Roselight art dump!

Hello!!!

It's been QUITE some time since the last post for which I must sincerely apologize (more to myself than to my 0.8 loyal follower). I've been working through an awesome Master's program in Space Architecture, and that plus moving plus all kinds of other things have meant Roselight hasn't been in the forefront of my mind for a while - though it shall forever remain somewhere in the depths of my psyche, ideas bouncing and dancing about the recesses of my brain.

Anyhow, I have recently started to get back into doodling little bits of art for the setting, so I want to make sure it gets recorded!

Firstly, the most significant bit of news: Noira has had a bit of a redesign! Really this is just the result of me revisiting her to try and emphasize the vibes I'd always wanted her to have, and I'm fairly proud of how this sketch captures the energy I'm going for.

This Noira sketch was also fun, based on a noir-era reference image I can't seem to find...

I've also been wanting to spend more time getting to know the characters in this setting, especially our beloved trio of rebels-to-be. As seen in a pretty old post, I've got an understanding of the basic dynamics, but I haven't done a lot of visualizing any of the scenarios I see in my head, so that's been the focus of some of my doodling:

Noira and Maliyah in particular have a bit of an awkward relationship, which Clare is only too happy to help moderate...but they all get along well at the end of the day.

And here's one of a hotheaded Maliyah looking moderately peeved at you:

I've always had visions of Clare and Maliyah taking Noira to experience Orus' vibrant undercity nightlife energy for the first time, and it's fun to be able to realize scenes like this one:

This environmental bit depicts busy regions of space around each of the worlds in the Rosa system! pr'Sefone has sparse orbital infrastructure, and mainly sees traffic coming and going from the Eterna spaceport at its north pole. irid'An features a glittering ring of luxury space habitats tightly bound to its equator, while Orus hosts several broad belts of shipyards and in-space manufacturing. 

And I leave you with a silly rendition of a meme that reminded me of Noira and her mentor Marion, who might be considerably more inclined to kill this guy.

That's all for this art dump, but I've been enjoying getting back into it! With any luck there'll be more to come in the next few months.

Guest artist: Wolf-Rayet!

Some surprise art today, but not by me - this phenomenal painting is by my good good friend Wolf-Rayet, who posts all kinds of other amazing space art on her tumblr! Go check out her stuff!

She's captured all of these worlds very well - I'm absolutely in love with the texturing here, especially the oft-neglected deserts of pr'Sefone. Perhaps a future story scene must be set here...

Art: Doomed Poster

Somehow I can't find much to say...

I've been working on this poster for over nine months now, and it's taken a lot of effort to slowly chip away at it until I came to something I was happy with. Hopefully that work shows in the final product! I really wanted to capture some of the themes and emotions that define this story in my head, and incorporate a lot of the major aesthetic influences as well.

This scene was actually inspired by, of all things, this incredible live performance of Doomed by Bring Me The Horizon!

I've also uploaded this poster to Redbubble!

Sketch: Inferno

Noira followed the others up the path. Each step seemed heavier than it should have been, as though the biting wind had liquified, a frigid molasses swirling around her legs and under her petra coat. The ancient stone of the mountainside broke and crumbled underfoot, worn by months of movement from workers like herself. Her own crewmates trudged just a few yards ahead of her, yet their passage felt wrong, transgressive. Some deep-rooted fragment of her mind recoiled as the overlook drew nearer, as she trailed the others across what felt like forsaken ground.

She risked a glance over her shoulder. Far below, beyond the treacherous cliffs of the shore, Ark Royal loitered upon the restless tide. Its hold yawned open, a great dark maw, force-fed a choking landslide of misshapen slag from the chute above. Noira’s eyes moved upstream along the creaking trough, winding as it bent and warped up the side of the mountain. Ahead of her, just beside the overlook, the chute disappeared over the rim of the pit.

