a little white. Also starting picking out the stars in Titanium White - still got quite a bit of work to do.

Monument Valley Mural

Gradually building up the night sky - this is the really messy part as I am building up the effects using a nail brush to splatter the paint. Most of the paint ends up on me but that's a small price to pay.

Monument Valley

I have recently started work on a mural depicting Monument Valley at night. I am painting all four walls and the ceiling in a child's bedroom - the ceiling has been painted a deep purple and this will be the backdrop to some swirling galaxies, stars and comets which I will continue down the walls.

What started as as simple idea has now become a bit more involved - my plan is to also used my glow-in-the-dark paints to give as close an authentic night sky effect as I can. Hopefully it will not disappoint.

Desert Mural - Day 5

Finished the mural late yesterday evening. It was just as well that I finished late as the M25 was completely clogged during the afternoon due to the closure of the QE2 Bridge amongst other problems. By the time I drove home the road was nice & clear - even through all the roadworks :)

I painted the glow-in-the-dark stars yesterday. Because the ceiling had been painted blue I first painted the stars in white acrylic and then painted the glow paint on top. this will help the paints to glow more effectively.
The varnishing took me much longer than anticipated. This was due to the fact that I have painted the mural on top of a textured wallpaper so the varnish took a lot more working in.

The clients were very happy with the finished result and no doubt look forward to getting their room back :)

Surprise Ceiling

I have been painting a glow-in-the-dark star ceiling in Middlesex today.

The project was a birthday surprise for my clients sister who was barred from her flat, had her front door key confiscated and was unceremoniously dumped in Starbucks for the day with her laptop and a dodgy Wi-Fi connection.

Her bedroom was then cleared so I could then proceed to cover the walls & floor, block out the windows and paint the stars, nebulae and a passing comet on the ceiling. There was also a picture rail in the room so I decided to continue the effect down the walls to meet this.

Once the bedroom was completed, all the furniture & nick-nacks were returned using photographs taken of the room that very morning to ensure that everything went back in exactly the same place.

I hope the surprise was well received and that the day spent in Starbucks was worth it : )

The only downside to the day was that heavy rain and roadworks on the M25 meant that a 50 mile journey home took me nearly 3 hours !

Cosmic Ceiling

I have spent the last couple of days creating a cosmic ceiling for a child's bedroom in Essex.


The effects you can see in the photos were built up with layer upon layer of paint -applied by flicking a toothbrush & nailbrush. Half the paint made it up on the ceiling - the other half ended up on me : )

I do not normally paint this way and was pleasantly surprised at the different effects that can be achieved. It was my original intention to use an airbrush for this ceiling but opted to tackle it this way instead.


To add another dimension to the mural I have also used some glow-in-the-dark paint so when the lights are turned off - the stars carry on shining.

Stargazing

Had another trip up to London today for a belated birthday meal. My wife & I booked a table at the Gaucho Canary in the London Docklands where we enjoyed a fantastic sea food starter followed by their renowned Argentine fillet steak with plenty of sides and of course some red wine to wash it down.
I thoroughly recommend a visit to their restaurants - we have also tried the Gaucho Broadgate in the past which is also worth a visit if just to admire the fantastic design of the restaurant .

After our meal we caught a train to Greenwich as I was keen to pay a visit to the Royal Observatory. The walk from the station across Greenwich Park and up the hill to the the observatory was just what we needed after such a filling meal.

On the way up I took a quick snap shot with my mobile of the view down to the Queen's House and National Maritime Museum with the Docklands in the background.



By the time we got up the hill it was getting on for 4:00pm so all we had time for was a show in the Planetarium. The last time I visited a planetarium was when I was a child. We intend to bring our two children back here as I'm sure they will love the experience, as we certainly did.

We bought my son Adam a telescope for his birthday a few months ago as he had expressed a keen interest in the stars & planets - especially after I painted his room with glow-in-dark stars.
It is a Newtonian reflector, and at first it was a bit daunting as I really had no idea on how to use the thing properly.
Luckily I had a lot of help from Andy from my wife's side of the family.

Andy is a keen amateur astronomer and showed me how to align the telescope's axis to the North Star Polaris amongst many other things. Before then had no idea where or who Polaris was or how to identify the myriad constellations that surround it. I am a bit better now and whenever we are out with the children on a clear night, I pass on some of my limited knowledge.

My daughter Hannah can now identify the constellation of Orion by finding the three stars that make up his belt. She can also point out Venus which is very bright in the sky at the moment and you can usually see it before it gets dark.

