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Description

I wanted a photorealistic style for as many of these figures as possible, so nearly all of the references were from looking closely at the following photographs or videos.

LaLunatique’s stock photo
www.deviantart.com/lalunatique…

A combination of features from astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken from this great photo www.universetoday.com/wp-conte… For getting a better look at details, I watched the footage of Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi donning his SpaceX spacesuit in zero gravity. www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCbqYF…

Side note: back in 2020 when Behnken and Hurley accomplished the first manned commercial launch from Earth to (and later from) the ISS, I couldn’t find any details online regarding where the closures of this type of spacesuit were. Nowadays in 2022 I can finally see weightless wearers pulling at color-coded zippers. To me, it’s still neat to me that the helmets, boots, and gloves on the SpaceX suit are permanently attached to the body of this suit and that the wearer climbs in headfirst, up through the crotch. (It doesn’t look as dirty as it sounds.)

Plus, IRL the wearer doesn’t even have to wait for a fellow crew member to come help them don or doff the suit. To me, that’s the difference between wearing a medieval full suit of armor and then riding your horse versus hurriedly putting on your wool marching band uniform in a stadium restroom. (Plus, I figure that in a pinch, in a SpaceX suit, you could even use the restroom without requiring the help of handmaidens or squires.)

Side note on the SpaceX spacesuit: while it can’t be used for spacewalks outside of the capsule, I think it’s downright useful how a person can calmly continue onwards even if the whole cabin has either caught fire or has lost all its air out of a broken window. I wonder if any fire departments have looked into wearing used SpaceX suits as firefighting garments? Since astronauts and non-NASA wearers each need to have an expensive SpaceX suit custom-made to their bodies, in a few years that means there could be more and more space tourism spacesuits sitting in storerooms or in people’s closets, collecting dust. What if those spacesuits could be donated to fire departments in the way that eyeglasses and hearing aids are?

Getting back on track…

I think the blocky jet-maneuverable backpack was first used for space shuttle missions IRL during the 1980s. What impressed me about it then as now is that there’s no umbilical. It’s like the psychological difference between snorkeling and scuba diving or the difference between being a baby bird in the nest and an adult bird who can fly; not having to worry about your umbilical offers a lot of freedom and self-reliance IMO.
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia… Also, that particular angle reminds me strongly of Maximilian the robot from Disney’s sci-fi movie of The Black Hole.

Much of the pose and the folds (except the head’s angle) from www.deviantart.com/damaimikaz/… I was looking for lab coat pictures viewed from behind, and dang, Damaimikaz’s piece was inspiring enough that I kept coming back to it.

I greatly appreciated the useful side view from this photo cdn.trendhunterstatic.com/thum…

Thomas Wievegg has made at least three sci-fi/horror organic astronaut digital paintings so far, and
www.deviantart.com/thomaswieve…
has impressed me for years. It was an inspiration and reference for one of the spookier characters above. The more I tried to copy what he was doing, the more I realized how he used lighting very, very well. Granted, in my self-assigned art project here, lighting isn’t a feature which I had high on my priority in the other drawings. Either way, I appreciated Mr. Wievegg’s work more and more as I was drawing my version based on his original “Organic Astronaut.”

Note: on the Wievegg-style organic astronaut spacesuit, I hesitated to begin sketching it onto paper for weeks because I didn’t want him thinking I was a thief. (I just learn more about how to draw better by copying freehand.) It finally dawned on me that in the past, my drawing style ends up being automatically different enough from other people’s originals that I tend to needlessly worry too much about plagiarism. (I’m one of those drivers who still drives exactly the speed limit, while the nearest highway patrol officer likely takes one look at my driving habits and thinks, “Fella. Carry on, and quit worrying about it. You’re not a crook.”)

(Plus, while looking through Mr. Wievegg’s prolific gallery, I got the hopeful impression that I’d probably not be stepping on his toes by adhering to the motto, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” My result isn’t identical to his original, but if you know where to look in the folds and the silhouette, it’s clear I was looking at his original. There are bits which I added such as the spread and length of the tentacles, bits I subtracted such as the red lights in the groin and helmet, and different media used, but the similarity still worries me that I might be plagiarizing.)

I think Kristine Davis is the name of the NASA engineer demonstrating the real-life Artemis spacesuit. s1.ibtimes.com/sites/www.ibtim… (I was impressed with the informative commentary regarding these Artemis spacesuits (and spacesuits in general) at www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuCUEG… I still like that the backpack of the Artemis suit isn’t a backpack. It’s a door. It’s a hatch through which the wearer climbs into and out of the spacesuit. Cool! Someday, I hope to see Kindergarteners worldwide playing in plastic playsets where they get to climb into and out of child-sized Artemis suits. Meanwhile, the grown-ups will be doing the same thing on the moon, on Mars, or on asteroids.)

