Chalk Art 2023: Realistic Spaceships Are Awesomer

Completed 2023-09-17. Available releases:

This is a chalk art painting I made on my square for the Forest Grove Chalk Art Festival in 2023.

As a fan of scientifically 'hard' science-fiction, I'm always a little annoyed with the worship of soft-sci-fi ships to the exclusion of realistic spacecraft, which are just as aesthetic, and have the benefit that they could actually exist. So, I resolved to draw some for inspiration.

My result is unfortunately a bit drab, but it does show the glowy radiators and engines that one sees in hard sci-fi. The engines would probably be nuclear thermal rockets, with hydrogen or water exhaust plumes (invisible). That, and any weaponry (for better or worse, sci-fi is almost synonymous with mil sci-fi these days) get cooled by the radiator panels, which are small and therefore hot.

Everything is freehand, although some passersby thought the letters had to be stenciled, they were so neat. The best way to use chalk is to crush it up into a powder, mix with water, and apply like a paint. This covers a concrete sidewalk square more fully, and the result lasts longer.

This year, the main festival was on 2023-09-16, a Saturday. It was hot, to the point where I couldn't even be outside. I returned on Sunday, when it was much cooler, to do my artwork.

See also my previous (2021, apparently I skipped 2022) and next (2024) chalk art entries.

Return to visual art listing.