Don White is a gel-pen/watercolor artist gone digital. Combined with a passion for astronomy, space exploration and time travel, his artwork is dedicated to those who love outer apace art, deep-sky objects, vibrant colors, and stunning images. Don's work is made for those who are fascinated with the possibilities and vastness of space and the adventure ahead for humans as we enter the galactic playing field. His work is inspired by Carl Sagan, who said "Since in the long run every planetary civilization will be endangered by impacts from space, every surviving civilization must become spacefaring – not because of exploratory or romantic zeal, but for the most practical reason imaginable: staying alive. If our long term survival is at stake, we have a basic responsibility to our species to venture to other worlds." In some tiny way, I hope my art will start some conversations in this direction.
Don spontaneously started doodling and coloring in the third grade to express ideas and concepts……and drew monsters and space ships of course. The doodling came partly from boredom, but partly from some nagging questions: what if gravity pushed instead of pulled, what if empty space wasn't really empty, what if color was just sound at a higher frequency, why does the big bang explode out in only one direction, is sunset on Mars really blue, and what if I tried to draw a sunset?

Don says about his artistic process:
"I can't stand trying to 'think' into a blank sheet of paper. I have to fill the space with something first or my brain freezes so my approach starts with a mixed media process using watercolors, acrylics, and alcohol inks on a full sheet of 300 heat pressed watercolor paper to create my background (very abstract at this point). Then I take a few days or weeks to stare at the image until my mind begins to discern shapes and patterns where I didn't see anything before. Once I feel like I know what the image wants to be, I load the high-resolution digital file into Photoshop. There I can create layers on top of the original image (without damaging the original image), and then use any of the thousands of Photoshop brushes to paint in the exoplanets, nebulas, moons, and landscapes that I see in my mind. Then I have the finished image converted a second time into a high-resolution digital file that will produce the intensely colorful pieces you see here."