'The Final Frontier' graphite drawing

This drawing is not intended to be an exact replica of the original photo but my interpretation of it, so i have made changes like adding stars and different lighting and shadows. This has been one of my most complicated and toughest drawing to date and took about 45 hours to complete. The reflection in the helmet of the space station, earth etc, took me 17 hours alone and has really tested my patience and pushed me to my limits. It's also the first time I've used 'Bristol board' paper instead of cartridge in the last 2 months, as this level of detail would have been impossible to do on cartridge paper. The sun in the background was very real difficult to, as in the reference pic there was alot of lens flare, but there was no way I could do it with charcoal so I had to give up on that.

I've always loved anything to do with space, and always wanted to do this particular drawing. But I didn't for a few reasons, firstly as some other artists on DA had already done this drawing to perfections (I can't find it anymore), so I thought whats the point. Secondly, on a technical level I was not ready, especially as graphite would never have been darker enough to replicate the darkness of space. But now I've started using charcoal for the blacks, and I also wanted to do something new and challenge myself, so I thought why not give it a go.

Here are some of my other graphite drawings.