Her heart throbbed in her chest, pounding from exertion in the freezing air, the rhythm quickening as anxiety seeped into her veins. The edge of the mine drew ever nearer, the mechanical din of the pit emerging through the howling wind. Columns of dense black smoke towered over the platform, whipped into unnatural apparitions by the tempest. Her colleagues marched on with renewed fervor. Piercing white floodlights on iron towers cast their omniscient gaze past the dark procession. Inexplicably, Noira felt herself drawn, an icy metal chain gripping her stomach, tugging her towards the looming edge. Her breath came quickly, her footfalls erratic as she willed herself up the short staircase to the overlook.

The clang of her boots resonated through the metal platform. The others had lined up along the railing, overlooking the mine below. Among the faceless bundles of clothing she saw Kori, beaming her warm smile, beckoning Noira excitedly towards the edge. The grip on her core tightened, each footfall a knell ringing out above the cacophony below. She gripped herself tightly, as though to keep her body whole, and at last stepped up to the railing beside her recent friend.

Noira gasped, a choked sound that crystallized in a flurry about her face.

She was staring into the underworld.

Ref: Marion Montaigne

 

Marion Montaigne, he/him, late 40s?

[In which Beverly attempts to draw someone who isn't a young adult femme]

Marion's life story is largely that of his career. Born to a well-off family, Marion has enjoyed some of the highest quality education to be found in the developing society of the Rosa system. Throughout his studies and eventual employment, he's been a part of the sweeping industrial revolution that's catalyzed the recent population boom. Marion's exceptional talent gave him a ringside seat for some of the most influential technological rediscoveries in recent memory.

Somewhere along the way, perhaps at one of the foremost academies of his time, Marion met his (now estranged) husband Elias. A soft-spoken, sage, and artistic type, Elias' personality was a stark foil to Marion's rather more detached nature. Despite several happy years, their union would not last, grounded more in prospects and practicality than in mutual support. Marion still grapples with this failure, finding it difficult to understand exactly what went wrong.

While working part-time aboard Ark Royal as a senior technician, Marion began to mentor Noira. After its destruction cost her a job, and nearly her life, Marion created a position for Noira at the mining company which governs Orus, where she continued to learn under him as an apprentice engineer. However, when she discovers the true nature of their work, their subsequent schism - and her dramatic departure - leaves him questioning his place in the world.

Marion is stoic, reserved, and more than a bit broody. Though his steadfast commitment to his work as an engineer has carried him to success, it has also driven away those who might otherwise have been closer to him. Marion tends to lose himself in his work, finding it an effective distraction from the doubts that often plague him. Though he has trouble showing it, he does form deep attachments to people in his life, making it all the more difficult for him to come to terms with his own antisocial tendencies. The growing revolutionary crisis on Orus will drive him to places he could not have expected in his search for a truer purpose.

Ref: Clare Prescot

 

Clare Prescot, they/them, ~23

Clare has spent their entire life on Orus, living in the shadows of the bustling interworld spaceport in its capital city. Their family is small but tightly-knit; during times of hardship, Clare has been particularly close with their younger brother Jaqui, looking after him while their parents work long hours in industrial processing.

They've frequently lived in poverty and on the knife edge of survival. Recently their family has finally begun to thrive, and Clare's taken up a job working at a local café, while Jaqui is even able to attend a small trade school. Clare feels a strong pressure to make the most of their newfound opportunities in life, and this comes with its own anxieties.

Clare is friendly, outgoing, and adventurous. They love to try new things, but they rarely stick to a particular habit or interest for very long. They've accumulated a lot of small skills - some mechanical tinkering, artistic abilities, acting, identifying vehicles, picking locks, reading people scarily well - but have never found anything they feel comfortable pursuing as a career. In truth, they avoid settling out of a fear of choosing wrong, thereby locking themselves into a particular pathway forever.

Clare's life experience has shaped them into an emotional rock for the people in their life, particularly Maliyah. Their calm and levelheaded perspective makes an invaluable reference point, when others need grounding or a second opinion. However, this role quietly weighs on Clare, as much as people like Maliyah do their best to return the favor. When tangled in rebellion, Clare seeks comfort from more experienced mentor figures, learning to better balance their own needs with the support they provide to their friends.

