I continue to experiment with Photoshop, hoping to build up enough skill to make cityscapes, landscapes, and even character portraits. My latest attempt is a space landscape. The science fiction scenario behind this picture is this: Long ago there was an advanced civilization on an Earth-like planet, under a more or less sun-like star. They had faster-than-light travel and many other exotic technologies based on advanced physics. But unfortunately there was a great cataclysm involving almost the entire interstellar network, and it caused the sun of this planet to go nova. The inhabitants had foreseen this possibility and had dug complex underground refuges beneath their cities. When the disaster happened, those in the most protected refuges survived and were later rescued by explorers from undamaged regions. The planet was abandoned and the star, after the nova explosion, became a white dwarf.

Many thousands of years later, refugees from another civilization came to this planet and found the ruins above and the refuges below. The surface of the planet had been stripped of most of its atmosphere and biosphere, and was not only burnt but frozen as well as irradiated. The crumbled, blackened ruins of the old civilization remained, but there was no possibility of living on the surface any more. The new refugees settled in the excavated underground complexes and made them their own, until another escape option became available to them. They called their adopted planet "Amgyal," which in their language meant "Grey-land."

This picture shows the surface of "Amgyal." The white dwarf shines in the sky through a very thin atmosphere. The ruins of a city can be seen in the distance. In the foreground is a metallic strut lit with small lights, possibly sensors of some kind. That bar might be the only surface feature of one of the underground refuges. It probably wasn't a very nice place to live.

"Amgyal Surface," Photoshop; 7" x 10" print size.

A note to readers:
Science fiction images and scenarios aren't really appropriate content for ELECTRON BLUE, but I hope to present more of this kind of material elsewhere on my site.

Posted at 4:13 am | link