It has been a while since I did any astro sketching. 6 months to be exact, my last sketch according to my notebook was March 2022. After a period of being unwell and taking to bed rest for a couple of days I was itching to start to do things. I'm not one for being comfortable doing nothing and in between aching, coughing and sleeping I have been thinking about sketching and painting. I took the plunge and started on a sketch of the Heart and Soul nebula. I decided to Timelapse the process. I started out by laying out the key shapes and features in a faint white pencil outline.
This was then followed by adding in the nebula using pastels applied using my finger or a cotton bud. Once I was happy with the shading and shapes I could then get to work on the detail. I put in highlights and shadows using the black and white charcoal pencils. Where needed I could blend and smudge areas to get the features right. Finally I used a white marker pen and gouache paint on the end of a needle tip to start adding the stars. Once complete I placed it into my final astronomy sketch book and signed away for completion. Please watch the video link below
