|
|
 |
|
|
Thanks for taking the time to look at my site. I am looking forward to this painting. I am going back to working on larger canvases on this one after finishing a few smaller scenes. There are going to be an incredible number of individual stars in this Milky Way Galaxy scene but when it’s finished, all those hours it will take to put the approximately 300- 400,000 individual stars in their correct location and each put on one at a time, will be worth it. I have seen it in my head and wow, I can’t wait to see it. In the forground of the spiral arms of the galaxy which you see now, will be the moon and the Earth will be behind the moon in the upper left. The view of the moon will be the side of the moon we never see and each crater will be located correctly. Within the galaxy I will paint in different nebula’s (gases and dusts) like the Orion Nebula, Globular (star) clusters like the Hercules star cluster and of course all the constellation stars where they belong.
I will download a picture onto this page each time I work on this painting so you can watch the painting grow from a beginning into what it will become in the end. You will see the intricacy that goes into the painting as well as the insanity that goes into painting all those stars that are still only a fraction of the 100 billion stars in the galaxy. These first stars are each very, very small and represent the farthest away stars from us and in the same line of sight towards the center of the galaxy and along the plane of the galaxy showing the thickness of our galaxy. Thanks again, Rick. - Look up
|
|
|
|
To view my current piece click on the photo below
|
|
|
|
August 1, 2008- Still putting in the blue background stars
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
To the left, is a section showing the individual stars I have painted in so far. Most of the stars are so small it’s impossible to get a clear picture with the camera I am using but every speck of light that you can see is made of several tiny individual stars. With this canvas at 40” across, it’s hard to guess how many stars are already in this scene but it must be somewhere between 25,000 and 35,000 stars It could be even more. If anything, while placing each star, these paintings are an experience in meditaion. The moon is at the bottom right corner.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
I am building the gases and dusts within the spiral arms of the galaxy that block out the stars behind them. As in the real galaxy, I literally blocked out about 15,000 stars by painting the gas clouds over the stars I previously put in. I’m not sure why I do this but like our galaxy. there are stars behind those clouds. I think it’s just knowing that as to why I do it.- Aug.21,08.
|
|
|
|
|
|
August 31,2008 - The blue paint is very small individual stars. I lost count but there must be nearly 35,000 blue background stars.
|
|
|
|
September 11, 2008 - If you can notice, there are about 8,000 more stars than yesterday’s picture.
|
|
|
|
September 15, 2008 - Tomorrow, I should be able to finish the blue, far-background stars and finally begin building the layers of stars at different distances out to the larger constellation stars.
|
|
|
|
September 16, 2008
|
|
|
|
If you look towards the south, soon after the Sun sets, you will see a bright “star,” brighter than all the stars in the sky tonight. This is not a star but the planet Jupiter. Jupiter is about 500 million miles away from us and four moons can be seen with binoculars. Also in the sky are the Ring Nebula, which is straight up when the Sun sets next to the bright star Vega, and the Hurcules star cluster, a ball of a million stars, just to the west of Vega.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Some things I’ve looked at this summer through my telecopes,- Whirlpool Galaxy, galaxies 101, 81,82 and about 30 other galaxies, all the nebulae near the center of the galaxy and star clusters floating above and below the center, the Dumbell nebula, Andromeda galaxy, seeing the moons revolving around Jupiter and seeing the different colors of stars. It was a good summer looking in and out of our Milky Way Galaxy.
