Starship

Starship

On the 20th of April 2023, the first complete Starship/Super Heavy rocket system took to the skies for the first time.

For a very long time I wanted to paint Starship in all its glory, as a basic idea as a silhouette, just in black, white, yellow and brown. Due to other tasks and circumstances, I ran out of this idea, so I used the supplies I had at home. This is how the colours ended up on black canvas, as well as the Super Heavy Booster 7 and Ship 24 photographed during the first test flight.

The Super Heavy Booster 7 was a 69 meter long first stage equipped with 33 sea level optimized Raptor engines with a total thrust of about 74.4 MN.

The Ship 24 is the second stage of the rocket system, 50 m high and 9 m in diameter. It was equipped with 3 Raptor engines optimised for sea level and 3 Raptor engines optimised for vacuum, with a total thrust of 14,7 MN.

The main goal of the mission was to launch the rocket, which is almost 120 metres high, into space safely and to survive the ascent phase and the maximum aerodynamic load (Max-Q). After the stage separation, S24 would approach its first orbital speed (28,000 km/h) with the help of its six Raptor engines and, after three quarters of its low-Earth orbit, would terminate in the Pacific Ocean, about 150 km north of the Hawaiian Islands. Meanwhile, the first stage would have made a controlled descent into the Gulf of Mexico.

Although the test flight did not achieve all its objectives, it did achieve the most important one: Starship left the launch pad in one piece and made its maiden voyage as the largest and most powerful vehicle ever, reaching an altitude of 39 km.

40×80 cm stretched canvas, acrylic, various techniques.

If you like the painting, you can buy it.

Starship first test flight
Red shift

Red shift

Red and blue shift of an imaginary spiral galaxy, fantasy image.

I built the dust rings with texture paste for days (it was a good experience), so that I could spray the two dominant colours, red and blue, from a flat angle. At the same time, I tried to achieve an effect that was pleasing to the eye in itself, because the original idea would only really work if the image itself was in motion or the position of the viewer changed – which can be achieved with the vertical suspension, but then it would look weird from the eye. 🙂

I have done a lot of small dioramas with this technique and it is very effective. I’ll keep experimenting with the larger ones. 🙂

30×60 cm stretched canvas, acrylic, structure paste, various techniques.

If you like the painting, you can buy it.

More information about the “red shift”can be found on the ESA website

Imaginary spiral galaxy
Voyager 2: A visit to Neptune

Voyager 2: A visit to Neptune

In addition to new ideas I decided to finish the paintings I had started so far.
I started this image in May 2018, the shade of blue in the background has changed since then, but the idea of Voyager has remained the same throughout.

The Voyager 1 and 2 space probes were built for a five-year lifetime. Voyager 2 was launched on 20th of August in 1977, 16 days before Voyager 1, and both have now reached well beyond their original destinations, with Voyager 2 becoming the only spacecraft to have studied all four gas giants of the Solar System at close range. Voyager 2 is in 45th year, 5th month and 22nd day of its mission, and travelling 19 930 968 333 km from Earth at a speed of 55 347 km/h through the interstellar space.

More about the mission: link

50 x 40 cm, stretched canvas, acrylic.

If you like this painting, you can buy it by contacting me via one of the contact details in the CONTACT menu!