The weather suddenly changed on our trek home from the observatory and as I type this the snow is pilling up outside. The snow means lots of cloud cover so unfortunately I will not be able to venture outside this evening with the telescope : (

As a consolation I can always stargaze on my children's ceilings which comes a close second best : )

More Glow in the dark stuff

I'm still playing with those glow paints (actually I should say 'working' as that sounds much more professional).

I painted this a couple of weeks ago onto an MDF panel - I thought it would be fun to try something a bit OTT and seeing as I've already done stars, planets, moons and comets I thought I'd try my artistic hand at the Big Bang !



I have also just completed a bedroom ceiling for one of my daughter's school friends. He came upstairs to see me whilst I was halfway through - it must have seemed odd because yesterday was bright sunshine and I had darkened his room with blackout material to help me see what I'm doing (trust me - that makes sense).
He was concerned about the paint getting in my eyes and insisted I wear a pair of his goggles to protect me :)



My next project is for a London skyline painted across three canvases and I will be using some of the glow paint so you can have both a day-time & night-time scene on the same painting. It is all experimental but then that's what art should be about - wish me luck.

Star Ceilings Forum

As you know I have been experimenting with those glow-in-the-dark UV paints and I have found this fantastic forum which is overflowing with advice and techniques for painting your own star ceilings.

If you have ever wondered how those star and cosmic ceiling effects are achieved then have a look at
www.glowforum.com. It isn't rocket science to get these effects but it is great fun.

I also thought you would be interested to see a photo of a glow-in-the-dark planet & stars with the light on.

Here it is -




And this is the same painting with the lights off -

More Star Ceiling Murals

I have been busy experimenting with those glow-in-dark UV paints so I thought I'd show you a couple of recent effects that I have tried out.





At some point I will have to update my main website with all these new images - I have noticed that there are a lot of companies offering these glow-in-the-dark UV star ceilings so its probably about time I threw my hat into the ring.

Let me know if you have any ideas for a star ceiling effect and I will see if I can paint it & post the picture up here.

Glow in the Dark Murals - Star Ceilings (revisited)

As I mentioned in an earlier post I have finally pulled my finger out and painted my son's ceiling with UV glow in the dark stars & planets.

I started at about 8pm last night but didn't actually start painting till gone 10:30 - this is because I have to make sure that any surface that I do not want painted has to be covered.
If you look at the photos you will see that some of the paint is splattered on and this tends goes anywhere & everywhere. All the walls needed to be covered with plastic sheeting & the floor covered with dustsheets.

Once this tricky part is complete the easier & more enjoyable bit of painting the planets & galaxies can begin.



I didn't finish till after 1:00am and went to bed aching & exhausted but I was positively glowing and if my wife had woken up at that point she would have got the shock of her life.

Photographing the ceiling posed another challenge - I set up my camera on a tripod because of the long exposure needed, lined the shot up, charged the ceiling with a UV light and then clicked the shutter the second I turned off the light. I managed to get just two reasonable photos in the end and they still fall far short of the effect of seeing these star ceilings in the flesh.

Now I am thinking of ways I can combine this type of effect with my murals and trompe l'oeil work. If you think of any good ideas let me know.

Glow in the Dark - Star Ceiling Murals

I have just finished painting the ceiling in our daughter's bedroom with glow in the dark galaxies & stars. I recently saw the effect on BBC1's DIY SOS (which I will soon be on) so decided to give it a try myself.

To my surprise the effect is quite astonishing but unfortunately my daughter will not appreciate the full effect until the nights draw in as it is still daylight when its her bedtime.
My wife & I did wake her late in the evening so she could see the stars but in the morning she could not recollect anything - oh well, roll on winter.

Our son is now very keen to have his ceiling painted - it was my intention to do a glowing star ceiling in his old room in which I painted a space/Dr Who theme but then we went & moved house.
At present he has Winnie-the-Pooh wallpaper which hardly bodes well with an eight year old boy's tastes in interior decor.
His ceiling is smooth as opposed to artexed like my daughter's so I am planning something a bit more ambitious and will keep you posted on how it goes - hopefully with some photographs.

Oh, and just a word of warning if you every get the chance to use these UV paints - keep them away from children !
They are non-toxic so no worries there but my son was curious about the paints and decided to open one to have a look. This fact was unbeknown to us until we tested the ceiling at night by charging the paint with a UV lamp and found that not only did the ceiling have stars & galaxies but so did the carpet, walls and our son's face & hands.

I believe that is known as a 'smoking gun'.