Pencils in Spaaaaaace
Extreme observational drawing
See these pencils? They’ve been into outer space!
They belong to Alexei Leonov, the first person to draw in space.
Leonov was on board a Voskhod spacecraft. It was originally designed to carry one passenger, then adapted to squash two on board: Leonov and Pavel Belyayer.
Floating 300 miles above the earth’s surface, Leonov didn’t start drawing straight away.
Instead, he went on the first ever space walk.
Attached to a 16 foot cable, Leonov exited through the airlock and floated alone in the infinite emptiness of space for 12 minutes and 9 seconds.
As he approached the ship to get back in, Leonov discovered his suit had expanded and would no longer fit through the airlock. He had to open a valve in his suit and let his oxygen supply slip away. The oxygen had to drop below safe levels in order to deflate his suit enough for him to be able to fit back through the airlock.
After he got back on board Leonov cracked open his sketchbook, looked out of the window and started drawing.
My favourite fact in this whole story is that to stop his pencils floating away in zero gravity Leonov put an elastic band around his wrist, each pencil tied to it with string.
Sometimes, when I feel a bit apprehensive about starting a drawing I think about Leonov. I’m only dealing with the infinite emptiness of a blank page. I’m not dealing with zero gravity, giant spacesuit gloves or floating in a tin can in 1965.
And I don’t really need to feel apprehensive about heading out to draw. I’m not speeding 300 miles from the earth’s surface to draw through the window of a Voskhod spacecraft.
I’m mostly pottering down the road and drawing from the window of a Costa.
Do some parts of drawing make you apprehensive? Is it the blank page? Drawing in public? Your inner critic? Some other indefinable dread?
You can see Alexei Leonov’s first drawing made in space here. On later missions he drew portraits of fellow crew members as well as views of the cosmos. Back on Earth he continued making paintings influenced by his space travels. His artwork features on The Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication.
Yes, my title does refer to the Muppets classic Pigs in Space
Ooh what a fantastic story and a great reminder to everyone take the first step!
This is so interesting Nanette, thank you for sharing! :)