Glow in The Dark Firefly Art Lesson

Fireflies are such fun bugs!  

I had never seen them until we moved to the East Coast and it really is magical to see them flying in the night sky.

I bought some Glow in The Dark Paint and I've been wanting to try this for a Summer project.

Here is what it looks like in the dark...

I painted some of the dots and the bodies of the fireflies with glow in the dark paint.  After you "charge" up the paint under a light it glows softly.

You will need:

Watercolor paint

pencils

Sharpies - black and silver

Bamboo Skewers - (for the dots)

White Acrylic paint

Glow in the Dark Paint - I got mine at Target

Start by drawing the jar with the fireflies in it.

Pretty simple so any age can do it.

I painted the lid first with some purple, red and blue watercolor paint mixed together.  

This is a great lesson for watercolor techniques.

I surrounded each firefly with a circle of just water and then painted the jar blue around them.

I added some black shading - especially under the lid, at the bottom and sides.

Now let this dry a little so the blue won't totally bleed into the yellow.

When the blue is just damp add a yellow wash over the fireflies and over the blue around them.

I wanted the colors to bleed (wet into wet) together around the firefly to get the effect of the firefly being really bright and then fading outward.

This photo also shows the sharpie on the head and body of the firefly after the yellow dries.

Add some orange to the body of the firefly.

I outlined the wings in metallic silver Sharpie and used a bamboo skewer dipped in paint to make the dots.  The bigger dots are the fat end and the tiny ones are the pointy end.  

I did white paint and silver glitter paint first.  Then I went over the white dots with the glow in the dark paint.  The glow in the dark paint is pretty transparent so you need to do the white first.  

I also painted the bodies of the fireflies with glow paint.  Do at least 2 coats, the more the better for the best glow.

I think my students will enjoy looking at these before they go to sleep.