Galaxy Spray Paint Art

Ever want to learn how to spray paint like a street artist from New York? This is a step by step process on techniques used to create a wonderful space scene full of stars, planets and galaxies. It is a lot more simple than you think and just takes practice to accomplish.

I am 22 years old and art experience is nothing outside of a high school/college level . Everything I have learned about working with spray paint is experimental and self taught, so I would say this project is at a moderate skill level. I learned from watching you tube videos of start to finish pieces of art. As you can see it does not take long so it can be difficult to follow every technique in a short 5 minute video. So in this tutorial I have broken it down into steps and provide visuals on every technique used and each step done.

Step 1: Materials and Tools

This should take about 5 minutes to complete with some practice.

What you will need:

• Canvas( I received mine for 4$ a piece at Michael's arts and crafts.

• Mask(If you are working inside I would recommend a mask as inhaling the fumes can be a bit overwhelming and probably poor for your health.

• Gloves(Gloves are optional if you don't mind having spray paint on your hands for a week)

• Spray Paint (colors may vary depending on what you want to do. Black and White will be used in every painting but its all experiential what colors you want to use to mix together.) Brand is also a preference but I got mine from home depot for about 3$ a can so the cheap stuff works fine.

• Newspaper or plastic bag (these are used to remove layers of paint to create the planet texture look)

• Round objects (you can use whatever you want to create the size of your planet from bottle caps to pots and tin cans, plastic lids or anything hollow to paint around the planets and keep the round shape.

Step 2: Lay Out

The first thing you want to do is to plan out your work and establish a base color. I chose to put a planet in the top left corner to leave room for the galaxy. Start by layering colors in the area you want the planet to be. It doesn't have to be organized as you can see I just sporadically sprayed. Once you layer the paint take your crinkled newspaper or plastic wrap(I used the wrap that the canvas came in) lay it over the paint and gently spread it out. Quickly remove the wrap and it will peal away some of the paint to give it that texture. If you get a texture you like, place the round object over the area that will later become your planet. It may take some practice to get a look you like but you can always paint it over white and try again.

Step 3: The Galaxy

Start with your lightest color I decided to use aqua to green to blue. Like in the first image all it takes is a few quick strokes across the canvas. Overlap the lighter color just enough so that you cant see any white and it blends the colors together. Like in image four keep expanding the colors so that it gets its oval shape but leave a bit of light color on the outside. It will come together once you outline it in black and lightly spray two streaks down in the middle like in the first image. Once you get the shape and blend you like fill in the rest of the canvas with black. Make sure you cover all of the white spaces around your round object so that when you remove it, its a prefect circle.

Step 4: Stars

Once you get the blend you like its time do add some stars. Its a very simple process just spray a little bit of white on your finger tips and flick the paint off from about 1 foot over the canvas. Do not spray too much or the splotches of paint will be too big. Practice a few times on a piece of news paper before you try it on your canvas. Next, take the white and spray the edge of the round object used to create the planet. Do not spray the canvas directly, the over spray will give a nice mist around the planet to give it the light look around it. Finally, remove the object and reveal the planet to bring the piece together.