Artwork about Astronomy. Visual & Performing Arts Essay

Creating an artwork and writing a description about the artwork
Your art piece:
While your original artwork may or may not be in a digital format, ultimately it will need to be saved to a digital image (suggested formats: .jpg, .png, .tiff, .heic) so it can be included in a document with your write-up about it. Therefore, any physical works in traditional media (drawings, paintings, sculptures, etc.) will need to be either scanned or photographed.
The image shape (aspect ratio) can be either "landscape" or "portrait," as you like, but the image resolution must be at least 800 pixels in whichever is the smaller dimension, so that the picture is large enough to be easily seen in decent detail on a computer screen; your instructors and fellow group members will need to be able to see it clearly to interpret and appreciate it. Your image can of course be higher resolution than that; modern digital cameras (or smart phone cameras) regularly have resolutions of about 2,000 pixels or more in the smaller dimensions.
If photographing a physical work, do pay attention as well to adequate lighting, getting a good "face-on" photo instead of being at an awkward angle, and try to crop out portions of the photo or room backgrounds that are not part of the artwork. The photo should best present the artwork, alone.
Your image will be submitted to a shared drop-box / discussion-forum type of space that will be set up and linked here on the course's Canvas site. Only you, the instructors, and your assigned small group members will be able to view these files.

Statement to accompany your art work:
After embedding an image of your work in a document, write a short (about one page / at least 300 words, single-spaced, 12-pt font) description of what your art piece aims to depict. Submit this to accompany your image (suggested formats: .pdf, .pages, .docx, .odt — PDF preferred), above.
You should include:
a short "title"
(can be simply descriptive, just a few words to "set the scene" — or at least clearly tie your statement to the art piece submitted with it)
what medium/media were used
(e.g., paint, pastel, crayon, colored pencil, ink, mixed media, clay sculpture, digital painting, photo collage, 3-D model, etc.)
a moderately more in-depth explanation identifying the themes and subjects:
What are your central themes and subjects?
What references did you use for how to depict them (e.g., perhaps you took or found photos of similar subjects)? Consider references for shapes, sizes, and placement of objects, and colors. For example, if you took references photos yourself, or gathered images online of rocks, water, clouds, land forms, etc. that helped you figure out how some of your subjects should look — simply describe that processes in a few sentences (or give links or thumbnail image samples); it will help someone reviewing your work understand the background of it.
How has the material covered in the astronomy lessons of this course (so far) informed your attempt to depict a scientifically-plausible landscape for this world? Give a few examples.
Are there any way(s) in which you had to take some "artistic license" in the depiction (e.g., trying to picture something such as has never actually been seen before)?
If you were to return to add to the work or do it over in the future, what might you change — and why?

Your document should not include:
Your name, a picture of yourself, or other information that may easily identify you. The intention is for the latter peer-reviews portion of this project to preserve anonymity between you and your fellows looking at your artwork. Your instructors will still be able to download your submitted image-&-writing file and match your name to it, for grading.

Peer-evaluations of fellow group members' submissions:
A simple set of guidelines and a "form" for scoring will be provided, in which you can indicate whether each fellow group member's art & statement submissions appear to satisfy the expectations of this assignment. I.e., ...
Was an art work submitted?
Is it, generally speaking, "complete" (not a partial or work in progress)?
Is it — as best you can determine — overall an original work of art (not obviously copied in whole from another source)?
Was an accompanying statement included?
Does the statement adequately identify the primary themes and subjects meant to be depicted in the scene?
Does the statement provide some justification for the artist's choices (forms, arrangement, colors, etc.)?
You will provide feedback for each fellow member within your assigned small group.