Unliving

'When there's no more room in hell, the dead will walk the earth.'



And go shopping.

R.I.P.

Stellar cast

It seems like I get less and less time to work on things of my own as of late. Speed paints are one thing, but developing ideas and honing 'finished' pieces of art is a rarity.

That said, here's a little peek at something of my own that I've been working on for a while now.



Stella is discontent with the dull hum drum of everyday life, until she acquires a spaceship.

I think we can all agree that acquiring your own spaceship would make you content. If not, then I don't think you're welcome here anymore.

Sorry.

(Not sorry)

Wick. John Wick.

I love the world they've created with these films. The classy, covert world of assassins hotels, banks, tailors, and kennels.



There's soo much scope for Chapter 3, and also 'The Continental', the series based on John Wick, and it seems hard to mess this franchise up.

Well done lad

R.I.P Peter Sallis

Desert Storm

Happy Star Wars day!

I rather enjoyed Rogue One last year, and I'm really looking forward to further Star Wars Stories. As well as the Saga stories, you understand?

If I was pitching one, it would be Obi-Wan as a nomadic warrior in the deserts of Tatooine, playing Bounty Hunters and Imperial death squads off against each other as they scour the dusty wastelands for a fabled child.

A gritty western, but with lightsabers, speeder-bikes and spaceships. 

Also, I'd like to see Garth Evans (The Raid) doing a Boba Fett film. Maybe these could be the one and the same?

Hop to it Lucasfilm!

May the force be with you.

Always.

Alpine Alien

Been a long time fan of the Alien franchise (despite a couple of weaker entries (we're also pretending AVP doesn't exist. At all.)) and I'm eagerly looking forward to Alien Covenant.

From what I've seen so far its looking pretty 'on point'. The idea of seeing the xenomorph scuttling through forests is an intriguing one, with all the other movies taking place in engineered (see what i did there?) structures.

I don't know if we'll get to see that, however the fact that in the trailer they suggest there are no birds or insects implies that they've been scared off by... something.

Or eaten.

I drew this before I saw the beautiful poster art that was released a few weeks ago. If the film is half as good as that artwork then we're in for a real treat.

Roll on may!

Dangerous Elitist

Elite was the first computer game I loved. Sheets of hand written notes, price guides and star maps littered the computer room.

25 years later and I'm frame-shifting around the bubble and beyond, trading, smuggling and exploring (with a pinch of killin' in there for good measure). The game continues to expand but I've barely scratched the surface. It's awesome.

I for one cannot wait until I can land my Asp X on the surface of one of the planets with atmosphere. Rain drumming on the canopy, soaring with winged beasts above endless lakes, farming blue cacti, or setting up a trading post in a distant savanna... They wont match the freedom of my imagination, but I hope they try.

In the meantime, here's some speed-paints I did featuring a screen-grabbed Asp X.

Keep it up Frontier. Fantastic stuff! O7

Trappist artist

Today NASA announced the discovery of 7 planets orbiting the star Trappist-1.

'All of these seven planets could have liquid water - key to life as we know it - under the right atmospheric conditions, but the chances are highest with the three in the habitable zone.'

They're also close enough so that looking up from the surface of one, you could see the other 6 hanging in the sky some the size of our moon.

I don't think the view from the furthest world would look like this as its not one of the ones in the Goldilocks zone, and the sun would be 10 times larger.

However, with an orbit in the region of days, these worlds and their star-field would shift across the sky in minutes and hours rather than the entire night that it takes our moon to move from one horizon to the other. It would be majestic.

NASA claim that they will be able to detect an atmosphere of oxygen sometime in the next few years using information from Hubble and the James Webb Space Telescope.

Get to it, Science!

Locals vs Aliens

Its rare that I'll sit down with the intention of producing some traditional looking landscape paintings, but after a few months of winter with the dramatic lighting that comes with it, I was inspired enough to do just that.

Wharfedale's Almscliffe Crag and the Cow and Calf Rocks on the edge of Ilkley moor, were the inspiration for these paintings.

However, not content with depicting the awesome majesty of nature, I felt the need to add spaceships. Its a well known scientific fact that spaceships make pretty much everything 23% better, so it seemed foolish not to exploit this.

CHI-RAQ

I've been catching up with a few movies recently, one of them being Spike Lee's CHI-RAQ. While it not going to be everyones cup of tea, I found the theatrical nature of the performances, the delivery of the comedy, and the poetic dialogue, reminiscent of shakespeare's work, especially in contemporary adaptations such as Baz Luhrman's Romeo and Juliette.

If that sounds like your cup of tea, you can find it to rent or at cinemas now.

*Since posting (about 8 seconds ago) I learned it is in fact based on the ancient greek play Lysistrata, making my comments somewhat redundant.

Every day's a school day!

:-(

Yule be good?

Yuletide salutations.

I hope the man in red brings you and yours good fortune and good will.