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UV Paint
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Sam wrote:

    I have just started experimenting 
    with photoshop but my prefered media 
    is acrylics, graphite and charcoal 
    along with mixed media. I'm putting 
    a poster together at the moment in 
    a 1960's psychedelic theme. 

    My question is, is there any way to 
    make a poster like this luminescent 
    under an ultraviolet light bulb, the 
    way the old hand painted psychedllic 
    posters were? 

    What kind of media would I use?

The short answer is: wow!  I love the idea.

the long answer is try:

  http://scientificsonline.com/product.asp_Q_pn_E_3081643

(Edmund Scientifics) they aren't cheap and a lot
of scientific suppliers won't sell to just anyone
(unless you have a letter-head at a Univ or such
-- always afraid of scaliwags and such).

Unfortunately, the florescent effect is mostly
just a sort of side-effect of the material. In
chemistry there are specific reactions that you
can measure (but of course then you purchase
a UV spectrometer for $$$'s to do sci research).

The Edmunt $30 light looks good. Here some of
my thoughts on it:

1) UV light is (slightly) dangerous to the eyes.
   If you are using something like that light
   from Edmund Sci it should be ok. There are
   a few sites like:

          http://www.club-t-shirts.com/en/accessories.html

  But, then they don't want to sell you the 
  chemicals.

2) The chemicals usually look white or grey-ish
   and "just happen" to floresce under uv light.
   You may have to provide SOME ambient light
   to high-light the traditional colour work 
   (or ink on paper, etc) that you are doing.
   
   And then use the UV lights to pick up the
   florescent paint.

   What i'm thinking here is to use the flouresent
   dies to high light certain lines. Think of
   Lee Krasner's "cubist/surrealist" drawings,
   or Paul Klee's "cxartoons".

   Apply your normal media and then hgih light
   it with the uv-paint.

3) Fabrics (i seem to recall LINT from cotton
   t-shirts and some poly-ester fabrics) are
   flourescent as well.

   You'll have to experiment.

   You MAY find that crayons, pencis, and other
   traditional materials actually flouresce as
   well. You can never tell - it all depends on
   very specific chemical structures of the
   materials. And these are usually organic dyes
   or other materials that just happen to flouresce.

LET me know if you find some stuff out. 

Again, be careful since a lot of paints or materials
are toxic (just like our "good friends" Cadmium
and Barium paints - v. toxic (espeically as a dust
when scrap-ed or sanded!!!). 

Also, you can experiment with painting with somethings
and covering them with varnish, gloss or matt medium,
etc.  But, i would guess that covering the UV paint
or material will mask it and may LOOK transparent 
bu the gloss medium or varnish would cut off the
UV light frequencies. 

Like i said, the first step is to get a uv lamp and
then experiment with materials that you already have
at hand to see if they flouresce. Then to "somehow"
apply them to other work; i'm thinking "glitter" or
paper collage here.  

As with ALL LIGHTING - think in terms of both static
and moving sources.  One UV light could be mounted
on an oscilating fan and slowly waft back and forth,
or even be used with revolving mirrors and such.
And of course a KEY here in an installation space
is SAFETY (and durability - like all "public space"
scultpure expect a LOT of maintenence.

Sounds like a way cool project (or as we old hippies
are want sey, "Far out!!"

take care and stay in touch, 
i'll try and get a uv lamp and do some
experiments myself - i have (somewhere)
a UV secret pen that i got with the 
"Get Smart" DVD.

- frank