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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.
[Offtopic: by the way, did you know that Smashing Magazine has one of the most influential and popular Twitter accounts? Join our discussions and get updates about useful tools and resources — follow us on Twitter.]
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.
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
Vitaly Friedman, editor-in-chief of Smashing Magazine (www.smashingmagazine.com), an online magazine dedicated to designers and developers.
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July 14th, 2008 3:57 amjust fantastic thanks
- 3July 14th, 2008 3:58 am
Very, very nice !!!!!!!
- 4July 14th, 2008 4:31 am
In my opinion, Santa’s reindeer is the best one among these!!
- 5July 14th, 2008 4:34 am
Fantastic collections yet again – i will be coming back to this post for sure when i get some more free time!
Leigh
Portfolio - 6July 14th, 2008 4:41 am
Cool! There are some beautiful thing between them :P
- 7July 14th, 2008 4:59 am
fantastic…
- 8July 14th, 2008 5:05 am
Somehow 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.
- 9July 14th, 2008 5:07 am
amazing
- 10July 14th, 2008 5:25 am
Nice.
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.jpgIt’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. :)
- 11July 14th, 2008 5:59 am
Always enjoyed doing this with slow shutter speeds on my camera.
Niki Brown Niki Brown
- 12July 14th, 2008 6:25 am
Real nice, some great inspiration.
Eivind Ingebrigtsen: I don’t see how this is off topic at all, sorry…
- 13July 14th, 2008 7:00 am
I 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.
- 14July 14th, 2008 7:02 am
I 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.
- 15July 14th, 2008 7:07 am
check 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
- 16July 14th, 2008 7:07 am
Lightpainting is really fun!
I wished my lightpaintings would look like the ones in this article.
- 17July 14th, 2008 7:16 am
These are so unique, will be sending it on to all my friends.
- 18July 14th, 2008 7:20 am
I have one of those!
In the form of Video:
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=527103942566-Mike
- 19July 14th, 2008 7:22 am
What? No references to light beer? ;)
- 20July 14th, 2008 8:09 am
wooo flashy!
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- 22July 14th, 2008 8:44 am
these are great. I used to send a mirrored light-written 2007 to my friends at dec 31st. 2006
- 23July 14th, 2008 9:53 am
WOW!, amazing!
- 24July 14th, 2008 3:15 pm
simply amazing :O
- 25July 14th, 2008 6:25 pm
Look great! Amazing
- 26July 14th, 2008 7:25 pm
WOW!
- 27July 14th, 2008 7:40 pm
Seems 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.
- 28July 14th, 2008 10:02 pm
This is really wonderful, thank you, check this please:
http://www.takuro-osaka.com/index.html
also great work. - 29July 14th, 2008 10:23 pm
The Christmas reindeer made me laugh but great inspiration!
- 30July 14th, 2008 10:35 pm
wow i really stunned with this collection… still wondering how they make these lighting..
- 31July 14th, 2008 10:55 pm
I stunned through scrolling this collection. Great. Fantastic.
- 32July 15th, 2008 1:39 am
This 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
- 33July 15th, 2008 1:45 am
Very(x10) nice ! ;)
- 34July 15th, 2008 1:57 am
Great.Fantastic!
- 35July 15th, 2008 2:12 am
woooooooooooow… its AMAZING!! fantastic, im very love it.. thx smashing ;)
- 36July 16th, 2008 11:19 pm
GREAT !!!!
- 37July 18th, 2008 10:19 am
Oh! I loved these. In the studio that I work we did 2 light painting videos: midiaeffects.com.br
- 38July 22nd, 2008 3:48 am
Wonderful images !!! and all my life I’ve just been using sunlight !
- 39July 22nd, 2008 9:47 am
Fantastic
- 40July 22nd, 2008 2:36 pm
Wow! Stunning…and exceptionally inspirational.
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- 42July 23rd, 2008 11:07 pm
God,so many paintings.
If only there’s one from me ~~~~~ - 43July 25th, 2008 7:29 am
hahaha, Charles.
- 44August 8th, 2008 4:07 pm
SLLLLOOOOWWWW!!!
Nice, very nice!!!
una joyita totalmete aleatoria de la tecnologia. - 45
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- 48July 18th, 2009 6:59 pm
me too, lauren
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just fantastic