Description

I wanted a photorealistic style for as many of these figures as possible, so nearly all of the references were from looking closely at the following photographs or videos.

LaLunatique’s stock photo
www.deviantart.com/lalunatique…

A combination of features from astronauts Doug Hurley and Bob Behnken from this great photo www.universetoday.com/wp-conte… For getting a better look at details, I watched the footage of Japanese astronaut Soichi Noguchi donning his SpaceX spacesuit in zero gravity. www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCbqYF…

Side note: back in 2020 when Behnken and Hurley accomplished the first manned commercial launch from Earth to (and later from) the ISS, I couldn’t find any details online regarding where the closures of this type of spacesuit were. Nowadays in 2022 I can finally see weightless wearers pulling at color-coded zippers. To me, it’s still neat to me that the helmets, boots, and gloves on the SpaceX suit are permanently attached to the body of this suit and that the wearer climbs in headfirst, up through the crotch. (It doesn’t look as dirty as it sounds.)

Plus, IRL the wearer doesn’t even have to wait for a fellow crew member to come help them don or doff the suit. To me, that’s the difference between wearing a medieval full suit of armor and then riding your horse versus hurriedly putting on your wool marching band uniform in a stadium restroom. (Plus, I figure that in a pinch, in a SpaceX suit, you could even use the restroom without requiring the help of handmaidens or squires.)

Side note on the SpaceX spacesuit: while it can’t be used for spacewalks outside of the capsule, I think it’s downright useful how a person can calmly continue onwards even if the whole cabin has either caught fire or has lost all its air out of a broken window. I wonder if any fire departments have looked into wearing used SpaceX suits as firefighting garments? Since astronauts and non-NASA wearers each need to have an expensive SpaceX suit custom-made to their bodies, in a few years that means there could be more and more space tourism spacesuits sitting in storerooms or in people’s closets, collecting dust. What if those spacesuits could be donated to fire departments in the way that eyeglasses and hearing aids are?

Getting back on track…

I think the blocky jet-maneuverable backpack was first used for space shuttle missions IRL during the 1980s. What impressed me about it then as now is that there’s no umbilical. It’s like the psychological difference between snorkeling and scuba diving or the difference between being a baby bird in the nest and an adult bird who can fly; not having to worry about your umbilical offers a lot of freedom and self-reliance IMO.
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia… Also, that particular angle reminds me strongly of Maximilian the robot from Disney’s sci-fi movie of The Black Hole.

Much of the pose and the folds (except the head’s angle) from www.deviantart.com/damaimikaz/… I was looking for lab coat pictures viewed from behind, and dang, Damaimikaz’s piece was inspiring enough that I kept coming back to it.

I greatly appreciated the useful side view from this photo cdn.trendhunterstatic.com/thum…

Thomas Wievegg has made at least three sci-fi/horror organic astronaut digital paintings so far, and
www.deviantart.com/thomaswieve…
has impressed me for years. It was an inspiration and reference for one of the spookier characters above. The more I tried to copy what he was doing, the more I realized how he used lighting very, very well. Granted, in my self-assigned art project here, lighting isn’t a feature which I had high on my priority in the other drawings. Either way, I appreciated Mr. Wievegg’s work more and more as I was drawing my version based on his original “Organic Astronaut.”

Note: on the Wievegg-style organic astronaut spacesuit, I hesitated to begin sketching it onto paper for weeks because I didn’t want him thinking I was a thief. (I just learn more about how to draw better by copying freehand.) It finally dawned on me that in the past, my drawing style ends up being automatically different enough from other people’s originals that I tend to needlessly worry too much about plagiarism. (I’m one of those drivers who still drives exactly the speed limit, while the nearest highway patrol officer likely takes one look at my driving habits and thinks, “Fella. Carry on, and quit worrying about it. You’re not a crook.”)

(Plus, while looking through Mr. Wievegg’s prolific gallery, I got the hopeful impression that I’d probably not be stepping on his toes by adhering to the motto, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.” My result isn’t identical to his original, but if you know where to look in the folds and the silhouette, it’s clear I was looking at his original. There are bits which I added such as the spread and length of the tentacles, bits I subtracted such as the red lights in the groin and helmet, and different media used, but the similarity still worries me that I might be plagiarizing.)

I think Kristine Davis is the name of the NASA engineer demonstrating the real-life Artemis spacesuit. s1.ibtimes.com/sites/www.ibtim… (I was impressed with the informative commentary regarding these Artemis spacesuits (and spacesuits in general) at www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuCUEG… I still like that the backpack of the Artemis suit isn’t a backpack. It’s a door. It’s a hatch through which the wearer climbs into and out of the spacesuit. Cool! Someday, I hope to see Kindergarteners worldwide playing in plastic playsets where they get to climb into and out of child-sized Artemis suits. Meanwhile, the grown-ups will be doing the same thing on the moon, on Mars, or on asteroids.)