If you’re an artist, or if you have ever made anything artistic, you’d probably be a bit horrified at the prospect of setting your creation on fire. However, if you’re artist Matt Sorensen, blasting your artwork with jets of flame is all in a day’s work. Using spray paint and stencils, Sorensen creates breathtaking scenes of alien worlds full of bright and textured planets, skies boiling with rainbow nebulae, and glowing oceans lined with mysterious shores.
To create even circles for the planets, Sorensen uses coins, caps, and lids to block off certain areas. These areas already have the planets’ colors and textures painted in.The rest of space will be applied on top. And yes, before you ask, it is legal to paint on currency.
The galaxy is painted right on top of the lids, and stars are added by flicking on white paint.
When the circular objects are removed, the planets appear!
Fire time! The heat helps the paint to dry by burning off the flammable liquids. It does not damage the pigments or dull the color.
The foreground is added in and, you guessed it, more fire!
Smaller details are added in by hand.
A closeup of the completed sky. Without using a brush at all, Sorensen can create some remarkable detail.
The completed image, called Champagne Supernova, which you’ll notice is a reference to the song playing in the video.
You can also check out Sorensen’s process of creating one of these spacey paintings using spray paint and fire. Besides being a cool behind-the-scenes look at making art, it’s also a great show!
(source Matt Sorensen)
The process is pretty incredible, and, luckily for us, Sorensen films making-of videos for many of his paintings. You can check them all out on YouTube and on his website.