|
|
|
|
|
October 8, 2008
|
|
|
|
You really can’t tell but I worked 9 hours on the Oct.19th painting and it’s hard to see the changes. I worked on both edges of the spiral arm, laying down stars as I built the shape of the gas and dust lanes. I figured I put down 7 to 9 stars per second, minus time to put more paint on the brush so after nine hours, it’s a lot of stars that I painted in. Well it’s now 12:07 pm Monday afternoon and I am going to hang up here and start painting again until probably midnight tonight. In tomorrow’s picture, I wonder if you’ll be able to see all the work I will do today. I’m hoping to finally finish these tiny, tiny stars and to begin to put in the next layer of stars. This scene should have a lot of depth when finished
|
|
|
|
October 22,2008 - I am finished with the right side of the spiral arm and today I should finish the left side, building the shape of the black dust lanes. You can barely see it in the left picture but where the spiral arm bends upward on the left side, just to the right under the bend is the Andromeda Galaxy. I also finished Andromeda. In the black space on the bottom half, the black space where the bigger white circle is (the moon), I painted in a few thousand stars in most of that area but they are not visible in the pic on the left. You can see some of them in the picture on the right next to the moon. In a little while, today, after my batteries for the camera recharge, I will take a close up picture of this black area to show you how many stars are there as well as the Andromeda Galaxy.
|
|
|
|
November 3, 2008 - The last couple days, I’ve added near 8,000 news stars. I am almost done with this layer of small far away stars and should finish this layer tonight. I would guess I still have somewhere near 25,000 more stars to lay down before I can finally get to the Moon and Earth. These pics are good but it’s not like seeing it in person.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
November 8, 2008 - I have put some more of the constellation stars as well as smaller stars. Again, I am looking at a star chart as I place the Constellation stars. They all should be in their correct location. when finished.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
November 15, 2008 -
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
November 18, 2008 - 10 am
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
A close up with a good view of the individual stars. As the layers of stars grow, the depth of stars in the galaxy begins to show.
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
November 23, 2008-
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Close up of stars
|
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
December 2, 2008, 5 pm - Today, I began placing the craters on the Moon. I used a Moon chart for the placement of the craters. This scene shows the side of the Moon we never see, which is full of craters.
|
|
|
|
|
|
December 4, 2008, 11:50 pm - I worked about 9 hours on the Moon today, building the shadows and highlights in the craters. If I can finish the Moon tomorrow and finish the Earth sunday, I might have enough time monday thru thursday to finish the stars and finish the painting in time to show it friday. These pics were taken with a halogen light and yellow walls so there is a yellow tint to them.
|
|
|
|
December 6, 1:20 am - I didn’t finish the Moon but I’m happy with the progress today. I haven’t decided how much of the night side dark I’m going to put in. I could make it a “full moon” or a completly dark “new moon” or a “quarter moon? I have to take tomorow off. I’m working in the planetarium and then my band is playing tomorrow night. I’ll work on this again Sunday night and place a new picture up here that night or Monday morning. Thanks for looking.
|
|
|
|
December 9, 2008 - I am finished with the Earth and Moon for now. I have tomorrow to finish the stars and that’s it. The painting will have to be ready to show at the reception Friday evening at the museum. Thursday, my band is playing the after party for the TV show “Extreme Makeover.” The show is in Connecticut building a new home for a family and last week they asked the band to play at the Foxwoods MGM Grand Ballroom. It should be a blast. It’s 1 am Wednesday as I take these pics so again these pics have a yellow sense to them with the halogen light and my yellow walls.
|
|
|
|
The reception at The Children’s Museum for my paintings has been postponed until January 5th 2009. This actually works out, giving me a few weeks to finish this painting instead of rushing through it. I have put in many hours in the last 4 months on this painting and I need to take a few days off to clear myself. I will return to it this next Wednesday Dec. 17 and will download the next picture Thursday evening. Thanks for looking, Rick
|
|
|
|
|
|
The great thing about astronomy art is that when you have hung it for a while and your senses have become used to seeing it in a particular way, you can turn it any way and you get a totally different perspective, a different view. I think I like it best standing up like this on the left. If not later on, I can always rotate it.
