Pat Rawlings Space Art

Pat Rawlings is a well known space illustrator and designer. He has painted many scenes of human exploration on the Solar system, and deep space. His paintings of space scenes have been used in various studies by NASA and have appeared in many books. He has been doing NASA art for many years and has become one of the most popular artists in the world of aerospace.

His art has been on the cover of Aviation Week and Space Technology 9 times. Pat Rawlings produced artwork also for various organizations and media (Lockheed, McDonnell-Douglas, Wyle Laboratories, The Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, Ballantine Books, Tor Books, Analog, Time-Life Books, Scientific American Magazine, Encyclopedia Britannica, Air and Space Smithsonian Magazine, Walt Disney Television Productions, IMAX Space Films and NHK Publishing Japan among others). Pale Blue Dot by Carl Sagan featured a dozen of Rawlings' paintings. His design of all the spacecraft and the colony in the 3D IMAX film, L5: First City in Space garnered national critical acclaim. In addition, he has provided preproduction art, conceptual designs, and technical advisory assistance for several other film projects. His artworks are seen in a huge number of publications and these can also be found in collections around the world.

Pat Rawlings creates images based on scientific and technical themes that appeal to both rocket scientists and regular folk. His extraterrestrial "snapshots" of future events give viewers a sense of "being there" as explorers hop from one world to the next using the best technology of the 21st century. Rawlings' desire to travel in space and time motivate him to make scenes as accurate as possible. After consulting with numerous space experts around the country, he uses hand-built and computer models, topographical maps, and space and family vacation photos to mentally create his worlds. Artist says: "Space art provides me with an excuse to talk to some of the most interesting people in the country, build minature models of space ships, and then sit in my studio painting or working on the computer for hours while listening to movie soundtracks and classical music."

Below is a selection of some of his countless artworks (you can click on images for a much larger version).