Ref: Maliyah Toran

 

Maliyah Toran, she/her, ~24

Maliyah was born on the lush capital world of irid'An, but a political crisis drove her and her parents to Orus when she was very young. There, they started a small glassblowing business, which has given them a fair amount of stability. Maliyah developed strong artistic talent growing up in this environment, and took well to the craft, though she yearns to get out of the inner city and make her own career.

She is an aspiring pilot, having acquired a small flying boat from a family friend, which she uses to skim the icy waves around her home. The sea - or the air just above it - is a perfect escape for her, particularly when she's upset and needs to step away from the world. She often dreams of piloting the great passenger liners on irid'An, flying low over its picturesque archipelagos.

She's been good friends with Clare for some time, frequently visiting them at the café where they work. Beneath their sarcastic banter lies a strong relationship of mutual support and respect. Though Maliyah perceives Noira as somewhat naive, she conceals a quite strong affinity for her, which Clare is all too amused to help her navigate.

Maliyah is headstrong and confident. She can be hotheaded when she feels strongly about something, and is quick to speak her mind, sometimes against better judgement. Nevertheless, she is still very empathetic, and her fiery demeanor is often motivated in defense of her friends and family. A natural leader, she has some trouble accepting outside authority. When she and her friends are caught up in a revolution, she must learn humility and introspection to earn the respect of others.

Ref: Noira Isabel

Noira Isabel, she/her, ~21

Noira was raised on a small farm on the twilight prairies of pr'Sefone, the innermost world in the Rosa star system. Her mother always wanted the best for her, and encouraged Noira's knack for working with machinery from a young age. Her career eventually took her to Orus, an icy ocean world, the most distant in the Rosa system. There, Noira spent some time as a mechanic aboard an enormous flying cargo ship, Ark Royal.

When Ark Royal was destroyed in an attack by aerial raiders, Noira was left physically burned and emotionally traumatized. Her old mentor, Marion, helped her get back on her feet, hiring her as an apprentice engineer for the mining company that controls Orus. There she explored Orus' capital city, meeting her new friends Clare and Maliyah and slowly coming into her own.

However, the three of them gradually begin to uncover dark truths about their world, and about the company which dominates every facet of their lives. A terrible revelation about her own work causes Noira to break away from Marion and the company. The ensuing moral crisis will lead her and her friends to be caught up in a mysterious rebel organization.

Noira is introverted and shy, but desperately lonely. She is a very skilled mechanic, and takes to engineering design work just as well. Her work gives her a steady sense of purpose and a meager income, but she's still sorely missing those personal connections. She struggles with finding a sense of belonging, and has trouble being so far from her home and her family. She loves her new friends dearly, and blossoms with their support. When the three are ultimately swept up in revolution, her newfound family helps Noira to forge her fears and anxieties into a fierce passion for change.

A Pair of Rosa System Paintings

Well hello again.

Recovering from the post-college brain emptiness is a slow process so far, but I've managed to rally together to paint two pieces in as many nights - so it's time to share!

(Be sure to open these up to see them at full res!)

The first one here has a bit more of the creativity I've been looking for lately. This started as more of a doodle than anything but eventually became a more involved visualization of the Rosa system as a whole. The scales are not accurate of course, and I've talked plenty about the order of the worlds, but it was fun to properly depict the whole system in an artistic but structured way, like you might find on a NASA webpage or in the kind of books I read as a kid.

Obviously we have Rosa, the parent star, and her three little worlds. Today, we use a default naming scheme for exoplanets in which the star is considered object "a," and its worlds (in order of discovery, or just distance) are named starting from "b." Exoplanet enthusiasts from a particular Discord server will be happy to note that I've amended my embarrassing 3AM mistake of starting with "a."

