Splatter Painted Galaxy

The beautiful photography in Astronomy Fluxx inspired me to make my own galaxy painting. Give it a try! Affiliate links below.

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Splatter Painted Galaxy

Materials:

• black cardstock or velvet paper -  (I actually used this black velvet)
• Folk Art paint
• stencil brush
• chipboard scraps

Steps:

First, a warning. This craft can get messy. Cover your workspace. 

Tape your black paper to your work surface. Dip the stencil brush in white paint, then pounce it on the paper, a bit off-center. Continue to pounce around this area without adding more paint to the brush. This will be the brightest spot in the painting. 

Now, make two oval stencils/masks from a piece of chipboard that is roughly the size of your black paper. To make mine, I cut the chipboard in half along the diagonal, cut out a large oval from the center, and then taped the original pieces back together. Then I cut the large oval in half lengthwise, cut a smaller oval from the center of it, and then taped the remaining parts of the large oval back together. Put both stencils on top of the black paper.

Dip the brush in paint and use your thumb to pull back on the bristles, sending the paint spattering onto the paper. You should get a very fine mist of paint. Pull back on the bristles again and again until no more paint is spraying. Re-dip and splatter again. Do this until you are satisfied with the coverage. I dipped in fresh paint 8 times. I used white for the first few, then did a yellow, another white, a light blue, and then more white.

Remove the inner stencil and do more splattering. Do about half the amount you did with the center stencil in place. 

Remove the outer stencil and do a few more splatters. 

I ended up with harsh edges on the right side of my galaxy. To make that side look more like the left, I dipped the stencil brush in black paint and pounced to soften the harsh line. Finally, I barely dipped the tip of the handle in paint, then barely touched the paper here and there to add a few closer stars to my galaxy. 

I love how it turned out!