Digital Space Art

“Space art,” sometimes called “Astronomical Art,” has a long and respectable history. Artists have been creating imaginative works showing conceptual and fanciful spacecraft, strange new worlds and awesome galactic vistas since long before the first primitive artificial satellites were boosted into earth orbit.

Until the advent of the computer, space artists relied on traditional media, such as oil paints on canvas or acrylics on illustration board, to show us their visions. Today’s powerful desktop computers provide an optional medium.

The images on this Digital Space Art website show some of the capabilities of affordable three-dimensional (3D) modeling and rendering software as used to create photo-realistic images of space subjects.

The hardware models in these images--spacecraft, booster rockets, interplanetary probes, and so on--are realistic extrapolations of designs not so very different from vehicles that actually flew. You won’t find any physically unlikely “fantasy” spacecraft here. Most of these images feature the hardware in a prominent role--they’re not just extraterrestrial scenery.

Take a few minutes and browse through the site. You’ll find the following pages:

	The About the Art page gives some details about the techniques I used to create the art. It’s not a tutorial, but if you’re unfamiliar with the tools and terminology of 3D modeling and image editing software, it’s a good place to start.
	The Gallery displays several images, each with a brief explanation of what is depicted.
	New pieces of artwork start out on the What’s New page--check it out often to see the latest images.
	Finally, the Links page contains a small collection of links carefully selected to be of interest to space art enthusiasts and 3D modelers. This page is constantly changing and growing. Check back often..

This site created with

Copyright © 1998 - 2006 by Terry L. Sunday. All rights reserved. Please ask permission before using any of these images for any reason.
Some of the background images for these works are available in the public domain.