How to Paint an Amazing Space Scene

First off, this is my first Instructable, so please give me feedback on how I'm doing. =)

Spray paint space scenes are fun and with a little bit of practice, you can make paintings to amaze all your friends and family.

Okay, so lets learn how to paint amazing space scenes, like the one below!

You will need:
-Poster paper (must have a glossy side!)
-Spray paint (the more colors the better)(oh, and glossy paint works the best)
-Circular objects
-Rubber gloves (optional)
-magazine or newspaper pages

Step 1: Chose Your Colors, Then Spray Them.

Put your poster paper glossy side up (I cut my posters into halves or quarters to make them more manageable). Get an idea in your head of where you want your planets/moons/stars, and also what colors you want them.

Pick two colors for each planet/moon (my colors are yellow and red for my planet and blue and pink for my moon).

Spray the colors on top of one another in the general area you want the planet and moon. It's okay to spray larger areas than you need, in fact it's good to do to insure there is no white showing through on the edges of your soon-to-be planets.

Generally speaking it's best to spray the lightest color first, then the darker one, but you can do it either way.

Step 2: Making the Pattern

Quickly, before the paint dries, take the magazine or newspaper pages and put them flat on top of the spray painted areas. You may need to use more than one per planet depending on how big it is.

Then pull the pages off after a couple of seconds to reveal the pattern it created.

Using black (or what ever color you want the sky to be) spray a curved line on one side of each soon-to-be planet; this will be the dark side of the planet, so make it the same direction on all of them so they have a common light source such as a near by star.

Step 3: Making the Sky

Okay, the planet and moon are starting to take shape!

This is where the circular objects come in. They need to be things that you can get spray paint all over. I went to a second hand store and bought some old pot lids, I also use the spray paint caps a lot, and pennies if I need really tinny moons.

Next, with the lids firmly in place, paint the whole paper black (or what ever color you want the sky). Make sure you get all around the lids, sometimes they block areas, and if you don't get it all it makes your planet look funny.

It's good to do this with a large piece of scrap paper behind your painting, or you will get it all over the surface behind your painting; like I did on the upper left corner (I forgot about that and need to clean that up tomorrow...)

Step 4: Making Stars

Keep the lids on for now, we need to add the stars.

I find that Rustoleum glossy white paint works the best for stars, but that's just my preference. All you need to do is aim the paint can upwards and press the nozzle just enough for some paint to come out. (obviously arm it away from your face, but don't point it directly at your painting). Short bursts work best to control the amount and general whereabouts of the stars.

You can also spray a little bit on your finger and flick it at your painting to make stars, but you must have gloves on for that, it's REALLY messy.

Make your stars any color you want. I usually have white, yellow, and sometimes red stars in my paintings.

Also you can add space dust behind your planets; just spray a line of color across diagnally, as seen in the second picture.

Step 5: Reveal Your Planets

Lift the lids off of the planets to reveal them in all their cosmic splendor! They may stick a bit, but just be gentle and pull them off.

And you're done!

Using variations of this technique you can make original, semi-easy works of art! You can add mountains obscuring your view, close up stars, alien cities, different kinds of planets like gas giants, the sky is the limit!!

The next pictures are some examples of ones that I have done:

Comments

[JustusC]

That looks amazing! Fantastic job, and nice instructable.

[GabrielaRReznik]

can i do this but on a regular canvas?

[GregK92]

Just wondering if photo quality would work for this as well?

[dakota.smith899]

Does anyone have any pointers foe someone who is new to this kind of art?

[MelinnaC]

Spray Paint: Techniques and tutorials ─ .:: granjow.net here is a website on spray paint techniques i don't know if it will help but here you go

[Max Maker]

Love it!

[colossalman]

Can't wait to try this when I get home! Looks awesome!

[NerdyGirl79]

OMG! This looks so easy and simple, I'm almost afraid to try it! lol. Question though. Can I use regular paint and not spray paint? I live in a condo so I have no space for spray painting anything.

[UFOpress]

This is amazing and I believe I've developed a new hobby.

[FIRE95959]

Here is a couple things i've done. I use an airbrush

[somasaka]

Hey, great tutorial! Have put it to practice and now have the space bug :) I had a question, would this work on varnished wood instead of glossy paper? Thanks in advance.

[Gutoboranga]

holy crap, it looks gorgeous! Congrats ?

[WafiH]

Thanks For Your Inspiration.
I Want To Ask You, What The Spray "Merk" Are You Make That? Because I Make That By Spray Acrylic. Are You Can Ask Me The Items About It?

Thanks =)

[MysticE]

Greetings and Salutations

Here is my finished walls. The one on the right is a close up of the recently finished wall. So what do you all think of it?

[SaphyreP]

I would really love to start spray paint art but I have asthma. Do you think I could use a regular cleaning mask to keep the chemicals away from me?

[plasticpopcorn4]

2 questions.

Anyone try this with the super cheap Walmart paints (colorplace)?

Has anyone done this to their wall?

[Neon Panda]

I was wondering if anyone had tried it on a wall, too. It would look awesome as a feature wall with glow in the dark paint :)

Now I just need to find somewhere in the UK that sells spray paint cheaply lol

[djmorbid]

You can paint on a wall I suggest you spray paint the area with white 6x to get the glossy affect

[barefootbohemian]

I thought this was going on a wall when I first saw the instructable.

[LowerClassRed]

Yes, I do art like this all the time with colorplace spray paint, To me it works really well.