As mentioned many a time on this blog, this is a pretty compact system, with a pretty small star - Rosa is only about the size of Jupiter (but considerably more massive), and her children, each smaller than Earth, orbit much closer than Mercury does to our own Sun. They're probably locked in some kind of resonance that makes their orbits stable over billions of years. I considered adding a greenish disk to represent Rosa's habitable zone, as I've seen in other representations, but since all three worlds are settled I figured that might be a bit redundant.

I haven't talked about the Outer Disk much on this blog, mainly because it's remained a nebulous concept in my head for some time. The Outer Disk is a population of small, mostly icy bodies lying out beyond Orus (Rosa d, the most distant planet). Its existence makes sense to me in a cosmological way, but I think it may be quite depleted by the time of the story. Long before our narrative begins, humans in the system harvested the majority of these objects in their conquest of the stars. With their disappearance, the fate of this material is unknown to the reborn civilization. As the people of the Rosa system began to reconnect and return to the skies, they turned to the remnants of this disk for raw materials once again. Almost all remaining mass in the Outer Disk was eventually deconstructed in support of infrastructure, including massive orbital foundries in orbit of Orus, vast fuelling depots, and the grand interworld castles that cycle amongst the planets. To this day, there may in fact be some very traditional space settlements (small pressurized habitats! The novelty!) scattered amongst the debris out here, and this could even figure prominently in the story.... I'll have to noodle about that one.

In any case I had an interesting time making that disk look right. I used the more granular tool with bigger particles to paint a disk, and spent a lot of time trying to shade it convincingly to be orbiting the central light source. I experimented with some radial spoke shadows but couldn't get them to my liking. When I finally added the finer cloud as an afterthought, it actually did a lot to sell the overall effect, so I guess that's a nice win.

The painted background was fun to do, with its sweeping brushstrokes and varying hues. The glow effect was a neat little innovation for me - I started with just a basic airbrush glow, then used a brush with no paint to sort of smear it into visible strokes while maintaining its transparency. It feels a little more organic and less sterile, which I'm always a fan of.

On to the next one!

This was tonight's work, and I tried to bring over the same energy as before. Rosa is rendered in the same way, and I used similar techniques for the (much subtler) background and the painted glowy bits. The approach to painting the planet was less involved than in a previous lineup I did - fewer layers, and more emphasis on just overall vibes for this one.

Here we have Orus, an icy ocean world on the fringe of habitability. Its distance from Rosa and slow rotation period result in extreme day/night variability, in effect more like short seasons than days. Orus' population runs on an irid'An-based schedule, with recurring "days" just 15 or so hours long, and Orus' seasonal cycle takes around 24 of these days to repeat. The global ocean freezes over during the dark Vigil, and warmth when Rosa is overhead is still fairly minimal. The world never seems to escape its biting winds and terminally capricious overcast skies.

In the distance, closer to Rosa, we have pr'Sefone (top left) and irid'An. The former generally appears to be a tidally locked desert world from afar; only close inspection reveals the temperate band of settled land lining its terminator. The lush irid'An practically glows with brilliantly reflected Roselight, a result of its own, significantly more pleasant world ocean.

Overall this piece definitely feels like an improvement over the previous single-planet highlight I made of pr'Sefone. I'm enjoying using these warmer, more saturated hues, and some more creative techniques to shy away from photorealism. Both of these pieces feel more inspired and alive than older ones I've done, even if they're a bit less intricate. I like this style a lot and will be hoping to develop it further in due time.

That's all for now - one of these days I've got to get to sleep at a reasonable hour....

Kent-Boreus KB404

Kent-Boreus is an interworld shipping company in Roselight. Not one of the more luxurious providers, KB is generally more cargo-oriented, with its few passenger routes having longer transit times and more spartan accommodations than their competitors. Nevertheless, they find their niche in high-volume cargo transportation between Rosa's Children, shuttling heavy payloads between growing worlds.

