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You are here: Home / Art Tip / How to Paint a Starfield on Your Ceiling

Sep 16 2019

How to Paint a Starfield on Your Ceiling

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Night sky background with text overlay - How to Paint a Starfield on Your Ceiling.  See the Light Art

A while back I got a question on my YouTube channel about how to create a realistic-looking starfield on a ceiling with chalk. Although it would work (theoretically), a better solution is to use glow paint.

Q: I just came across your video on YouTube about how to create a realistic starfield with black light chalk and I would really appreciate if you could help me out. 

I would like to create a starfield ceiling for my kids’ room and would like to ask if I could use the same technique you used in your video. Since it’s the ceiling we are talking about, would the chalk stick to it by just blowing the chalk on it like you did? What would be the best way to create such a ceiling?

How long will the effect last? Is the blacklight chalk permanent? Or I would have to renew the ceiling after some time?

A: What a great idea! When my son was young, I did a starfield on his ceiling but just used stick-on stars. Not remotely realistic. Here are some thoughts on the subject:

Chalk: Not recommended!

Although my chalk technique would work (at least theoretically), there are some problems with blowing chalk dust onto a ceiling to create a random-looking starfield.
First, it would be extremely messy, as a lot of the chalk would fall back down to the ground. And it would be difficult to “fix” the chalk so that it would be permanent. I suppose you could spray some kind of clear coat over it, but I’m not sure how it would look on your ceiling.

Second, without fixing the chalk, it would smear anytime something brushed against it. (Not that a lot of things will brush the ceiling, but you’d never be able to dust or clean it without erasing or smearing the chalk.)

Third, because some of the pigment is toxic, I don’t think I’d want that dust on a children’s room, where they might breathe it if it gets stirred up.

A Better Solution: Phosphorescent Glow Paint

Here’s a better way to create that effect:

If I were doing it, I’d probably use phosphorescent glow paint rather than chalk. You could get a similar, random effect by using a stiff bristle brush and spattering the paint on the ceiling. (This is a common technique of watercolorists. You load paint onto the toothbrush and rake your fingernail across it to spatter it on the paper or canvas.)

You can buy good quality phosphorescent paint from: artnglow.com.

The paint will need to be “charged” to make the entire starfield glow. You can do this with a black light or strong sunlight (if the room has a lot of windows).

Here’s a short video I found that compares different varieties of glow paint:

And for those who haven’t seen it, here’s my video about how to create a star-field on paper with chalk:

 

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Written by James Pence · Categorized: Art Tip, Uncategorized · Tagged: black light, chalk, fluorescent, galaxies, glow in the dark, glow paint, stars

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