Glow Stick Glow Painting

A fun twist on painting by turning the lights out and watching the paint glow.

Painting with glow sticks and glow in the dark paint.

What you need:

- black canvas (white would also work but paint will not show in the light)

- glow in the dark paint

- glow sticks (we had glow glasses just to add to the excitement)

- paintbrushes

Materials needed.

How it works:

We set ourselves up on our art mat down in the basement where there is the least light. The glow in the dark paint works by absorbing light so whilst we were getting everything ready we put the paint palette directly under the light. We broke the glow sticks so that they would start to shine and then we turned the lights off. My son was so excited to see the paint glowing so brightly.

At first he experimented with using the glow sticks as paintbrushes but it was hard for him to make a big enough mark with them so he switched to a paintbrush. I gave him no instructions in terms of what to paint but simply let his imagination run wild.

Attempting to add some polka dots with the glow stick as a paint brush.

My son was inspired by the darkness so he decided to paint some monsters. He loved the glowing effect of the paint. Once he was finished painting we kept the lights off and told each other stories about his two monsters, 'Ooogley Boogley Woogley Woo' and 'Hairy Lairy'. This was my favourite part of the whole activity as he was so into his monster stories.

All finished and ready for stories.