Russell Crotty's Astronomical Paper Globes

When Cerek mentioned astronomy-inspired artwork in his Astronomy World introduction post, I immediately thought of Russell Crotty. Crotty is a California artist who creates beautiful sculptures and drawings inspired by astronomy, landscape, and surfing.

An enthusiastic amateur astronomer, and Crotty uses his own personal collection of telescopes to create artwork based on the stars. He began his career making flat drawings of stars and deep sky objects, and then moved onto making three-dimensional globe drawings in the late '90s. The interior structure of the globes is made out of fiberglass, which is then covered with archival paper by professional paper conservators (a rare, yet awesome sounding job). Russell then draws and paints directly onto the globe using pen and watercolors.