Painting a solar filament

I haven't done much painting since moving back to Hawaii. I'm not sure why, other than that I just haven't felt very motivated to do it; perhaps because it started as something of a social activity in Australia and I haven't replicated that feeling here. However, back in May, the Astronomy Picture of the Day website had an image of the Sun from the Solar Dynamics Observatory which really inspired me. It showed the limb of the Sun with a filament stretching out from behind it towards the foreground, which gave it a strong sense of three-dimensionality – something often lacking in astronomical images. I thought I'd take a shot at painting something like it, leading to the painting below:

Solar Filament, 12"×18", acrylic on canvas.

I'm not entirely happy with how it turned out – especially when comparing to the infinitely more dynamic and vibrant inspiration – but I've learned that sometimes it's best just to draw a line under something, take the lessons learned, and move on, rather than striving in vain for perfection. Though for being the first moderately intricate thing I've painted in a few years now, I'm also not too unhappy with it. I learned (and relearned!) multiple things about painting while working on it, which I'm sure will come in handy the next time I feel like painting a star.

I tried to replicate the colors from the reference images somewhat, such as having the hottest parts of the surface be white. It didn't quite come out like I'd hoped, which actually characterizes a fair amount of my color-mixing experiments over the course of this painting – but in the process I remembered how much fun it is mix colors, to arrange them as I like, and the physical application of paint on a surface. Speaking of surfaces, that's one thing I think did go well: before coloring the Sun, I laid down a thin layer of flexible modeling past, then lightly tapped all over it with my finger to create an appropriately fractal, rough surface. (I later realized I should've done something similar where the filament goes beyond the solar limb and had to improvise with some stiff paint, but that's part of the learning process!)

In-progress image showing the texture on the Sun's surface.

I thought about using glass beads like some of my previous stars, but it didn't quite feel right for this painting, and I think that was right call in the end. Overall, I'm happy enough with it to share it here, and it has reminded me of the simple joy of painting. I don't know what I'll paint next, or when, but I do have a few ideas rattling around in my head, so we'll see where things go. A hui hou!