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So, I am really, really, really into this galaxy art.

It seems like it’s everywhere lately.

I guess that means it’s “in” or “trending”. I tell ya, that is just fine with me, because I have always been fascinated with the stars, and the beauty up there. What is good about it being so cool right now, is that I can find a ton of galaxy art very easily.

(Image from theartofanimation.tumblr.com)

Image from vk.com)

I think my love for the stars comes from my dad. He’s been into astronomy for as long as I can remember. It’s one of his many hobbies. I remember when he got a telescope. I think I must have been about ten or twelve. He would let me stay up late to look at stars and planets (probably just on the weekends). I remember looking at the “doughnut”, which is the Ring Nebula. You had to look next to it in order to see the fuzzy little ring shape. If I recall, it was green. I remember when we looked at Saturn, and how amazing it was that we could see the rings and everything. It looked like a drawing!  He would also get magazines (this was before the internet people, I’m showing my age now) and there were these amazing pictures of the Milky Way, all kinds of nebula’s and galaxies in these vibrant, gorgeous colors. It was a big disappointment that we couldn’t see those same colors through my dad’s telescope. He would take me to Astronomy club meetings, and out to gatherings at a Metro-park where all kinds of people would have their telescopes set up. You could just wander around and look at what everyone else had their telescopes pointed at. I’m not sure how many of these I actually went to, my memories are a little faded, but I know I enjoyed them. I had opportunity to take Astronomy as a science class in high school, so of course I did that. These days I can’t identify more than four or five things in the night sky, but that doesn’t mean I don’t enjoy looking. I’m still fascinated by what’s out there, and I still love looking at beautiful photographs.

Here are some gorgeous pictures like I used to see in those magazines! I found these on Getty Images, although there is no shortage of pictures to be found.

I found a blog post by Dawn Nicole Designs that has ten galaxy inspired art projects! Find it here! I know that I will be saving this and looking to it for some inspiration!

Overall, this technique seems fairly easy. The part that I had trouble with was splattering the white paint. I also tried painting a couple of baby food jars, with the idea that I could put a couple of battery operated candles inside. I finished the base colors of the jars, but I haven’t put the stars (white paint) on them yet. Not sure how I feel about the finished product, so I don’t know that I want to invest any more time in it. I’m pleased with how this set of magnets (shown below) turned out, but I’m onto trying something different for my next project. I made them on tiny canvas boards and turned them into magnets. (Listing available here).

I watched a couple tutorials on you tube about galaxy art. I was trying to find specifically colored pencil tutorials so that I could learn how people were making the stars. Spoiler alert: they were mostly all using a white ink gel pen.I went and looked up reviews on the best ones to purchase for colored pencils and just ended up ordering them from Amazon. (Amazon is the best, isn’t it?!) I didn’t think any old pen would work for what I wanted it to do. It needs to be opaque. Here is a link to one of the tutorials that I watched: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/495396027742088019/

I did give a colored pencil piece a try. Here’s a portion of it.

I bought a white gel pen to add the stars. I’m very pleased with how this is coming along so far, so I think that I will practice on a scrap before I mark this up. I have a drawing that I started before this one and I was not very happy with it so that’s the one I’m going to try the white pen on. Have any of you worked with a white ink gel pen before? I keep seeing that over and over in the tutorials I’ve watched. If this fails, I will move on to white paint. I will not be attempting the splatter technique again, I tried that before and let’s just say it’s not my strongest skill. So white dots it is! I hope the pen does what I want it to though, it seems like I would have better control over it.

*Update: pen arrived today. Depending on how my day goes, I’ll be giving it a try today or tomorrow!

Have you tried galaxy art? What are your thoughts, suggestions, feedback?