Draw lines that glow — with your bare hand, in mid-air, over your own camera. Pick the Neon brush, pinch your thumb and index finger, and light follows your fingertip. Try the pad first: it needs no camera at all.
Free · no account · nothing to install
This pad uses your mouse or finger, in AirVA's Neon palette. In AirVA itself the pen is a pinch in mid-air — the same glow, drawn over your camera.
A neon line is not one line. It is four strokes of light stacked on top of each other, and the look falls apart if any one of them is missing.
The brightest part is nearly white. Bright light clips to white in the middle, and the eye reads that as intensity.
Right against the core sits the colour itself, at full strength. This is where the hue lives.
A few pixels of colour bleeding outward, softer than the line. It makes the edge look lit rather than printed.
A broad wash of the same colour at low strength — the light spilling into the air around it.
The fifth ingredient is not on the line at all: darkness. Glow is contrast, so the same line on a white page nearly disappears. That is why neon drawings are almost always made on black — and why a dim room makes the Neon brush look its best on camera.
The same rule works on paper, if that is the neon drawing you meant: draw the line as a pale or white core, trace a bright colour tightly along both sides of it, then soften a wider band of that colour outward on a dark sheet. Markers, coloured pencils and black paper can fake the tube; your hand does what the four strokes above do in light.
AirVA ships six palettes of eight colours each. Neon is the default and the one built for this look; Y2K is the loudest. Every colour below is the exact value the app uses.
Beyond the palettes, an HSV colour wheel stores any colour you want, and the background colour can be changed too — set it to black and every brush reads brighter. For the most neon result, pick saturated, mid-bright colours: pinks, magentas, cyans, electric blues and violets. Very dark colours have little light to give, and pale ones turn white once the core is added.
AirVA has six brushes. One glows, one sparks, one cycles the rainbow — and one is deliberately plain for when you do not want the glow at all.
Bold, simple, one-line shapes make the best neon. These ten read instantly on camera — each card draws itself, so you can see the stroke order before you try it.
Cursive keeps the pen down through a whole word, so the glow flows without breaks. Write it twice as big as feels natural.
One continuous stroke that everyone recognises before you finish. Magenta or pink sells it.
Three sharp turns, drawn fast — one of the few shapes that looks better quick than careful.
Ten straight lines, and one satisfying moment when the last one closes the shape.
The classic neon subject. Draw the box first, then each letter — a different colour per letter looks great.
The synthwave staple: a half sun, a horizon, a curved trunk and four fronds.
A circle and one long, tilted ellipse. Put the ring in a second colour.
Start in the middle and let momentum carry the loops outward. Hypnotic in a timelapse.
Two arcs, an iris and a pupil. Cyan irises glow beautifully on camera.
Two rolling curves, one above the other. Draw them slowly for smooth crests.
More beginner-friendly shapes are in ten easy air drawing ideas, and names get their own page at air writing.
Neon is made for video: the line appears out of darkness, and the camera catches your hand drawing it. Raise three fingers to open the session menu, choose Record, and AirVA captures the canvas while you draw.
Four habits make the difference on camera: dim the room so the glow has darkness to shine against, light your face softly from the front, set the canvas background to black, and draw bigger and slower than feels natural — neon rewards smooth lines. Twenty-four more video formats are on the video ideas page.
Both are worth doing. They are good at different things.
| Neon on paper | Neon in the air | |
|---|---|---|
| What you need | Black paper, a white pen, bright markers or pencils | A webcam and a browser tab |
| Time to the first glow | Minutes per line — every glow is built up by hand | Instant — the brush draws all four at once |
| Undo | None; start again | Undo in the session menu |
| Colours | The markers you own | Six palettes of eight, plus any colour |
| A video of it | Only if you film it yourself | Yes — the export is the video |
Paper wins on texture, and on having an object at the end. Air wins on speed, undo and the video.
Still stuck? Open the canvas and try it — the thing answers faster than reading about it does.
Try it FreeNeon drawing is drawing lines that look like glowing light: a bright, nearly white core, a saturated colour hugging it and a soft halo around it, usually on a dark background. It can be done with markers on black paper, or digitally with a brush that builds the glow for you.
Stack four strokes: a thin near-white core, a saturated line of colour tight against it, a slightly wider inner glow, and a broad, faint halo — all on a dark background. A digital neon brush draws the four at once; on paper you build them by hand.
AirVA is free and runs in your browser: choose the Neon brush and draw with your hand through the webcam. There is no download, no account and no trial.
Yes. AirVA works in the browser on phones as well as laptops, using the front camera. A laptop gives your arm more room, and portrait mode on a phone is made for vertical video.
Saturated colours with some brightness: pink, magenta, electric blue, cyan and violet. Very dark colours have little light to give, and very pale ones turn white once the bright core is added.
Raise three fingers to open the session menu, choose Record, and draw. The video exports as MP4 where your browser supports it (WebM otherwise), and you can turn it into a 2x, 3x or 5x timelapse. Recordings can run for up to an hour.
Exports carry a small getairva.com mark in the corner — on images and video alike — and videos end with a short 'Drawn in mid-air' card.
Yes. Besides six palettes of eight colours, there is an HSV colour wheel for any colour you want, and the background colour can be changed too.
No. The webcam watches your hand and a pinch of your thumb and index finger is the pen — nothing to buy, hold or charge.
Pick the Neon brush, pinch, and watch your fingertip leave light behind it.