Illustrator Speed Art -Space Oddities 2021

It’s been a while and with 2020 being such a tough year for all of us, I dedicated my 2021 Illustrator speed art to a space theme. This vector artwork was born out of an idea of a playful round space station and luckily I recorded it all right from the start and all other elements beautifully formed “2021” almost by chance.

It’s a longer speed art (so far one of my longest) and you can watch it, just click below. I hope you enjoy watching the speed art as much as I enjoyed creating it!

A little about the artwork:

I always wanted to create some vector space shapes, may it be a spaceship, a futuristic planet or some cool looking universe scene. Since I am a big fan of isometric art and 3d art that can be created with Illustrator, I went along with my space idea and created this vector speed art where the numbers are turned into 3d space ships or space stations. Of course the idea is totally tight into the year 2021, hence the numbers correspond to that :).

This is pretty much a continuation of my yearly speed art on isometric numbers or isometric buildings.

I created each element as I went along designing the pieces so it was all in all without much thinking. I did sketch the initial idea out on paper so I could use it as a reference for the vector scene.

The number “2”, I turned into a docking station for vector space ships, just like the small illustrations of the space ship that is plugged into it. The bottom part of the vector piece is equipped with charging batteries, one would need for charging a space ship or rocket.

The number “0” I turned into a round space station where the astronauts would stay to rest and eat and maybe even collaborate. It is fitted with an antenna with attached satellites and spins on its own axis to charge itself. I also thought of making to levels out of it to accommodate more space people.

The second number “2” is surveillance satellite station with monitoring rooms, charging bays and big satellites on each end.

Last, the number “1” became another space ship with a commander room, a charging capsule and an exploration deck on the bottom. I also added a big telescope, so the astronauts can explore the vast space in the universe. When you look closely, you can see one of the astronauts looking outside of the commander window.

I just Adobe Illustrator to build up all shapes, elements and objects. I used the gradient tool a lot, the 3d tools, blend modes and of course the pathfinder options. Most elements are a combination of combining shapes with different colors and blend modes, cutting them into the desired pieces with the pathinder options and using special effects in Illustrator like drop shadow or feather effects.

The final piece with the background was created in Photoshop. Each vector number was placed into Photoshop, on top of the background and then slightly tweaked for better contrast. I hope you enjoyed my little space exploration and the year 2021 will bing new and exciting things.

Much love, Simona from Vectortwist