Their flagship vehicle is the KB404 hauler, the classic midsize cargo vehicle of the fleet. Similar in form to standard castle tenders, the KB404 is nevertheless much larger. Traditionally air-launched from exceedingly large rigid airships, the ubiquitous KB404 was one of the first to be adapted to use with the Orus Skywheel. Significant structural reinforcement has taken a bite out of its payload margin, but the reduction in fuel mass more than accounts for the extra material. Over time, many have been refit with smaller propellant tanks to accommodate greater cargo volume.

The KB404 flight profile begins with either a propulsive ascent from an aerial launch platform, or a momentum exchange from the Orus Skywheel. Either case sends the vehicle on a ballistic interworld trajectory, on the order of 5 to 10 days for most routes. Small course corrections and traffic avoidance maneuvers are made as necessary while the crew and cargo coast in microgravity towards their destination. Upon arrival, four actuated body flaps guide the vehicle along its simple, high-drag entry and descent profile. Below around 5 kilometers, the aerostat envelope is deployed by a series of pyrotechnics and rapidly inflated with lifting gas from a decomposition reaction. Once in stable drift, the hauler is retrieved by aerial tugs and refit for its next flight.

Though nominally crewed by up to eight flight officers, the pool of qualified pilots for Skywheel flights is much smaller. Smaller crews find themselves living in greater luxury, in exchange for extremely strenuous g-loading during launch.

Roselight would acquire an aging KB404 shortly before the Drenna Statute and ASMC's de facto implementation of martial law on Orus. This vehicle would be instrumental to the survival of Roselight's revolution in the following months, allowing a small group of insurgents to penetrate the transportation blockade en route to irid'An.

And now for a bonus image of Noira in the observation deck...

I also recently painted this scene of a similar vehicle departing irid'An, with Orus looming in the background. While this smaller craft is likely a ship tender, it still provides a decent concept of what the KB404 might look like in flight.

Roselight merch!

 I don't expect that there's, like, lines of people waiting for this, but nevertheless I figured I'd make an announcement here:

I have a Redbubble shop open now! There's a few Roselight pieces available in a wide variety of products, as well as some art I've done for Proxima: A Human Exploration of Mars. If you really want Noira looking fierce on a throw pillow, or stickers of the kids, or a poster of the planets, or any number of other things - consider checking it out:

Link to Redbubble!

As an incentive, I just finished this poster that I am very proud of, which you can find on the shop:

Spontaneous Noira Poster

Noira!!

The image of our timid protagonist standing fierce and defiant abruptly popped into my brain and I had to try and realize it as best I could. This is a pretty low-quality rendering but I might try to make a larger, more polished version sometime in the future. I definitely had fun with it!

The scene is meant to allude to Noira's increasingly important role in the Roselight resistance organization, fighting corporate oppression on the distant world of Orus...

Rosa's Children

 

You may want to view the above image at full-size! Blogger compression takes a lot out of it.

I had a blast with this painting of the three inhabited worlds in the Rosa system. Only pr'Sefone had previously been depicted from space, so I figured I'd take a step back and try to render the other two in this more familiar sci-fi lens. The sizes were just eyeballed, but are intended to be pretty representative. The direction of Roselight indicates the relative ordering of the planets as well. A quick breakdown:

pr'Sefone, the small, innermost world, is tidally-locked and so resembles what many have termed a "hot eyeball planet." The Roselit side is a scorched desert, while a narrow band of temperate climate exists right along the day-night terminator. Deeper in shadow, a mysterious tundra wasteland looms in the eternal darkness. I've depicted a bit more surface water than previously envisioned; I think we've got some rivers and perhaps dammed artificial lakes now, in addition to more ancient dried rivers and deltas. I like to imagine pr'Sefone had dramatic canyons and waterfalls and such globally before it became tidally locked; most of those features are now lost in tundra or desert. The green is, technically, Earthly vegetation, although in Roselight's setting it's perhaps thousands of years removed. I've also depicted the primary spaceport out of Eterna, pr'Sefone's capital city, near the north pole.

irid'An is a lush, tropical ocean world, with a few small archipelagos and atolls springing forth from the gentle, temperate sea. irid'An is the most Earthlike of the three, with a rapid rotation period of around 15 hours and an atmosphere supporting lots of dynamic convection and such. Small ice caps are present, probably composed entirely of transient patches of sea ice. I had a lot of fun with the clouds; I duplicated the cloud layer, darkened it, and offset it slightly to get the shadow effect, even offsetting different portions at different distances to mimic the changing light angle.

