A Glow In The Dark Halloween

 This Glow in the Dark Spiders web is perfect for Halloween scenes.

A Halloween costume from head to toe

This is a tutorial based on what could be done with glow in the dark pigments and paints. We haven't tested all of the ideas and suggestions put forward in this tutorial as yet; but when we have time we will implement these suggestions, and update the tutorial accordingly. After lots of thinking, and a few intense brain storming sessions, these suggestions have been placed here to show you how we would make a full Halloween . costume from head to toe.

These suggestions could be used in any type of fancy dress costume requiring a Glow in the Dark effect.

A complete Glow in the dark outfit from head to toe. (Most clothing items may be obtainable, from your local charity store, or if you have the money you could purchase new clothing).

Update 24th Jan 2010. Fluoro Face and Body Paints are an excellent way to have a unique face. All that is needed is the face and body paint and a UV black Light.

The above image made use of our yellow Fluro face and body paint

Head

1. Purchase a full face mask,  at a novelty shop or
2. Make your own; and modify it to suit your need.

Make your own Mask; Get a standard sized grocery bag; (the type used to place your groceries in at the checkout in your local supermarket). Compress into a ball shape, pieces of newspaper, then place the compressed newspaper sheets in the shopping bag to fill the bag up to be a bit larger than the shape of a human head or whatever head shape is required..When the bag is about the correct size and shape, tape the bag up to hold it's shape. Use A flour and water mix (Paper Mache) and paint strips of newspaper to the head shaped bag. This should give the bag a nice rounded shape.Next you can apply coats of a mix of polyester resin and glow in the dark pigment. After you have given the bag a few coats of the pigment/resin mix, you will be able to carefully remove the newspaper balls from within the head. Now you can either cut out the eyes carefully or build internal eye sockets using cardboard stripes and painting with the above mix.. You can make other head features, for example pointed ears, using pieces of cardboard cut to shape then sticky taped to side of head, then coated with the polyester resin glow pigment mix.

Alternatively you could coat the bag with plaster or other hard setting substance. This is a relatively cheap and easy way to make the head piece. We will show some more ideas at a later date.

You could also use an old soccer ball or similar and paint on the flour water mix. Make sure you only apply the paper strips to half way down, or you will not be able to remove the ball from the Mache. You will need to coat the ball with bees wax or similar to stop the ball from sticking to the mache.

Two ways to Make your mask Glow In The Dark.

1. Method One; Paint the mask with white paint; (White paint reflects light and is a good undercoat). Then paint a clear medium/Pigment mix, on the mask. You will need to give it a few coasts of the glow in the dark paint mix. This method will give the best illumination effect.

Body

Arms and legs

See the above section (Body) first. or If you are using a long sleeved Tee  shirt, and long pants as suggested in the "Body" section, the arms and legs will be covered.

Hands and Feet

• Hands, use gloves, if fingers and hands need need lots of movement you will need to use a flexible medium otherwise it will crack and peel off

Feet, We suggest you use white shoes. Alternatively you could paint shoes white with shoe restorer or other suitable product.

Helpful Hints

• By using different glow in the dark pigment colours you can contrast the different shapes and areas of the face and body. An examples of this is Painting lips with red pigment paint mix. Cutting out the eye socket holes will make eyes black in the dark. These will help to define the head shape in dark. It will also allow for the best vision.
• If you wanted a glow in the dark skeleton outfit, you can purchase them from party shops; you could then paint over the white skeleton outline with glow in the dark paint mix.
• To get the strongest glow in the dark effect, expose the costume parts to strong light before displaying it to your audience.

Precautions;

• Always supervise your children when making and using Glow in the dark costumes.
• Do not place plastic bags or other dangerous items over your children or other peoples heads.

Thing To Consider

• Paint isn't normally flexible, so a wise alternative to paint is using a flexible medium like silicon to mix with glow in the dark pigment.
• The Green Pigments has the strongest illumination, combined with the longest glow time. We have also used to great effect, the Blue and Green/Blue Pigment.
• Make sure you use the "W" series of pigments, if using Acrylic types  of paint. Acrylic type paints normally wash off paint brushes with water.
• If you will only use the costume once, we suggest you use, White Acrylic Artist paint. This will allow for the easiest removal of the Glow in the Dark mix.

These are skate shoes painted with Glow in the dark paint

Glow in the Dark Pumpkin

Purchase a large Pun kin, hollow out the inside of the Pumpkin after cutting off the very top. Now cut out the eyes and other facial features. Paint it inside and out with a mix of Polyester resin and Glow in the Dark Pigment mix. We suggest you use, Premium Green Pigment mix for the inside and Blue/Green Pigment for the outside. If you cut out mouth features you could paint them with the Red Pigment. We use the Green Pigment because it's intense glow makes a really eerie effect, especially when illuminating from the inside of an object. Eventually over time the Pumpkin will rot away leaving the polyester shell and you will have one eerie halloween effect.

As we state, Glow In The Dark Paints and Pigments really do have near infinite uses. Their application is only restricted by our imagination.