International Space Station Flyovers

...and my Art Process

At the beginning of the pandemic, Hubby & I started a fun, safe, free (and inspiring!) habit that we’ve continued ever since: watching the International Space Station (ISS) fly over us in the night sky. You can’t see the ISS every night, but recently we had the opportunity to see it 4 times in one week—so that became my Perpetual Journal entry!

Perpetual Journal, week of Jan 8-14: International Space Station Flyover (2024); Little Lupine Planties (2023)

The ISS has been orbiting Earth since 1998 and is operated by a global partnership of space agencies from Canada, Europe, Japan, Russia, and the United States (NASA). The ISS orbits Earth about every 90 minutes, so in 24 hours it orbits Earth 16 times—traveling through 16 sunrises and sunsets! The astronauts on the ISS are actively involved in conducting research in human physiology, radiation, materials science, engineering, biology, fluid physics, and technology. SO C👀L!

To learn when the ISS is scheduled to fly over your location, go to Spot the Station, which provides information on spotting the ISS from around the world!

Back here on Earth, in Tucson, we’ve seen lots of little lupine (and other wildflower) planties popping up in our yard the past few weeks, just as I documented for last year’s January 8-14 Perpetual Journal entry. 🤗

🎨 My Process for Creating International Space Station Flyover

You’d think this would be a super quick piece of art to create: get out a black marker, draw circles around the stars & the ISS; draw lines around the ISS flight path; and fill in the rest with the black marker. Done! ✔️

That, however, was not my process. My process was a little more involved. Shocking, I know. 😁

Before diving into painting, I wanted to decide how to approach two aspects of this art:

1. ISS flight path: How did I want to depict the flight path of the ISS? With a dashed line? Dotted line? Solid line? And—did I want my line to have an arrowhead?

2. White objects: What art medium/technique did I want to use for the ISS, stars, and ISS flight path? Masking fluid? Blue painter’s tape? Gel pen? Gouache?

Here’s a note I made exploring these possibilities.

My notes exploring how to depict stars, the ISS and the ISS flight path

The answers to the above critical 😉 questions were:

1. ISS flight path: Solid line without an arrowhead

2. White objects: Masking fluid and blue painter’s tape

Once all that was determined, my process was as follows:

1. Mask off the edges of the art using blue painter’s tape

2. Mask the stars and the ISS using masking fluid

3. Paint the area of the ISS flight path with light yellow watercolor

4. Mask the ISS flight path using blue painter’s tape

5. Mix my favorite combination of watercolors to create a rich black (Daniel Smith Indigo + Winsor & Newton Burnt Sienna) and then paint the black sky (the masking fluid & blue painter’s tape repelled the watercolor)

6. Remove the masking fluid & blue painter’s tape

7. Add the text

📖 Book Nook

If you’d like to learn more about the ISS, I highly recommend reading Endurance: a Year in Space, a Lifetime of Discovery by Scott Kelly. Kelly spent a year on the ISS and this book provides a fascinating peek not only into life aboard the ISS but also into the path Kelly took from his boyhood in New Jersey to his life as an astronaut orbiting Earth.

Note: The link above takes you to the Pima County (AZ) Public Library. Even if this isn’t your library, the link provides more information about the book. I’m a big fan of libraries and encourage you to look for this book at your own local library! To locate a library near you, visit Library Finder.

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