Orus is the largest and most distant of the three, and is similarly covered in a deep ocean, albeit colder and more turbulent than that of irid'An. The islands jutting from the chaotic waves are harsh, rocky, and barren. Orus is a slow-rotating world, not quite tidally locked, but sluggish enough to generate pretty big temperature swings between the temperate days and absolutely frigid nights. The ocean gradually freezes over when Rosa dips beneath the horizon, making Orus resemble a "cold eyeball planet" despite retaining a day/night cycle. I did illustrate this, but it's barely visible at the terminator under the cloud cover. Incidentally, the cloud pattern is inspired by that of Venus' similar slow-rotating atmosphere when viewed in infrared.

More on each of these worlds can be found on the "The Rosa System" page up at the top of the blog! And, of course, lots of worldbuilding and relevant artwork can be found using the tags in the left column.

More visions of irid'An

In the past few weeks I've found myself with a lot of extra time for doing art and things, so I figured I'd compile another art post. Today we're looking at irid'An some more!

An important development in irid'An's design is the presence of these volcanic hot springs down in the calderas of some islands. I'm envisioning something sort of like if you took Yellowstone's springs and geysers and transplanted them onto Hawaii. I've kept the idea of boardwalks bridging across some of the thinner crust around these springs, and in some cases even over the water itself. Of course, Yellowstone's "water features" are incredibly dangerous, so on irid'An these sorts of features would only be built where the water temperature allows.

In any case, I love this vision of thriving, bustling marketplaces and such all clustered down in the caldera floor, with lush environments fed by these springs and all sorts of rich cultural settings to be had. Further up the crater rim are the gleaming idyllic cities, home to corporate headquarters, political offices, and rich housing, elevated far above the common people.

Not too much to see here, other than another concept of an island with this central hot springs caldera complex. In this case the heated water outflows into the sea. I've used a rich, reddish-orange color for the soil around the springs, which in Yellowstone's case is the result of microorganisms living in the water. Since these worlds have already been colonized in advance by our own Earthly fauna, we're probably seeing something similar. In the background is not a moon, but another world - pr'Sefone, I suspect. The Rosa system is densely packed, much like the TRAPPIST-1 system, so the other worlds might appear quite conspicuous in the sky.

I'm pretty proud of this one, depite its odd framing (I don't always consider how I'll need to capture the artwork later while I'm making it). This is the logical extension of the previous image, showing an entire atoll of these small islands, and a thriving city distributed among them. This might be the kind of environment I'd like to see for the world's capital. One of the hot springs is under the sea here, creating an effect alarmingly similar to that seen in Shin Godzilla. Hopefully he's not hiding down there.

Finally, something more like a doodle - by now the vision of these islands is well-established, so here we have a ground effect passenger liner crudely rendered on its way towards one of the islands. Although many have steep cliffs rising from the sea (making airships a convenient alternative), this island has a gentle enough grade to permit a busy port to be constructed at the shoreline, reminiscent of Orus. 

That's all I have for now, but I'm happy with the consistent aesthetic I've been able to develop for this world. irid'An has historically been underdeveloped in my brain, which is ironic since it's the most well-developed world in the canon of the story. Hopefully these paintings help to do it justice!

Concept art: The attack on Ark Royal

 Since the latest plot outline detailed the destruction of Ark Royal, I figured I'd collect some sketches and such that I've done of the scene. This pivotal event is one of the oldest scenes I've had in mind for this story, so it's had a lot of different treatments.

