CGAN Feb 2016 - Life on Mars - WIPs

Life on Mars

Brief: Open brief, interpret the title into some visual masterpiece.

Deadline: Monday 29th of February, by midnight GMT.

This is where you post your WIPs. Final entries should be posted over here: cgartnexus.com/index.php/forums/current-...on-mars-finals#13253

Challenge rules and guidelines:
cgartnexus.com/index.php/forums/challeng...s/39-challenge-rules

Rules in brief:

• All challenge entries must be your own work.
• You should post at least two WIP images that are clearly different from your final entry and each other.
• Your final entry should contain your image (inserted so it shows up full size) and at least two links to your WIP posts on the forum.
• No chatter in the finals thread – if you have questions, post them in the WIP thread or PM an admin.
• Feedback is allowed & encouraged together with the voting and in the WIP thread.
• Deadline is given in UK time (midnight GMT) with a grace period of 5 minutes for getting the post sorted.
• Each member may cast one vote
• No cheating! Admins may decide to disqualify an entry that does not adhere to the above rules.

Does this mean Banj is a David Bowie fan still in mourning or did you watch John Carter on BBC2 last night?

Hi all this one sounds good here is an early post from me

nice topic! Hope I find time for this... I move this month. Again.

Valence wrote: Does this mean Banj is a David Bowie fan still in mourning or did you watch John Carter on BBC2 last night?

I decided to pick something from a Bowie song, John Carter being on TV pushed me toward Mars, and with The Martian being released not that long ago as well, Mars seemed like the place to be at the moment.

Quick sketch from me - not sure about the composition yet but I love the idea of discovering the ruins of an ancient people left on Mars. I want it to look like some kind of temple, possibly in worship to the sun. I envisage sacrifices being made to the sun god in an attempt to stave off some planetary wide disaster. Think I may need to add some cooler tones to the shadows to add a little more variation.
I may also turn it into an interior scene focusing on the dais with the bright illumination seen here through the doorway, we'll see.

hey oak I'm definitely excited too see what you're doing with this nice surrounding

Atto - this is also my idea just in a totally other way. Nice progress so far!

oh, now we know who made those darn crop circles, Atto!

Oh NO! I've been rumbled, errr.... quick whistle like I'm completely innocent

Lovely start Oaktree a great sense of distance here.
While I'm on the subject (of distance) I've been taking a look at some images from Mars but I'm struggling to understand exactly how atmospheric haze works on a planet without a blue sky - any insights anyone?
So I wasn't happy with the very straight composition of my previous image and really wanted something a little more epic and monumental. The following is a sketch of a very cool image (yeah off of dA again) of a desert ruin. I worked up a very loose sketch in an attempt to move away from what I thought was a very static composition and to generate some thoughts and ideas.
This will not be my entry but thought I'd post it anyhow to illustrate the direction I want to go in.