Star Wars, Star Trek and other Sci-Fi

[Rhinocrates]

I rather like the fact that they're trying to think of alternatives to warp drives. It seems that if anyone says 'warp' they mean Star Trek - and they even think that on Star Trek, with the Discovery having it's own magical drive and a similar, though compromised gyroscope theme that they tried to reconcile with the precedent of the Enterprise. The crusty old alligator-like Galactica had its own spinning jump drives that were almost steampunk (still, I might prefer to see Infinite Improbability or Bistromath):

 

[Rhinocrates]

Nice images from Foundation but I am seeing Coruscant, Hiigaran motherships and Nidavellir. There are truly no new sci-fi concepts under the sun!

I'm not familiar with the others, but you'll find that Trantor predates Coruscant in sf by quite a few decades. Chadeisson's been around a while and his style's quite recognisable. These aren't from Foundation, but probably got him the job (if you look carefully, the blue thing has 'Asimov' on its side). I think that Peter Elson is probably one of his strongest influences - though you're right in that he's probably picking up cues from previous visualisations.

 

[Deleted member 2278]

I don't doubt it, I didn't claim prior art for any of them, just what it reminded me of.

 

[Rhinocrates]

One complaint I have about current production designers is that they have no idea how to compose an image (Chadeisson's works above are technically impressive, but utterly banal as illustrations). If you're painting a picture, you have to plan it with preliminary sketches to sort out composition and colour. If you have a 3-D digital model then you can just spin it around until you have something that shows its shape clearly, then you take a screenshot and stick it in your portfolio. There's no sense that the picture itself is telling a story - and that's why I still prefer artists like Tony Roberts, Peter Elson, Bruce Pennington, John Schoenherr, Jim Burns, et al - because their painting has technique and tells a story through composition.

 

[Rhinocrates]

Have a look at this piece by Tony Roberts used above. There is so much going on in that image. The active tech counterpointed with the dead skull, the diagonal momentum, the deliberately restricted colour palette and tiger stripes of the ship's paint, suggesting savagery and warlike intent. The metaphor of the old, savage creature, now dead, finding its counterpart in the newer spaceship. The skull seems to be screaming at something to the right while the spaceship is launching itself at it. Note the size of its braincase - it was intelligent, maybe tool-using. Was the spaceship built by its descendants or its usurpers? There's a mystery there - as there should be, to provoke your imagination. Now that's storytelling in a picture!

 

[Rhinocrates]

Oh, by the way, has anyone seen Event Horizon?

 

[Graham1973]

You see the same thing in the 'Orbital Graveyard/Sargasso' image. I posted earlier, you have the one ship in that image that still appears active (The long thin one with the prominent 'radiation' marking on the engine.) and the three astronauts, one is looking into the cockpit of the space shuttle, one is checking the access door on the shuttle and the third is keeping well away and then there is the red planet below the graveyard, is that Mars or someplace else...

Of course a simple image of a trio of ships such as in the attached image by John Harris can also tell a powerful story.

 

[Justo Miranda]

Syd Mead

 

[Foo Fighter]

Wonderful, nicely done, Sir.

 

[Orionblamblam]

Oh, by the way, has anyone seen Event Horizon?

A laugh riot, heartwarming fun for the whole family!

 

[Dilandu]

The metaphor of the old, savage creature, now dead,

Well, one thing for sure; this creature would have a lot of trouble with its teeth. They are not exactly sitting very deep in jaw (eye sockets get in the way), so any serious bite of anything thick-skinned - the historical motivation for saber teeth among predators - it would most likely lose both its upper fangs. A weird antenna-like bone structure didn't help either; it essentially turn any glancing blow into a neck-snapping one. The skull is theoretically big enough to handle a significant (proportionally to body mass) brain, but frontal bones are strangely elongated, creating the weird impression that face bones were somehow added to the skull.

My conclusion - this skull must be a fake, deliberately created and planted to "wow!" the tourists with "bones of strange, maybe sapient, alien creature".

 

[publiusr]

Or someone was playing mix-and-match at the glove box. How large could a T-Rex grow in a low gravity lunar cave biosphere?

 

[Graham1973]

An Angus McKie image that shows no matter how far forward you go in time, '...there will always be an England...'

 

[uk 75]

An Angus McKie image that shows no matter how far forward you go in time, '...there will always be an England...'

British artist Graham Bleathman had a similar idea based on the world of Gerry Anderson

 

[Deleted member 2278]

Aaah Fireflash. Beautiful, crazy and truly gigantic! Certainly large enough for FAB One to be loaded aboard one once and of course there is a bar in the inner wing. I would say it took off from "London" Airport because half the city was demolished to make a runway long enough! No bad thing really (legal disclaimer - I'm a Londoner).

