Scenic Route

I used to do a lot of these small space pictures. I would mass-produce them in batches of around 20. I started with a stack of small illustration board panels in a 7" x 10" size, painted black. I laid them all down on newspapers covering the floor. Then I spattered the "stars" on by shaking a brush filled with paint at them. When that was dry I pre-mixed paint in blue, red, or some other color, filled my airbrush (an archaic spray-painting device) and sprayed nebula and floating gas patterns all over the panels. When these were dry, I chose which ones to add a painting to and which ones were just space scapes. This one here, for instance, I chose to paint over with a spaceship. It's called "Scenic Route," suggesting that the riders in the luxury space yacht are taking in the "scenery" of a lovely nebula area. Of course in reality the nebula would be imperceptible to the passengers' eyes, but I suppose they had an enhanced view generator. 

Nowadays these space concepts have been rendered obsolete by the views from real places and telescopes on earth or orbiting in space. Sure, artists still do space pictures, but the real Hubble imagery is far more detailed and exciting. And most digital artists have never used an airbrush. I discarded mine some years ago, I regret to say. Photoshop and Hubble rule.

Acrylic on black illustration board, 7" x 10", January 1988.