Black light art commission overview

• Client: Private
• Location: United Kingdom (UK)
• Theme: Alien Psychedelic neon black light reactive
• Dimensions: Approx. 2.5m x 1.5m (Large canvas art banner for hanging in party)
• Paint Duration: 3 days (approx. 16 hours total)
• Materials: Montana Black INFRA range & Montana Gold Flouro (specialist black light reactive spray paint) and Montana Gold and Montana Black standard colour (non-fluorescent) spray paints, a variety of spray can caps
• Objective: Create a large-scale black light-reactive canvas backdrop for a private psychedelic-themed festival birthday party

Read the full story below, or send me a message now to discuss bringing your own black light art commission to life.

How this black light art commission come about?

I get all sorts of art job requests, but it’s not every day that I receive a commission quite as unique and trippy as this one. The client’s e-mail message came in along the lines of (paraphrased):

“My daughter is turning 18 and she loves psychedelics. I love your art and would like to commission you to paint a psychedelic-themed black light reactive canvas to hang at her birthday party; a private festival event.”

(Indeed, not all parenting techniques are equal.) Far out, game on!

This request felt rather synchronistic and synergistic, a perfect painting job for me to sync my skills and style into, but as always I approach commissions and job requests methodically, to make sure I see eye to eye with the client and can deliver the goods to their expectations. In this case my follow-up questions included:

• What size of canvas?
• Canvas rolled or stretched onto a frame?
• When is the deadline? (This lets me check if it fits within my schedule and whether the job request is possible or needs prioritising to meet expectations)
• Would you like me to perform a live painting at the birthday party, or make the art in my studio and deliver it to your preferred address?
• Will you need help with installation and black lighting?
• Can you send reference images or inspirations?

Although I love painting live at events (a nostalgic nod to my early days live performance painting at London raves and UK festivals), this project was to be completed in my art studio. The client trusted my style, particularly my alien graffiti characters and previous black light artwork they had seen on my website, and as such, gave me full creative freedom, with a single key request: include her daughter’s name within the artwork.

We agreed on the canvas size, delivery and installation timeline aligned with event, budget, and key themes (glowing aliens, neon psychedelia, festival parties and raves). From there, I developed a digital mock-up to align with the request.

Even when the person hiring me has complete trust in my artistic abilities, a mock-up is invaluable. It allows me to know what materials to source and, more importantly, gives the client a way to visualise what I’m imagining, which makes room for any last-minute decisions and guarantees a final painting we’re both proud of.

After I talked the client through the design and they were happy, it was time to secure a deposit and source whatever materials I needed to bring the commission to life. What followed was a three-day painting marathon packed with psychedelic detail and fluorescent flair.

How to Paint Black Light Art That Also Looks Amazing in Normal Light

Since the client commissioned a canvas they could hang or frame it in order to hang it after the event is over, it’s not realistic to have a UV light on 24/7 so it is important that the painting will look awesome under normal lighting conditions too.

Creating black light reactive graffiti or mural is a specialist skill in of itself, it’s not the same as using traditional colours and requires a specialist approach. The next level challenge is making a painting that looks equally impressive under both black light (UV light) and regular lighting (Day light).

To achieve this, the canvas must have two visual layers: one visible in daylight, and one that comes alive under UV. That means every design element needs to be painted twice using different paint (fluorescent UV reactive paint and normal paint). The base layer uses standard spray paint colour, while the glowing layer is applied with UV-reactive paints (like the Montana Gold Flouro or Black INFRA range). This dual-paint technique ensures the painting has a surreal, dream-like psychedelic quality even under standard lighting.

The painting process is meticulous. I switch between black light and normal white light to check progress in both lighting conditions. Painting fine detail with spray cans also requires tight control. Ironically, smaller artworks can be more time-consuming than large scale street art murals due to the precision needed. Slow and steady wins certainly wins the race.

At any rate you will notice the painting process requires painting a layer of normal non-flourescent paint and then applying a top layer of black light reactive paint, enough to glow, but not enough to completely obscure the layer of normal paint.

Ultimately, the painting process involves layering standard (non-fluorescent) paint first, followed by UV-reactive fluorescent paint, enough to achieve a trippy hazy glow, but not so much that it fully obscures the base layer.

Breaking Down the Canvas Design

Keeping in mind the key themes of psychedelic experiences, neon black light graffiti, and UV-reactive spray paint, every element of this canvas has been strategically designed to glow. It’s a fully black light-reactive painting, but also carefully constructed to look equally vibrant under regular daylight a dual-light artwork that embodies the very essence of trippy festival art.

