Space​: 1999

I coloured the three astronauts as part of the last Daily Marker colouring challenge. This was another of those sets that I’d picked up because it was really cute (and sci-fi-themed stamps are always good to have to hand), but I hadn’t got around to actually using it. Time for it to move from the unloved pile…

Sometimes I get a bit predictable with my colour choices. My first thought with this was to go for traditional colours for the space suits — a realistic if boring white/grey combination — then my other half came to the rescue and suggested doing them in the Space: 1999 suit colour: orange.

And no… the stripes on the one helmet are not in keeping with the designs from the TV series, but when your orange Copic marker blobs onto your nice yellow helmet you fix it the best way you can 🙂 I fussy cut them out and added a layer of glossy accents to the visors and shimmery pico embellisher to the balloons.

Then I had to decide what to do with them. I could have just used them on cards, but I wanted to keep them all together so I turned them into a framable piece of art instead.

For the background, I reached for the Distress oxides and made a paper mask for the horizon line. I slipped a bit when I was blending the sky over the edge of the ground and had to make the overlap bigger to even it out. That turned out to be a happy accident because I think the darker line along the horizon works really well. I stamped a little bit of texture over the foreground and splattered gold stars in the sky. The whole background was given a light coating of Distress glaze to make it water- and smudge-resistant.

The spaceman standing on the surface is glued flat to the background and the other two are given a tiny bit of height with Xtreme tabs: they aren’t very thick, but I prioritised stickiness over dimension for something that will hopefully end up on display for longer than a card.

Now I just need to find a home for it.

Copic markers:

skin – E70, E21, E00
helmet, shoes – Y11, Y15, Y19
suit – YR15, YR68, YR27
gloves – W00, W1, W3
button panel – W1, Y15, N9, R27, B05
hair – B93, C5, C7, C9
balloons – C5, C3, C1, C00

Supplies:

• stamps:
  My Favorite Things – space explorer
  Gentleman Crafter – clearly creative texture stamps
• colour:
  Distress oxide – black soot, hickory smoke, frayed burlap
  Tattered Angels mixed media paint – white gold
• inks:
  My Favorite Things – hybrid – black licorice
• pens:
  Sharpie extra-fine white paint pen
• embellishments:
  Ranger glossy accents
  Irresistible pico embellisher – shimmer
• paper and card:
  Neenah solar white 216gsm
  Strathmore Bristol smooth 300
• miscellaneous:
  Tim Holtz Distress glaze
  Tombow Xtreme tabs