Hot Pursuit (Galaxy Prime)

Here's the next illustration created for the Galaxy Treks book coming out by Epic Age Media. This one is another reworking of an earlier piece I did for a sci-fi comic I'm working on. I had a bit of fun with this one, and once more I fell back to using what is fast becoming one of my favorite celestial bodies (at least visually): Jupiter's moon, Ganymede. It just has a really cool look to it (especially when I used a posterize effect on it).

In this one, the thing that gave me fits were the laser pulses.

Rather than just draw them in postwork (which, in retrospect, would have been easier), I wanted them to have a realistic rounded edge to them. So, I set up two rows of about 15 little "pills/capsules" in Poser and parented them to the pursuit ship. This gave me a great prop to work with that maintained the proper position and aspect ration as I put them into the scene.

Of course, this turned out to be a problem and I had a lot of issues with them. I tried all sorts of experiments to get a good look out of them, and they just didn't work. I even spent about two hours applying little, feathered motion lines after each pulse. That was a colossal waste of time!

I finally fell back on semi-transparent fills with a slight gray glow effect. All in all, it works well enough. And I am pleased with the dramatic effect of moving the lead ship off the page: it just screams of action.

© 2020 Mike Mitchell

Standard workflow applies: Poser Pro 11 and Clip Studio Paint.

Space Station Sector 4 [Galaxy Prime]

The second completed illustration for the upcoming Galaxy Prime RPG supplement: Galaxy Treks. On a production note, this will be printed in b&w on a 6x9 page. I'm working at 900 dpi so – if needed – this could be blown up to a cover or poster. I'm creating a series of 5 illustrations: one per chapter in the book. I've got a great deal of artistic freedom on this project. I was given a one-sentence description of each chapter, and this one simply said "This one takes place on a space station."

As usual, my workflow consists of creating two renders in Poser Pro 11 and then combining them (and doing additional touch-ups) in Clip Studio Paint.

© 2020 Mike Mitchell

And I owe a special thanks to Bob Keck. He saw an earlier version of this illustration and suggested pulling the entire space station out of the frame (previously, the station was smaller and the wheel was inside the circle). This suggestion really helped make this illustration work on a whole different level.

I also thank Divamakeup from the Daz forums. She provided some great tips about where to place the motion lines for the shuttle. 

Both of their contributions made this a much stronger illustration.

Starship Exiting Warp [Galaxy Prime]

Hey there, one and all. I was contacted by the publisher of Epic Age Media who needed a fast turnaround for some illustrations for an RPG supplement he's putting together for his game, Galaxy Prime. The book is a 6x9 inch b&w collection of adventures/scenarios for the game. So, I'm quickly creating five or six b&w illustrations that will (I think) run opposite the title of each adventure (in other words, there will be a full-page illo at the start of each "chapter"). 

Because of the time crunch, the publisher was practically giddy because I already had some sci-fi art "in the can" as concept drawings for a sci-fi comic I'm working on. Since these had not been printed before, he happily agreed to use two or three of the illustrations I already had ready to go. So, with a few tweaks, here's a reworking of another illustration you'll find in my gallery.

© 2020 Mike Mitchell

As you can see, I made some modifications to the previous one, mainly adding a circle motif for the background. My reasoning behind this was simple and twofold:

1. A smaller background means less work and a faster turnaround.
2. It just looks cool! By having the ship burst out of the circle, it instantly adds more energy, movement and a greater sense of depth.

Keep your eyes peeled, sci-fi fanatics! I've got more illos (and a cover) on the way!

[Created in Poser Pro 11 and Clip Studio Paint: Space Background based on a royalty-free photo from NASA]