Here's an early look at Ark Royal from about a year ago. The design of the vehicle has evolved over time, but the gist is still intact: this is a large ground-effect aircraft, envisioned as a flying cargo ship. There are still four engines at the leading edge and two on the tail, although they've mostly ditched the impression of being jet turbines. They might be something like a turboprop/propfan; the Roselight universe is only recently redeveloping lost jet turbine tech, and since Ark Royal is an older model, it relies mainly on props for power.

Here's some more sketches trying to approximate the form of the vehicle. The main body is taken up by an enormous cargo bay, which would (in Ark Royal's case) be filled with bulk cargo through a split bay door on the dorsal face.

This is one of the first drawings of Noira I made! She's depicted in her cargo overalls and some work boots, sitting on an external balcony attached to the vehicle. Ark Royal wasn't well fleshed-out at this point, so the vehicle behind her is notional.

Here we have some early images of the raider aircraft. Their key features are a pair of shoulder-mounted turbofan type engines, with wings that sweep forward to save space when landed. Notice a bulkier, more angular version of Ark Royal above, with a sketch of the raiders attacking the ship in the upper-right corner.

The raider aircraft have since evolved into this concept, along with the type name of Interdictor. The folding wings and shoulder engines are retained; they now have some floats to allow them to operate as seaplanes.

This is an ominous concept for one of the interior passages of Ark Royal that Noira is attempting to navigate during the attack. These halls would be punctuated by big, heavy, nautical doors.

This is another older sketch, an impression of Noira encountering an unfamiliar face. Things would not be actively burning around her at this point, but...vibes...

This one is much more recent. Noira has just been dragged off the ladder to the burning crew quarters, after badly burning her arms and hands in a vain attempt to reach her belongings.

If you were wondering how lifeboats work on a flying ship, so was I 😅 This is the concept I've been working on, a parachute-arrested enclosed lifeboat that might even be something of a lifting body to try and minimize impact with the surface. Although the chute pulls them clear from the ship, the lifeboat retains a significant forward speed as it plows nose-first into the water. The rail deployment and impact would probably be comparable to freefall lifeboats in use today.

Here we have a more detailed drawing of the lifeboat. There's some steampunk influence in the brass detailing and those round portholes. My idea with these is that they'd be equipped to sustain themselves for potentially up to several weeks, with a simple steam or internal combustion engine for moderate propulsion.

And to close this one off, a pretty simple but hopefully effective rendering of Ark Royal's end.

Tenian

The E-series comprises some of the largest vehicles produced by Grand Ark Aeromarine, the E608 being a late entry in the family. Though nascent jet power has only recently been reestablished, GAA has leaned heavily into the cutting edge for this vehicle. Powerful embedded liftjets haul its bulk into the ground effect, where it cruises at high speed under its four sustainers. An enormous flatbed upper deck allows all but the most unwieldy cargo to be rapidly delivered far and wide across Orus' turbulent seas.

As is standard for the Arcturus Meridian fleet, Tenian has had several deck-mounted guns installed, but this vehicle has also been outfitted with an unusually comprehensive security complement. As ASMC perceives increasing threats to its operations, defensive capability has been held paramount....

Art: Dance!

 It's been a little while on account of me being busy with school stuff, and a general subsidence of creative energies, but I've recently been working on some artwork to go along with the story.

This one was motivated by a desire to be nice to my characters....my current understanding of the plot involves them going through quite a bit of hardship, so I figured I'd take some time to depict them happy and having a good time. This is also the first time I've depicted them all together like this!

From left to right: Noira Isabel, Maliyah Toran, Clare Prescot

Full-size Imgur link!

Skyhooks and spacecraft

I've got a couple of new doodles today, mainly of two spacecraft as well as the rotovator I alluded to in some earlier posts. Let's look at the two spacecraft up close first!

These are two different vehicles drawn notionally to scale with each other, though they have a lot in common. Above we have the passenger tender, a smaller vehicle designed to ferry people to and from those big artificial gravity spaceliners. Below is a cargo freighter, with a much larger volume for shipping between worlds in the Rosa system.

