Galaxy pour: astronaut in space painting

The first step is to create the supercell background pour. Drizzle our chosen Super Cell colours diagonally across the board.

We then rock the board back and forth to combine the colours. Because this is supposed to look spacy, we have used lots of random colours.

The predominate colour should be black. This is then poured on top of the other colours and a large flat palette knife is dragged over the top.

This is called a swipe. If you don’t have a palette knife like this, you can drag a dish cloth over the black paint. You will then see cells magically appear before your eyes. We then allow it to dry - this can take up to 3 days depending on the temperature and weather.

Once the pour is touch dry, we take a printout to A3 sizing and carefully cut it out using a craft knife. If you don’t have a dedicated cutting mat, you can use the backing board on a drawing pad. If you are not yet an adult, please get one to do this stage, and if you are an adult remember the golden rule to always cut away from your person.

Once our astronaut is cut out, we can work out where we want to position him by laying the positive on the board. We can then lay the negative into position and apply masking tape to hold it in place. If there are any areas of the stencil that are lifting, a little bit of blue tac can be placed under it.

Next, squeeze out some titanium white again onto the backing board and charge the sponge roller. Paint over the stencil. The key objective is to get a clean print by not allowing the paint under the stencil.

Remove the stencil and allow the print to dry. Next, apply a second coat of titanium white over our astronaut and then allow this to dry.

Once the paint is touch dry, we can draw in the webbing and details of the astronaut. Refer to the printout. The good thing about this is any wrong linework can easily be erased.

To add a little interest, a light blue can be created from Cerulean Blue and White. Any areas of shadow can be laid in with this colour. Obviously if the colour is too dark, add a little water to the mix. Allow this to dry.