hey guys,
                I am making 7 puppets for a production of "Disney's Mulan" where 6 of the puppets are "Gods"
The director wanted the puppets to glow and here was my idea....hopefully someone can give me tips.

I didn't want them to look like black light puppets but have a glow about them, his idea was to have a traveling group performing this show of Mulan.

I thought I could build the puppets our of white foam and then lightly airbrush shadows on the puppets. Then go over the whole puppet with glow in the dark spray. Off stage we would "charge" the puppets in a bright light and then under blue and purple lights it would give them a glowing effect without making them look like a 1970's black light poster.

Any thoughts?!

Is the glow strong enough to be seen at the audience's distance? Will the glow last long enough during the length of the performance? Those are the things I would test with a chunk of white foam and the lights before I started building.

If you are going to airbrush the puppets, I would recommend using invisible blacklight paints from Wildfire. You can get them from the link below. They go on as white but under blacklight the colors pop. Make sure when you paint you paint using a blacklight so you can tell which color you are using and where you are putting it.

Sue

http://www.onewaystreet.com/category/blacklight_resources/2

I think the glow in the dark spray is also activated with black light.  I get the feeling you don't want the bright colors that glow which are normally what you get with black light but if the spray you have is not activated by black light I am pretty sure there is a black light spray that works in the same way. It just gives the "white" glow. You can use a black light in combination with your purple and blue gelled lights.  I think it is going to take some experimenting with lighting to get just the right combo.

Have a look at this site also.  It provides some "industrial" versions of glow in the dark and       
fluorescent paints. http://glowinc.com/

Ok on the same site there is a pretty good article that explains the different fixtures and the wave lengths of each.  I know that in another thread the LED black light fixture was mentioned but it may not be the best.   http://glowinc.com/glow-in-the-dark/black-light.aspx

these are all excellent ideas. I have no idea how I am going to accomplish this task but I have about 2 months until I have to start building so I have time to think!

Check this web site.  They can answer  a lot of questions.

http://www.wildfirefx.com