So you wanna make a background in space. You dont need "art skills" or have a degree in astronomy. You need... YOU NEED.... a hand, and a head. and also a heart. and all the necessary things for living. maybe a tablet or a mouse.. a copy of ms paint or clip studio... you know.. a computer..

background of your background

so this is basically what color you make your canvas. when you look at the night sky, is it always pitch black? Or is the sky sometimes dark red, or dark blue, or even orange?

 

 

When you look at pictures of space, the color of it can be in shades of blue, green, orange, yellow, or purple, stars can be magenta, red, light blue, , don't be afraid to be daring. This is your space!

stars

Stars are easy to draw. They just look like dots. How about we take this a bit further? Some stars glow. Some sparkle. Some burn madly. Some look rainbow-y, some have diffraction spikes!!! those cross-shapes on the stars..

look at pictures of stars and make your interpretations of them! They can be stylistic, or realistic, vivid or muted. You can use the brush tool, or you can try a pixel style.

 

 

A tip is to not place stars evenly, because this doesn't look natural. Put them all over the place, and use many different colors. Some stars are closer to the view, making them seem bigger, and brighter. Some are far away, making them smaller and dimmer.

empty space

sometimes you can have a space background without anything in it, or very little. These kinds of backgrounds can convey many different emotions- much like saying nothing can mean so many different things.

img on left:

the character is looking in amazement at space, gazing thoughtfully, maybe counting the stars..

 

img on right:

the character has lost all hope. Maybe the character is gazing at the sky somewhere where the stars cant be seen, and is looking desperately for one. Many different interpretations.

GALAXIES

galaxies are whack. they're fun to draw, because you can just go crazy with all the colors and brushes, and there's many types of galaxies.

what i like to do for galaxies is pile a bunch of colors on it willy-nilly, and then blend it with a blendy brush. (for this i used opaque watercolor.) this gives it a soft feel that mimics the glow of all the many-colored stars that are in the galaxy.

 

After that, I get a pen type brush and i put dots all over it to mimic stars.

 

Less is more. The more stars you put, the more cluttered it will be, and make your painting a bit messy.

end

this is the first tutorial ive ever made. And I'm not really a professional. My last tip is practice, experiment, and go crazy. And look at pictures of space.