When Stars Come Out (A Constellation Album)

There is no better feeling in the world than when a project comes to fruition. This is especially true when the project is a total pleasure to work on, and it surpasses my already high expectations.

After nearly a year of anticipation (on my part, anyway), A Constellation Album: Stars and Mythology of the Night Sky by renowned astrophotographer P.K. Chen and chock-full of cut-paper illustrations by me is now available from Sky Publishing! Yee-Haw!

When art director extraordinaire Sandra Salamony first laid out the idea of the book, I knew that it would be unlike anything I had worked on before, and entirely special. Here’s a brief breakdown of the awesomeness that is this book:

• First off, I get to illustrate the constellations. About fifty-five (55!) of them. I mean, how cool is that?
• P.K.’s photos of the night sky are gorgeous.
• The book delves into the mythology and stories, my favorite part.
• The illustrations are a fusion of Greek and Asian design elements, with a healthy dash of my quirks thrown in. Extra points to anyone who can find a little Cthulu in there.
• Coolest of all, the artwork is printed on a transparency that lies on top of the photo. You can lift it up to enjoy the night stars, then put it back down to try and figure out how the ancients managed to see anything at all in those lights (my theory includes plenty of free time and a lot of wine).

My little digital camera can’t do justice to how mind-numbingly cool this book is, but here’s a quick shot of Sagittarius.

Here is the original Saggittarius cut-paper artwork. Each of the illos for this were cut from a single black sheet of paper. ‘Twas a relief not to worry about glue. They are mighty floppy, though.

Oh, and just for the heck of it, here’s the original sketch which led to the cut-paper art which led to the book.
The book is available pretty much everywhere, I think, including Amazon: A Constellation Album: Stars and Mythology of the Night Sky