It’s hard in this picture to see the stars to the left of the Moon but there are a lot of them. Besides the faint “blue” far-far background stars, there are about 5000 “closer background’ stars in the black looking area to the Moon’s left. Next, I am going to darken down the spiral arms which will set it further in the background. Without revealing the technique (sorry), this is a step where it’s possible to go too far and the work on the arms could be lost. It happened to me once, the first time I did it and I had to rebuild the whole arm. Since, I have paid extra attention to this process. It can be hard getting it right where I want it without going even slightly too far which would ruin what I have worked on.
|
|
|
|
|
December 19 -
|
|
|
|
Sunday evening - the winter solstice. The Earth is at its closest to the Sun but the northern hemisphere is tilted away from the Sun so it is cold and snowing here in Connecticut. I haven’t touched the painting since Friday. Working in the planetarium, playing out with the band and shoveling snow has kept me busy the last 2 days. Friday, I darkend the bright light along the galaxy and it came out pretty good. I’m not sure if I darkened it enough, setting it further into the background from the Moon and Earth but it is close. I still have the option of going back and darkening it more. I am still looking at the black clouds and wondering if I like that shade of black compared to the darker “space” black. I may add some darker black areas to it which will be painting over thousands of stars but I have to make it look right to me. It will also give depth to the clouds. I wonder how many stars I have blackened out through the years. The painting prior to this one, I blackened out about 80,000 stars because their color wasn’t quite right. Oh well.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Alright, I blackened out a lot more stars in the gas and dust lanes. Every time I looked at it, it bothered me, it just didn’t look right. I blackened out probably 10,000 stars but now I like the way it looks. I added a darker black which along with the lighter black gives the clouds more depth.
Since the last photo, I have also painted in around 7000 stars and some more of the constellation stars. I’m pretty happy the way it is coming to life now. Again, I have to say that these picture do not do the painting justice. These photos show only about 2/3’s the stars that are actually in the painting. There’s a lot of depth in this scene.
I started this painting the beginning of July and have put in I don’t know how many thousands of hours in the last almost 6 months but I also have almost finished building a galaxy, our galaxy. I think I may finish by this coming weekend and will show it at The Children’s Museum then. If you are in the Connecticut area and interested, I am having an invitation only closing reception for the paintings on Monday January 5, 2009. Email me for in invite. Thanks, Rick
|
|
|
|
|
January 13, 2009 - The painting is hanging in the planetarium at The Children’s Museum, West Hartford Ct. I am taking a short break on this piece for a quick painting I’ve been thinking about. There are already so many stars in this scene that it doesn’t matter if the missing stars are there or not. I can see where they are missing so I still have to put them in and I will, just not right now. I don’t know if anyone could see where the stars are missing so it’s alright to show it now. I am just really “star(ed)” out right now and I need time away from ”STARS, STARS, STARS.” You can see why I’m sure. These paintings are not easy to complete because I do get “stared out” after putting in 100,000 stars or in this case more stars. What makes the “agony” so worth while, is now when the painting is close to being complete, I know there is not another painting out there like this one and well, it just looks awesome. I’ve said it a few times earlier that these pictures do not show the painting as it would if the painting was on a wall in front of you and that’s true but I think you would find it hard to look away from if it were on a wall in front of you. Our place in the galaxy. It shows how un-alone we really are.
Thanks for looking everyone, Rick Costello
|
|
|
|
May 17,2009 - For the past couple weeks I have been working on this painting, adding close to 10,000 new stars, especially in front of the bars of gases and dusts to throw the bars further into the background. In the next couple days, I need to go to the museum so I can take a picture of it. After I do that, which should be before Wednesday 5/20, I’ll upload a picture showing the work I’ve done since the last picture. Rick
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
September, 9, 2009 - Finally finished this painting of the Earth, Moon and a “lot” of the 500 billion stars in our Milky Way Galaxy. The Earth shows the North and South America’s, the Moon’s craters are in their correct location and the 300 to 400,000 stars are in their correct location in the galaxy. There could actaully be even more stars in this scene. There are way too many to count, I know that much. I think this is my favorite painting to date. Again, this picture does not truly show this painting as it looks in person.
I hope you enjoy my paintings.
Thanks for looking
Rick Costello
|
|
|
40”x 30”inches
|
|
|
|
