Let There Be Light: Light Paintings and Sculptures
Although light is considered to be rather a practical than an artistic tool, it has some properties which designers can effectively explore in their works. Indeed, light can also be considered as a medium for more powerful and more vivid artistic expression. In fact, many artists and crews make use of it creating quite impressive works of art.
In this episode of our Monday Inspiration series we present 50 beautiful examples of light art — paintings, sculptures, drawings and graffitts which were created using light. At the bottom of this post you will find references to related Flickr pools which contain thousands of further examples of what can be achieved out of creative experiments with light.
Light Paintings and Light Sculptures
Sitooterie II
The structure is a cube punctured by over 5000 long thin windows that project from all its surfaces and lift it off the ground. As the long thin windows all point at the exact centre of the cube, it only takes a single light source, located at this central point, to send light through every tube, causing the windows to glow orange. A small number of them also project into the cube to form seating. Designed by Heatherwick studio.
I am on Fire
Light painting by Benegizer.
sm_light paint
Created by Andrew Thomas.
Tunnel
Kevinhooa walks backwards while circling a road flare inside the Oxford tunnel.
AntiVJ
AntiVJ is funky and creative. The team creates visual experiments, installations and live light visuals. Videos are included.
Lightmark
Light architecture by Cenci Goepel and Jens Warnecke from Hamburg, Germany.
Eric Staller
Light drawings and light sculptures created by Eric Staller.
Spirallight
By Robin Carpenter.
Laser
Created by Fesan from Norway.
![Lightning Photography - [mb] Fluorescent Tunnel 6](http://media.smashingmagazine.com/images/light-photography/10.jpg)
Light Painting Humanoids
Light painting examples by Christopher Hibbert.
Olho – Light Paint com celular e sony!
Lichtfaktor
A German design crew which specializes in light graffiti and light drawing.
Light River
A light painting by Crystal Chroma.
Michael Bosanko
“We Come In Peace”.
Santa’s Reindeer – Light Sculpture
Gyrating Quasar
Photos created by throwing an old camera around various light sources. A camera toss in front of some lovely blue lights.
UVA and the Light Fantastic
Some excellent examples of light installations presented by the Creative Review blog.
Fireworks
No light art without fireworks, of course… Sky painting at its best.
Last Click
Sprint flashlight
Sprint commercial with flashlight animation.
Resources
- Cameratoss- Everything!
Photos created by throwing an old camera around various light sources. - DIY Photography: Painting with Light
A step-by-step tutorial. - 25 Amazing Light Graffiti Pictures
- Light Writing Flickr Group
- Lights-n-Shadows Flickr Pool
- Moving Light Flickr Pool
- Light Fantastic Flickr Pool
- Light Junkies Flickr Pool
- Light Drawing Flickr Pool
- Light Painted Flickr Group
- Light Stream Pool
- 10 Amazing Light Graffiti Artists and Photographers
- The Gallery of Light Flickr Pool
Komil
July 14th, 2008 3:57 amjust fantastic
Komil
July 14th, 2008 3:57 amjust fantastic thanks
Fabio Marchi
July 14th, 2008 3:58 amVery, very nice !!!!!!!
Shrey
July 14th, 2008 4:31 amIn my opinion, Santa’s reindeer is the best one among these!!
Leigh Taylor
July 14th, 2008 4:34 amFantastic collections yet again – i will be coming back to this post for sure when i get some more free time!
Leigh
Portfolio
Michiel
July 14th, 2008 4:41 amCool! There are some beautiful thing between them :P
martin
July 14th, 2008 4:59 amfantastic…
Eivind Ingebrigtsen
July 14th, 2008 5:05 amSomehow this site has lost its topic. And it doesn’t seem to be going back.
I am sure I’m not the only one with this feeling.
Come on Smashing – get back on topic and stay there.
Marcos Vera
July 14th, 2008 5:07 amamazing
Sandie Sørensen
July 14th, 2008 5:25 amNice.
I’ve been planning to make a such myself at some time. I was inspired by Pucasso… Tjek it out here:
http://search.live.com/images/results.aspx?q=picasso+painting+with+light&FORM=BIRE#focal=17ca4cb76e09fcbf234b5547f61a871a&furl=http%3A%2F%2Ftropist.files.wordpress.com%2F2007%2F06%2Fpicasso2.jpg
It’s funny how soft the curves get in these “paintings”… It’s a must try! Soon!
Thanks for reminding me, and inspiring me- again!
I particulary liked the photo with the two persons standing on the bridge and looking down on their reflections. :)
Niki Brown
July 14th, 2008 5:59 amAlways enjoyed doing this with slow shutter speeds on my camera.
Niki Brown Niki Brown
Cho. P
July 14th, 2008 6:25 amReal nice, some great inspiration.
Eivind Ingebrigtsen: I don’t see how this is off topic at all, sorry…
Laurence
July 14th, 2008 7:00 amI know its a little off topic – however it was great to see Architecture in Helsinki’s song Souvenirs used for the Sprint flashlight commercial. Such a great Australian band.
