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IF: No Boundaries

zdepski's concept illustration of a spaceship based on a horseshoe crab
Crab-Body Spaceship
This piece is another design project to expand my SciFi portfolio. I haven't designed that many spaceships, other than a few retro looking Buck Rogers-style pieces for personal gratification. I've been trying the trick of making a broad shape silhouette and then carving into that shape with form details. Making a blob of black on a screen can be simple and daunting at the same time. I chose to model my blob off of a Horseshoe Crab or Trilobite, with little feeler legs out front.

zdepski's silhouette of a spaceship based on a horseshoe crab
Black Silhouette with Red Perspective Lines

I went over to NASA.gov to go through their portfolio of public images, which I used as the basis for my background and surface texture on the ship. I don't think the texture and background took 45 minutes with this comp method. I placed some atmospheric fog over the ship, and the overlaid highlights. This makes for a quick piece that is high on spontaneity and low on fuss.

The image is entirely digital, starting and ending in Adobe Photoshop on the Cintiq. Click the image to enlarge to 1000px wide.
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Comments

Honeydew Branchweed said…
Love the 3-D ism, the background which gives a the art a very ominous feel, and the detail on the ship. I don't understand anything about digital art but how something like this can be created using a computer astounds me! How long did it take to create this?
September 9, 2011 at 11:56 AM
zillustration said…
Hey Honeydew! I guess this represents a two to three hour job. I didn't time it, and picked it up a month later (this morning) for color. The process is similar to making cut shapes of paper into something, then drawing over it. It's quite a reversal of method for me to work this way. I usually go for form instead of silhouette.
September 9, 2011 at 12:11 PM
Indigene said…
Beautiful and dramatic piece! :)
September 14, 2011 at 7:57 PM
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