Space rocket poster design - Making of

After we left the Copenhagen Suborbitals building site (see previous post here), I was so fired up with inspiration by the ingenuity of Peter and Kristian that I promptly started doodling in my sketchbook; hell bound on making a small poster as a tribute to the grandeur of the project. During a trip to my girlfriends parents in Holland we went to see the famed stained glass windows in the Sint-Janskerk in Gouda - and there in the church I got an epiphany inspired by one of the gorgeous led framed windows: Instead of only illustrate it. I could build the poster motif in cotton and wood...

These are some of the poster doodles in my sketchbook. I was about to base my design on the ones encircled in red.On the way back from the church I doodled the part marked: "After Gouda I drew this"

And this is the window that inspired the final design:

A few weeks later I went to my parents place. They have an amazing farm in the northern part of Denmark, with a lot of space, tools and excess wood (& love). Ideal conditions to embark on projects like this. And I got busy on building the skeleton, and rolling the cotton balls. Yes, I spend 2 days rolling cotton balls and sewing them together. This is the top of the rocket while assembling:

 Please notice the holes in the top board. In order to create the lighting conditions in the cotton smoke, I borrowed one of my fathers Christmas light chains and used it to set a skylight.

 Heres a quick and dirty turnaround of the finished rocket (Before i prolonged its height for the finished shot):



And then it was basically just to play around with the lights in order to find the most dramatic lighting for the project. I ended up using my old Nokia 3200 Cellphone as an additional lightsource to create the cool blue light in contrast to the glowing yellow. Here are some lighting examples:

 And here is my dear mother supervising the project (I use her for scale). She is wearing the obligatory make-belief safety goggles:

And here it is once more; The finished bi-product of my endeavors: