A chance encounter with a coffee-table book set graphic designer Darren Pearsonon a new artistic path, writes Catherine Zuckerman in this month’s issue of National Geographic. He was charmed by one image in particular: a 1949 black-and-white photograph of Pablo Picasso at work using light—not a brush—to “paint” his creation in midair.

“I was captivated,” says Pearson.

Using the same technique of long-exposure and working only at night, Pearson uses light to sketch whimsical, life-size beasts on darkened landscapes: a bee in the Beehives area of Nevada’s Valley of Fire State Park, an Amargasaurus ascending stairs in California (pictured above), and a coyote howling to the sky near California’s Joshua Tree National Park.

See some of his creations below, and all of them here.

Iconic landscapes of the western United States are integral to Pearson’s work, inspiring both the work itself and igniting his passion for their value: “The environment impacts everything,” he says. “Animals rely on it, and we rely on it—and yet we treat it with such disrespect.”

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“In Japan, there is a strong stereotype that elderly people should behave in a certain way,” Takino says. “But I want to tell the younger generation that they don’t need to behave or live in preconceived ways of the elderly when they get old. It is important to be yourself and do what you want to do regardless of your age.”

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