[Cj_Marsh]

New Worlds # 41- Solar Base

Hey guys I figured the last few rounds we have been stuck on the ground so lets look to the stars, and what better than our closest one!



The Challenge- It is sometime in the distant future, and our sun has been putting off strange activity lately, we have just developed some new technology that allows us to physically study the star even closer than we normally would, allowing us to build a base of operations to study the star more closely and try to 'fix' the problem. Your goal is to make this base is it just in orbit of the sun or is it somehow physically on the sun itself? Lets see a good turn out this rounds guys I want to see fire, high tech stuff, and solar flares! .......SO GET DRAWING!!!


The Rules-
Overall in this activity we will be focused on places rather than people or creatures. These will be the sets, or matte paintings if you like, upon which characters, creatures, or vehicles might play out their respective roles within the broader story line of a game, movie, or art for a print work.

Until we have a 3D version of this activity, we are willing to accept works that were prepared with 3D programs as long as you pick a single view and export that view to a 2D file format for upload.

Deadline April 18th 2012 12:00am CST

[Amaakir]

I really want to get into these challenges, the topics are awesome (I've been reading a lot form Isaac Asimov lately, so this topic is a big spark for me)
I just can't seem to know where to start, I've always been more of a character/creature concept artist and everytime I try to join one of these I just get this huge mind block.
So I'm asking if anyone could give me a tip or two, just a quick idea on how you guys get started so I can try it out, I really want to get out of my comfort zone and do some more environments :P
Thnxs in advance!

[JoseVega]

Sweet stuff!
I might get into this one....

@amaakir - just start sketching ideas...whatever pops in your mind put it down on paper or digitally and experiment with different shapes.... put all those together and start taking out what might not work and only use what might work

[arttorney]

Classically, landscapes have a foreground, a middle ground, and a background. It is easiest to paint the background first because foreground things would be in front of it rather than the other way around. You can exploit layers functions in your program by starting farther away and layering the closer things in gradually.

[Amaakir]

Allright, I'll give it a try. I'll take advantage that this challenge is off the ground, so it will be a little more free in terms of perspective...maybe? I really dont know XD I guess Ill just give it a try haha

[jose8a]

@Amaakir Some things that I have learned so far (though I'm far from being a real environment artist, but whatever haha):

- Like Attorney said: Use back, mid, and foreground.
- The further away an object is, the less contrast it has with the background (at least here on Earth, because of our atmosphere and environment, but I don't think it applies in space).
- Keep darker colors for the foreground, but avoid using plain black when it's not necesary.
- If you can make a painting work in a graphic sense (shapes), rendering it out is less of a problem later on.
- More "realistic" colors are not very saturated. They may be high in value but not in saturation. (but, you know, fire in the Sun may be an exception here haha)
- Making b&w sketches and looking at reference helps a lot!

I hope it helps a bit

[bergy68]

Hey everybody,

I'm really new to this site. Only a few days old now. But I was surfing through the challenges and came across this.

Are you kidding OMG I've always been fascinated by space, I can't pass this one up at all.

One of my favorite artists in this area is John Harris especially his work published in a book called "Mass"

I've only been painting seriously, digitally now for almost a year.

I hope to have something posted soon.

Best

Mike

[Somni]

I'm definitely doing this. Space and scifi all the way!

[bergy68]

I guess I'll start it off.

I decided this will be a tribute to John Harris one of my favorite artists for scifi. Painting style will be me. Layot concept will be my tribute.

This is my set of roughs. About 20min of work. At the moment I'm just trying to decide on the sun color. I think I'm gonna go with a
Blue Giant Sun.

Thoughts welcomed. more ideas to come.

[mayanew]

Like the Idea,
Playing around with the shape of the ship and the materials.
Think it would have to be streamline in form and made of some sort of soft metal.

[Somni]

Thumbnails so far.

[kessler]

This is what I whittled out last night. Forgot to upload! ok here it is.

[acruz1029]

Solar Station WIP. I still have more concepts I want to try, stay tuned.

[bergy68]

Well I think I've settled on my layout...I might stick wit this one.

[acruz1029]

Here are a few layout choices, Which one would work best?