 

[starviking]

An Angus McKie image that shows no matter how far forward you go in time, '...there will always be an England...'

Just needs HMS Belfast there and it’d be perfect

 

[Justo Miranda]

The metaphor of the old, savage creature, now dead,

Well, one thing for sure; this creature would have a lot of trouble with its teeth. They are not exactly sitting very deep in jaw (eye sockets get in the way), so any serious bite of anything thick-skinned - the historical motivation for saber teeth among predators - it would most likely lose both its upper fangs. A weird antenna-like bone structure didn't help either; it essentially turn any glancing blow into a neck-snapping one. The skull is theoretically big enough to handle a significant (proportionally to body mass) brain, but frontal bones are strangely elongated, creating the weird impression that face bones were somehow added to the skull.

My conclusion - this skull must be a fake, deliberately created and planted to "wow!" the tourists with "bones of strange, maybe sapient, alien creature".

In my opinion the design of the skull is compatible with the rules of biology, for it to be functional the lower mandibular must have a double joint like that of some snakes, the upper crest can possibly be justified as an element of sexual dimorphism.

 

[Graham1973]

A 1963 depiction of the future by John Schoenherr in his pre-Dune days.

 

[Justo Miranda]

To inspire and amaze

 

[Justo Miranda]

To inspire and amaze-2

 

[Justo Miranda]

To inspire and amaze-3

 

[Flyaway]

Have a look at this piece by Tony Roberts used above. There is so much going on in that image. The active tech counterpointed with the dead skull, the diagonal momentum, the deliberately restricted colour palette and tiger stripes of the ship's paint, suggesting savagery and warlike intent. The metaphor of the old, savage creature, now dead, finding its counterpart in the newer spaceship. The skull seems to be screaming at something to the right while the spaceship is launching itself at it. Note the size of its braincase - it was intelligent, maybe tool-using. Was the spaceship built by its descendants or its usurpers? There's a mystery there - as there should be, to provoke your imagination. Now that's storytelling in a picture!

I have a number of his books in storage somewhere. Unfortunately only one is a hardback the others are paperbacks and have suffered the ravages of time.

 

[Graham1973]

Bruce Pennington reaching for the epic...

 

[Grey Havoc]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPMRZfDm9y8

 

[Grey Havoc]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTLCbBYAt9E

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nKF0gKOf9gI

 

[Graham1973]

Chris Foss on Climate Change from 1988 with a vision of a future Los Angeles...

 

[Graham1973]

Tony Roberts depicting a 'cold steel rain'

 

[starviking]

To inspire and amaze-3

Oh gosh! I would love to know the story behind the last picture in that sequence! Genetically-enhanced intelligence totally-cyborgized chicken warrior!

 

[Graham1973]

A science fiction artist (Chris Foss), with a non-science ficton subject...

 

[Graham1973]

Bob Layzell with a takeoff on a smoky day

 

[Graham1973]

Earlier in the thread I posted a 1988 picture by Chris Foss depicting a future vision of Los Angeles, in the 1970s Foss supplied interior artwork for the Fredrick Forstyth novel 'The Shepherd' at some point that artwork was replaced with artwork by American Lou Feck, here is Feck's vision of Los Angeles after 'The Big One'. Note also the cover endorsement by someone who's appeared in the 'List of Fictional Warships' from time-to-time.

 

[Graham1973]

Chris Foss, Opus 1... In the UK and in the US

 

[drejr]

To inspire and amaze-3

Oh gosh! I would love to know the story behind the last picture in that sequence! Genetically-enhanced intelligence totally-cyborgized chicken warrior!

 

[jeffb]

Needs more Stainless Steel Rat...

And it's a Peter Elson cover as well, since we were doing those.

 

[Flyaway]

Kathleen Kennedy has reportedly had her contracted extended by Lucasfilm for a further three years.

https://www.cbr.com/kathleen-kennedy-contract-extends-lucasfilm/

 

[Flyaway]

By the way would I be right in thinking that some of the artists whose works from the seventies and eighties have been featured up thread have now passed away or are some still around?

 

[starviking]

By the way would I be right in thinking that some of the artists whose works from the seventies and eighties have been featured up thread have now passed away or are some still around?

I heard Tim White passed away a few years ago, but as far as I know the rest of the greats from the 70s and 80s are still around.

 

[Justo Miranda]

Needs more Stainless Steel Rat...

And it's a Peter Elson cover as well, since we were doing those.

Spanish version

 

[Graham1973]

One of the greats of American SF-Illustration, Ed Emshwiller (1925-1990)

 

[Graham1973]

The Eddie Jones image used for the cover of the SF Anthology 'Nova 1'