The Red Star – How to paint hope

Today I woke up and there it was: I am sad, I am afraid, and I want to be on a different planet. I want the world to be different. I want science to be so advanced that my good friend who has cancer and may not live very long can be healed. I want science to stop aging. Naturally only the negative effects, the loss of mobility, the illness and loneliness. I want science to facilitate the evolution of mind and psyche, so that there is less discrimination. That people are accepted to be worthy independent of origin, age, sex, health, status, religion, or appearance (and every other line of difference). I want science to demolish the social injustice.



„The dust of a story“
Acrylic and pencil on paper
30 x 42 cm

As I was younger I was a great fan of science fiction books. I stared with the old classics of Lem, Bradbury, Asimov, and Dick. As I grew older I transitioned to the cyberpunk universe. A world which seemed more adequate, with a darker vision of the future. Where science was no longer conquering space but failing to rescue humanity from itself. And then I read Stephenson, where the future was depicted in neon colours build out of neuro-linguistic viruses. And afterwards I stopped.

Now I read to escape a world which I seem unable to change. I can no longer find hope in a better future. Today I despair.

Tomorrow or perhaps this afternoon, I will fight against this Weltschmerz. I know it is childish. I know there is pain and suffering, that I must accept death. Perhaps later this day I will create my own red star.




No sketching or priming this time. I directly painted with acrylic paint on watercolour paper. To avoid curling or bulging I taped the paper onto a wooden board. Sadly the “sensitive” tape was a bad choice: it is so sensitive, I had to refix it every five minutes (Don’t buy it… it’s the soft violet tape can see on the photo)

I started with the mountains and the landscape in bright pink and magenta shades. I then highlighted the peaks to lend the mountains a hint of height (perhaps snow). The next step was to create the later to be concealed sky and sun. I did this with white, orange and neon yellow. To create a connection between sky and landscape, I used the same orange for one of the mountains.




Currently I love to mix acrylic paint with pencil, so I changed the medium and proceeded with a soft black pencil (I like the polycromos pencils form Faber Castel very much) I covered the bigger part of the sky and filled in the landscape details. Therefore, I utilised the already existent bulges from my pastose acrylic paint. My aim was to create the classic red planet. An alien landscape which populates the science fiction literature for centuries now (Bogdanovs “Red star” dates from 1908!). I wanted to create a landscape which is hot and cold at the same time. Where the burning sun radiates on an alien earth. Where the air is full of ashes and nature feels strange and distant.

This is my contribution to @juliakponsford ART EXPLOSION Theme SCIENCE FICTION
Thank you @juliaponsford for hosting this contest <3