The central theme of this black light art commission revolves around psychedelics, rave culture, alien energy, and UV-reactive neon artwork unified by the surreal glow of black light graffiti. Every element on the canvas glows brilliantly under UV light, but each also stands strong under normal lighting, making the artwork visually captivating in any environment.

The resulting psychedelic black light painting, while relatively small by street art mural standards (no art job too big or too small!), is densely packed with psychedelic characters, glowing symbolism, and layered meaning. It’s the kind of art where the longer you look, the more hidden details you’ll discover with multiple interrelated figures engaging in trippy activities across the canvas.

The elements and what they represent:

Ethereal Aurora Borealis Sky

At the top of the canvas, a fluorescent green and pink aurora borealis sky sets a dreamlike tone. These neon colours not only glow brilliantly under UV light but also contrast well with other glowing elements, making them ideal choices for a surreal, trippy sky.

Horned Psychedelic Toad 

In the top-left corner sits a horned, red neon psychedelic toad, a nod to the infamous Colorado River toad (Incilius alvarius), which secretes a mystical psychedelic compound from its skin glands: 5-MeO-DMT, also known in some psychonaut circles as the “god molecule.” While real toads don’t have horns, the addition enhances the creature’s trippy, otherworldly aesthetic. The trippy amphibian creature smokes an oversized joint, the UV-reactive smoke rising off-canvas in jagged, surreal trails.

Melting Girl’s Face Wearing Sunglasses

The toad perches on the head of a girl with vibrant pink-purple hair and a melting, neon-green face. Wearing reflective sunglasses, her hallucinatory expression and lolling tongue (complete with a smiley-faced LSD tab – a common rave or acid house symbol) suggest she’s deep into a mind-expanding psychedelic journey. She represents the birthday girl – a central symbolic figure surrounded by layered visual metaphors.

Sound System Bass-bins

Behind the girl and the toad stands a towering stack of bass-heavy speakers, inspired by UK squat raves and outdoor festival sound systems. Embedded subtly in the speaker boxes are hidden numbers that reveal the birthday girl’s birth date – a cryptic yet personal Easter egg for the observant viewer.

Alien bathing in a Soup Bowl

On the right, an alien lounges in a giant bowl of thick, white glowing liquid, pouring a stream directly into the girl’s mouth. The alien sprinkles “galactic dust” into the brew, a metaphor for some secret otherworldly psychedelic intelligence or perhaps a stylised nod to DMT (Dimethyltriptimine ) regarded by most pschonauts at the most powerful and spiritual of all hallucinogencis). Floating pills in the liquid enhance the trippy symbolism.

On the right side of the canvas, an alien lounges in a massive bowl of thick, white glowing liquid, pouring a glowing stream directly into the girl’s mouth. The alien sprinkles “galactic dust” into the psychedelic brew, a metaphor for some secret, otherworldly hallucinogenic intelligence, or perhaps a stylised nod to DMT (Dimethyltryptamine), regarded by many psychonauts as the most powerful and spiritually profound of all psychedelics. Floating multi-coloured pills in the liquid further enhance the surreal, mind-altering symbolism.

Magic Mushrooms Spell Out a Name

The bottom right of the canvas features a grassy patch blooming with a cluster of psychedelic mushrooms. There is really no need to explain why these psilocybin-containing fun-guys are quintessential in any well-made psychedelic artwork. But what you might miss at first glance is that, if you look closely, with the right eyes, the mushrooms actually spell out the name of the birthday girl. Most viewers miss this trippy detail at first – a rewarding visual Easter egg for those who explore the canvas fully. Rather than dox the client or her daughter, I’ll leave it to you – see if you can read it for yourself?

Psychedelic-Symbolic Convergence

• 🧠 The toad (natural tryptamines)
• 😵 The smiley face (acid house / MDMA culture)
• 🔊 The speakers (rave culture)
• 👽 The alien (cosmic / spiritual journey)
• 💊 The pills (pharma psychedelia)
• 🍄 The mushrooms (natural psychedelics)

Ready to Glow Beyond the Ordinary?

This commission was a blast to paint – rich in meaning, electric in colour, and packed with custom symbolism. And no psychedelic toads were harmed in the making!

If you’re dreaming of a custom black light canvas or want to inject your space with psychedelic graffiti art that lights up both visually and spiritually, let’s talk. Whether it’s for an event, a private festival-style celebration, or to add mind-bending energy to your interior, I can create it live on site or from my studio and ship it directly to you.

Send me a message today, let’s bring you vision to life!

• Black Light Art
• Graffiti
• Mural artist