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Let There Be Light: Light Paintings and Sculptures
By Smashing Editorial, July 14th, 2008 in Inspiration | 90 Comments | Forum
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://media1.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
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Komil (July 14th, 2008, 3:57 am)
just fantastic
Komil (July 14th, 2008, 3:57 am)
just fantastic thanks
Fabio Marchi (July 14th, 2008, 3:58 am)
Very, very nice !!!!!!!
Shrey (July 14th, 2008, 4:31 am)
In my opinion, Santa’s reindeer is the best one among these!!
Leigh Taylor (July 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
Link [www.leightaylor.co.uk]
Michiel (July 14th, 2008, 4:41 am)
Cool! There are some beautiful thing between them :P
martin (July 14th, 2008, 4:59 am)
fantastic…
Eivind Ingebrigtsen (July 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.
Marcos Vera (July 14th, 2008, 5:07 am)
amazing
Sandie Sørensen (July 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:
Link [search.live.com]
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 am)
Always enjoyed doing this with slow shutter speeds on my camera.
Niki Brown Link [nikibrown.com]
Cho. P (July 14th, 2008, 6:25 am)
Real nice, some great inspiration.
Eivind Ingebrigtsen: I don’t see how this is off topic at all, sorry…
Laurence (July 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.
Roger (July 14th, 2008, 7:02 am)
I love the exploration of the intersection of art and machines (which is what Link [artbotica.com] 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 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:
Link [tochka.jp]
chris (July 14th, 2008, 7:07 am)
Lightpainting is really fun!
I wished my lightpaintings would look like the ones in this article.
Barbara Gonzalez (July 14th, 2008, 7:16 am)
These are so unique, will be sending it on to all my friends.
Mike Garrett (July 14th, 2008, 7:20 am)
I have one of those!
In the form of Video:
Link [www.facebook.com]
-Mike
Charles (July 14th, 2008, 7:22 am)
What? No references to light beer? ;)
JeremieSpoken (July 14th, 2008, 8:09 am)
wooo flashy!
flko (July 14th, 2008, 8:12 am)
muy bueno, yo tengo hecho algunas cosas con de este tipo
Link [www.quintohache.com]
MiSc (July 14th, 2008, 8:44 am)
these are great. I used to send a mirrored light-written 2007 to my friends at dec 31st. 2006
Santiago (July 14th, 2008, 9:53 am)
WOW!, amazing!
Kristian (July 14th, 2008, 3:15 pm)
simply amazing :O
Thang (July 14th, 2008, 6:25 pm)
Look great! Amazing
gr8pixel (July 14th, 2008, 7:25 pm)
WOW!
Asim Ahmed (July 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.
omar0x (July 14th, 2008, 10:02 pm)
This is really wonderful, thank you, check this please:
Link [www.takuro-osaka.com]
also great work.
Brian (July 14th, 2008, 10:23 pm)
The Christmas reindeer made me laugh but great inspiration!
paskal (July 14th, 2008, 10:35 pm)
wow i really stunned with this collection… still wondering how they make these lighting..
SonicHedgehog (July 14th, 2008, 10:55 pm)
I stunned through scrolling this collection. Great. Fantastic.
Quakeulf (July 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
Mehran (July 15th, 2008, 1:45 am)
Very(x10) nice ! ;)
Squall (July 15th, 2008, 1:57 am)
Great.Fantastic!
NeoSheet (July 15th, 2008, 2:12 am)
woooooooooooow… its AMAZING!! fantastic, im very love it.. thx smashing ;)
max (July 16th, 2008, 11:19 pm)
GREAT !!!!
Renata (July 18th, 2008, 10:19 am)
Oh! 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 am)
Wonderful images !!! and all my life I’ve just been using sunlight !
Bernardo (July 22nd, 2008, 9:47 am)
Fantastic
Evoria (July 22nd, 2008, 2:36 pm)
Wow! Stunning…and exceptionally inspirational.
egbsystems123 (July 23rd, 2008, 4:37 pm)
it’s amazing. Images are beautiful……… Thanks….
Link [wwww.egbsystems.com]
Micah L (July 23rd, 2008, 11:07 pm)
God,so many paintings.
If only there’s one from me ~~~~~
Ness (July 25th, 2008, 7:29 am)
hahaha, Charles.
Look E’ Ti (August 8th, 2008, 4:07 pm)
SLLLLOOOOWWWW!!!
Nice, very nice!!!
una joyita totalmete aleatoria de la tecnologia.
Artandsteel (November 30th, 2008, 9:30 pm)
Link [www.flickr.com]
Bobby (December 3rd, 2008, 8:26 pm)
WOW, so amazing!!!!
Link [www.industryfinest.com]