Roger
July 14th, 2008 7:02 amI love the exploration of the intersection of art and machines (which is what artbotica is all about)… all art involves the use of technique… this art uses the technology of light as one of its primary techniques. Inspiring indeed.
kris m
July 14th, 2008 7:07 amcheck this out also, made by a design firm in japan. they were the ones that inspired the sprint commercials, but this video is sick. a bit long, but wait till the end where it gets crazy:
http://tochka.jp/pikapika/2007/03/pika_pika_2007_release_1.html
chris
July 14th, 2008 7:07 amLightpainting is really fun!
I wished my lightpaintings would look like the ones in this article.
Barbara Gonzalez
July 14th, 2008 7:16 amThese are so unique, will be sending it on to all my friends.
Mike Garrett
July 14th, 2008 7:20 amI have one of those!
In the form of Video:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=527103942566
-Mike
Charles
July 14th, 2008 7:22 amWhat? No references to light beer? ;)
JeremieSpoken
July 14th, 2008 8:09 amwooo flashy!
flko
July 14th, 2008 8:12 ammuy bueno, yo tengo hecho algunas cosas con de este tipo
QuintoH
MiSc
July 14th, 2008 8:44 amthese are great. I used to send a mirrored light-written 2007 to my friends at dec 31st. 2006
Santiago
July 14th, 2008 9:53 amWOW!, amazing!
Kristian
July 14th, 2008 3:15 pmsimply amazing :O
Thang
July 14th, 2008 6:25 pmLook great! Amazing
gr8pixel
July 14th, 2008 7:25 pmWOW!
Asim Ahmed
July 14th, 2008 7:40 pmSeems like Smashing magazine is becoming a Wallpaper site, No doubt its great stuff, but we expect some CSS/Javascript crunch along with these yummy wallpapers, Continous similar posts might get SM boring.
omar0x
July 14th, 2008 10:02 pmThis is really wonderful, thank you, check this please:
http://www.takuro-osaka.com/index.html
also great work.
Brian
July 14th, 2008 10:23 pmThe Christmas reindeer made me laugh but great inspiration!
paskal
July 14th, 2008 10:35 pmwow i really stunned with this collection… still wondering how they make these lighting..
SonicHedgehog
July 14th, 2008 10:55 pmI stunned through scrolling this collection. Great. Fantastic.
Quakeulf
July 15th, 2008 1:39 amThis looks totally awesome but I agree with the general consensus that Smashing Magazine should stick to publishing moar articles about web development.
But hey, this is INSPIRATIONAL MATERIAL am I rite? You can never have enough of that. =3
Mehran
July 15th, 2008 1:45 amVery(x10) nice ! ;)
Squall
July 15th, 2008 1:57 amGreat.Fantastic!
NeoSheet
July 15th, 2008 2:12 amwoooooooooooow… its AMAZING!! fantastic, im very love it.. thx smashing ;)
max
July 16th, 2008 11:19 pmGREAT !!!!
Renata
July 18th, 2008 10:19 amOh! I loved these. In the studio that I work we did 2 light painting videos: midiaeffects.com.br
Chris Clover
July 22nd, 2008 3:48 amWonderful images !!! and all my life I’ve just been using sunlight !
Bernardo
July 22nd, 2008 9:47 amFantastic
Evoria
July 22nd, 2008 2:36 pmWow! Stunning…and exceptionally inspirational.
egbsystems123
July 23rd, 2008 4:37 pmit’s amazing. Images are beautiful……… Thanks….
Micah L
July 23rd, 2008 11:07 pmGod,so many paintings.
If only there’s one from me ~~~~~
Ness
July 25th, 2008 7:29 amhahaha, Charles.
Look E' Ti
August 8th, 2008 4:07 pmSLLLLOOOOWWWW!!!
Nice, very nice!!!
una joyita totalmete aleatoria de la tecnologia.
Artandsteel
November 30th, 2008 9:30 pmBobby
December 3rd, 2008 8:26 pmWOW, so amazing!!!!
Lauren
July 15th, 2009 11:49 amAm I strange for seeing a squirrel in the picture above.
red letter
July 18th, 2009 6:59 pmme too, lauren
TwitterBackgrounds
July 7th, 2010 11:45 pmI found all these light paintings very original. Nice choice!
Nicole Patchyfer
November 10th, 2010 8:26 amYippieeeeeeeeee I love light!!!
Sergiu Lazin
November 30th, 2010 12:39 amWe did this for a contest with the subject “Speed”
http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_mgqueRUEmV8/TOqCWJyEKCI/AAAAAAAAAkM/b_gTA4KM0u0/s1600/drawing+with+the+spees+of+light.jpg
We used a flashlight, a neon and some color filters. Any thoughts ?
Riley Welsh
June 20th, 2012 10:36 pmNot sure if the picture is set to private or not, but we were pretending to act out harry potter using long exposure and glow sticks. facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=2406856288761&set=t.29002775&type=3&theater
Klaus
February 18th, 2013 6:50 pmI love light painting and the work with light.
i found this: http://www.light-painting.eu
Best regards
KLaus
gugancherry
February 21st, 2013 12:37 pmThanks for all pictures it’s help me creating new ideas
santosh
May 5th, 2013 5:24 amNice