I haven't been as active here, but I do browse regularly and read all the comments. It's kind of hard opening photoshop and bust out a space scene (or anything else for that matter) after using photoshop at work all day. Something's really gotta grab me if I want to produce something.

Still, the point of this journal was to say that I'm pretty impressed by the average quality of space art that I've come across lately. I'd like to think that I've been there in the very early stages when there were only a handful of us here at dA making space art. This allowed us to see some newcomers' art and now I've seen how far they've come.

I have personally developed a bit of a different taste for space art and mere scenes don't do it for me anymore, but some of the stuff I've come across in the "scenes" realm is good stuff! Good colors, good texturing, sharp stuff. Nebulae are still a bit shaky in general and there are only a few people who dont pull of exclusively the ones with the overly bright (white) center that looks like nothing i've seen in astronomy imagery unless i crank up the contrast.

I've always made a point of making things believable rather than strictly realistic, which applies to pretty much all space art at this point. It's funny how some of my early works now look like shit compared to the average artwork, even though it wasn't shabby at all back then (I'm talking about 5 years ago or so). So that says something about the current state of technique. Unless there's some sort of planet-generating program that I'm not aware of....in that case you can all fuck off

Speaking of generation, I still don't like the whole terragen thing. This is because I don't like the perspectives, mere space scenes don't do it for me (anymore) and because, quite frankly, they all look the same to me at this point. Yea they look nice but bleh. Plus the whole thing that attracted me to space scenes was the idea of flying around in space and not touching down somewhere. Low-orbit is as low as I'll go But still, if you like it, then more power to ya.

I haven't come across many galaxies, though...I've seen less than 5 that I kinda liked but everyone else just sticks to nebulae and planets. Do you guys find them that hard to make? It's like a frigging nebula with a twirl, come on! I know that I keep mentioning a guide/tutorial, but galaxies arent like planets, where you follow a certain order. Galaxies are paintings that take a bit of shape and you end up with something that you like. I'll see what I can do, though. Any suggestions on how to go about it?

So yea, basically this entry is to congratulate the lot of you on doing a hell of a nice job. Your techniques are good and have certainly improvement. Still, there's a lot of room for expansion, and remember that idea will always matter more than technique. Space art offers the possibility fo making something that may seem wild but it makes sense in a weird way. Since we're a species that is just starting to explore space, nothing seems too far-fetched at this point.