I try to avoid light painting from the front if at all possible, unless I'm trying to replicate window light. The reason being that it can create quite a "flat" lighting that lacks contrast or depth between elements in the scene. When I do though, I do like the Lenser torches as they create quite an even light with no hotspots. Examples:
Lit with a single LED Lenser P7 to replicate window light:
Lit with a single LED converted Mini Maglite:
The main drawbacks of these torches being how weak they are, requiring either long exposure times (several minutes for the Maglite) or requiring a larger aperture (shallower depth of field) than I'd like to allow more light in. For larger scenes they're pretty much useless, unless you're happy doing exceptionally long exposures which inevitably lead to hot pixels from sensor overheating.
That's where the Chinese CREE torches come in.
I've got a couple of these single chip torches that are lightweight and powerful, they might not have the out and out quality of manufacture of the Lensers and Maglites, but they're still machined chunks of tough aluminium alloy with easily replaceable double seals for wet environments. They kick out much more light, they allow shorter exposures or a larger depth of field. They do however have hotspots on the beam pattern, making them unsuitable for trying to replicate an even natural light, but perfect for texture-enhancing backlighting. Examples:
As you can see, nice large depth of field within a standard 30 second exposure time. Although it does mean that for shots with people they still need to stay pretty still and you inevitably lose some sharpness on them due to tiny movements.
And so enter... The 10-chip Chinese CREE behemoth.
You can take what they say about Lumen output with a hefty pinch of salt, but they do kick out a lot of light. Comparing one side by side with the headlights of a Toyota Yaris there was really not much in it, one single handheld torch as bright as car headlights. Oof.
This is where exposure times really start to fall, or you can use it to illuminate huge spaces very easily. For example, this tunnel shot had an exposure time of just a quarter of a second allowing me to retain the definition of the smoke where other torches would have required a 20-30 second exposure perhaps:
And for lighting large spaces easily, such as the entrance to the infamous Cathedral chamber in Box:
There is another side effect to having such a powerful torch too, which brings me right back to the start of this post and that is recreating a softer more natural light. They're powerful enough to bounce off raw concrete quite well without too much loss of light and still maintaining a small aperture / large depth of field. Example of bouncing the light overhead to illuminate a very dark area:
So that's the main options and techniques that I use regularly. There's no real hard and fast answer to all light painting solutions in all scenarios, its more a case of being aware of what you'll be photographing and how best to light it. None of which have to cost the earth or weigh a lot.
(Sorry for the mixed size images, was just fishing through exported images for examples.)