One of a few variants, just playing around with some custom brushes. The spaceships are from my "private reserve" - a growing pile of stock elements I can throw into an image fairly quickly...
Reminds of bookcovers of yore... well, the 70's-yore to be exact. It's funny that I miss those covers now. I guess cover art became so literal in the past 30 years that I missed the images that captured my imagination without restricting it.
I feel much the same way. I think I am compelled to keep making images like this because much of the "day job" work is so bloody spelled out and leaves little to the imagination...