Psyche Inspired: Chris Vasquez

This is a portrait of Psyche Inspired member Chris Vasquez

Chris Vasquez (Photo Credit: Chris Vasquez; Editing Credit: Abigail Weibel)

Institution: Arizona State University

Major: Drawing

Psyche Inspired Class: 2017-2018

This image shows a sculpture made out of wire and LED holiday lights (pinks, reds, and blues) in the shape of the Psyche spacecraft.

Heavy Metal Light Show

Chris Vasquez

March 21, 2018

Major: drawing

Genre/Medium: wire and LED string lights

About the work: With Psyche, you never have to take down your holiday lights! Inspired by festive holiday light sculptures, I wanted to create something reminiscent of those while keeping true to the design of Psyche.

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Cover for the children's book "Psyche's Journey to a Metal World" showing the Earth, the spacecraft, and the asteroid on a starry background.

Psyche’s Journey to a Metal World

Caralie Cedarleaf (Text), Jeremy Seidner & Chris Vasquez (Illustrations), & John Domenico (Story Concept)

February 16, 2018

Majors: sculpture (Caralie); computer science (Jeremy); drawing (Chris); ceramics/materials science (John)

Genre/Medium: creative writing and digital illustration

About the work: This children’s coloring book tells the story of Psyche’s journey. Read the book online or download and print the full book to color the pages yourself:

Psyche’s Journey to a Metal World
(PDF: Regular – 3MB / Large – 39MB)

This image shows a large, puffy, silvery custom Mylar balloon with craters and markings drawn on it.

Mylar Psyche

Chris Vasquez

February 8, 2018

Major: drawing

Genre/Medium: Mylar and drawing

About the work: I created a custom Psyche asteroid Mylar balloon so you have the opportunity to see the metal body floating through space. Your party has never been more metal!

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This image shows a stylized drawing of the Psyche spacecraft entering into orbit around the Psyche asteroid. The colors are deep blues and bright pinks and oranges. The words on the poster say Psyche Orbital Insertion.

Hypercolor Psyche

Chris Vasquez

January 3, 2018

Major: drawing

Genre/Medium: illustration in Photoshop

About the work: This rendition of Psyche is based on the neon hypercolor, ultra-futuristic styling of 80’s movie posters and artwork. It depicts the portion of the mission in which the Psyche spacecraft will enter into orbit around the Psyche asteroid, gathering information while in an optimal zone to do so.

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This greyscale line drawing shows the Psyche asteroid in the center with diagrams of the various parts of the spacecraft floating in orbit around it.

The Heart of Psyche

Chris Vasquez

November 29, 2017

Major: drawing

Genre/Medium: illustration in Photoshop

About the work: For this project I created an illustration depicting both Psyche the asteroid and Psyche the spacecraft. I drew the latter as an exploded diagram, with all the pieces orbiting/surrounding the asteroid as if it were the heart of the spacecraft. I intend to portray the importance and reason for the mission at a glance while also acknowledging the complexity of work being put in by all involved parties.

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This series of four images shows the making of the papier mache model of the Psyche asteroid, from generic, lumpy shape to finished, detailed asteroid model.

Papier Mache Psyche

Chris Vasquez and Kari Sanford

October 30, 2017

Major: drawing (Chris); engineering management (Kari)

Genre/Medium: wire, foam, paper

About the work: For this project we made a replica of the Psyche asteroid roughly the size of a laundry basket. We used a papier-mâché technique in order to achieve this goal, using wire, foam, and paper. This provides a tangible way for people to “interact” with the asteroid.

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