Both of these spacecraft are powered by chemical rocket engines mounted in the back, with propellant stored fore and aft of a centrally located payload bay. In addition to some reaction control thrusters, both are equipped with some kind of metallic heat shield for atmospheric entry. Both reenter skydive-style, pancaking into the atmosphere, stabilized by four drag flaps (two of which are fixed). Finally, to accommodate the unique terrain and infrastructure available in the Rosa system, both vehicles deploy large inflatable lifting gas envelopes from dorsal compartments, arresting their descent until they become inert aerostats that can be manipulated by other vehicles.

Critically, these weirdos are both air-launched, in a way, although here we see some major operational differences. The passenger tender is air-launched "conventionally" as we might think of it today: carried beneath an aircraft (albeit a large airship rather than a fixed-wing aerodyne), dropped, and powered into space by its own propulsion. The tender must accelerate all the way up to escape velocity during this burn, which is made easier by the relatively small mass of the worlds in this system. As previously described, the tender can then rendezvous and dock with the spaceliners, which will hold them in transit before releasing them to perform atmospheric entry.

The freighters are a bit weirder, being integrated with the skyhook system; I've already talked about this, but due to generally lower g-limits for cargo compared to crew, freighters are well-suited to getting yoinked into space by the enormous sky pinwheel. Doing some preliminary math implies this could easily put them on interworld trajectories, so they could potentially use even more of their volume for cargo, with very little dedicated to propulsion at all - cool! That said, the scaled-up tender version with its vast fuel tanks and engines is still used quite a bit since the skyhook/rotavator/spintowininator (note to self: name it properly) is only available when travelling from Orus to another destination.

Here's some more sketches of these dudes:

Notice the much wider planform of the freighter and its beefier engine section (only present on some models!). At bottom-center is a depiction of the freighter exchange process: three hybrid cargo carrier airships have aligned in formation, each carrying three freighters in a line down its back. Arriving in sync with a rotovator endpoint, all 9 spacecraft are lifted off the decks and begin the long climb to escape...at lower left is an exaggerated depiction of the multi-armed rotovator concept I've been thinking about, with six separate endpoints. At the top of their arc the spacecraft all separate at once, firing RCS in an enormous plume to disperse from each other, the grid formation uniformly expanding as the tether curves away beneath them.

Finally, here's a dramatic angle of the rotovator hub as it orbits languidly above Orus. The center is probably a command station home to a team of traffic controllers, working overtime to keep this mega-infrastructure (infra-megastructure?) running smoothly.

One of these days I want to model both spacecraft, perhaps in Solidworks so I can try for pretty accurate geometry. But that's a project for another time. That's all for today!

The Founder-Processor

 

As described in the recent plot outline post, the Founder-Processor is a horrible monstrously large machine that smelts and refines raw ores and rubble into slightly more useful end products. It lies in the bottom of the pit, laboring like an enormous bloated dying animal, smoke billowing from its internal furnace as it vomits forth processed material onto its conveyor.

The Founder-Processors are only mobile to allow them to adjust as the mine grows ever wider and deeper. They are largely constructed on site, and either deconstructed or abandoned to die when a mine's resources are thoroughly exhausted. After encountering one on her first night voyage aboard Ark Royal, Noira is haunted by nightmares of these great beasts lumbering over the landscape, laying waste to the worlds...

Quick art: Interworld Liner Revision

 Hey so! I colored the doodle of the artificial gravity liner and fleshed out some details, trying to keep a similar design language to the original version.

Important features to carry over were the smooth brown-colored body panels with dark grey accents, plus gilded art deco highlight pinstripes. Additionally, the gold/copper reflective window visors (inspired by astronaut helmets) were a must, especially for that big panoramic gallery amidships. I also wanted to include some truss elements, and I'm pretty proud of the placement along the backbone. That structure would be handling much of the compressive load on the vehicle.

Compare the original design:

Much more of a conventional spaceship, which admittedly lent more freedom; however, I think the new design being function-driven gives it the unique touch I was looking for, and I'm happy with the end result. I do miss that solar fan, though...