Starscape's Art Challenge Thread

[Starscape]

Last month's "World Buildings" entry:

I had a last minute, new, idea over the weekend, Dr. Noah's Mount Everest base in "Our Man Bashir" was just crying out for an establishing shot, alas we never got one.

There's not much of a clue as to what the outside might look like from the sets other than the Art Deco-ish windows, so I ran with that... in a very quick entry:

I've had a couple of ideas for July's "Not Good Enough" challenge that didn't go anywhere, but I had one last late attempt...

I did wonder if it'd be possible to make "And The Children Shall Lead" seem more atmospheric or horrific, so I took inspiration from the "Village of the Damned" movie posters, specifically this one.

 

[Cyfa]

You've selected some great character poses - Captain Kirk makes for a splendid Barbara Shelley

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Where's the creature?

 

[Starscape]

Where's the creature?

Do you mean Gorgon, the "friendly angel"? I was thinking of including him, before I went with the "Village of the Damned" idea, but he just looked far too avuncular in all his scenes it was an easy decision to drop him. The kids are much more scary.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Maybe have him looming over the boy's head? I suppose it works as a surprise plot element if you don't include him.

 

[Starscape]

It's been a while since I updated this thread. Let's catch up on last year's contest entries, there's not as many as I thought.

My progress in August's Toon Trek Challenge:

I should have started sooner, as always, in the end my choice of entry came down to what I could accomplish today...

So something fairly simple, a "Peanuts" style entry:

I did intially plan to have Spock playing his lyre, but the geometry defeated me.

I didn't want to let this one go just yet and managed to squeeze a little extra time, in a busy week, to tweak my entry...

October's Rough Draft Challenge:

As per @Cyfa's suggestion I've been seeing what I can dig up as inspiration from that quantum foam of Trek ideas that bubble around in the back on my imagination.

This one comes from a fanfic idea for a, perhaps unlikely, meshing of Urban Fantasy and Star Trek in the TOS-era. Here's my sketchy attempt at a logo:

And December's A Prophecy Foretold Challenge:

This looked a lot grander and dynamic in my head...

 

[Starscape]

And onto this month's Timekeeping Challenge, here's what I posted in the main contest thread:

"There were a few ideas that appealed to me for this contest, I liked the ancient clock in futuristic city idea or some kind of astronomical clock maybe, but if I was going to do an alien design I didn't want to fall back on the traditional circles and pointers thing. So, I was a little stuck until one last idea came to me this week.

And, okay, it's a little uninspired but I had fun tinkering in Blender creating a...

TOS wrist-comm-watch:

 

[Cyfa]

Oh, wow, that's such a cool watch! Unmistakably TOS, but it also looks sleek and quite modern. I'd wear it (I haven't worn a watch in... decades!).

 

[Starscape]

Thanks, @Cyfa. I was definitely aiming for sleek, so I used a fitbit as a reference and built it up from there.

My thoughts about the design were that it wouldn't be as powerful as a standard Communicator (unlikely to reach a ship in orbit, for example) and it would mostly used on colonies or starbases where they'd have a comm network to boost the signal, similar to today's mobile phones.

 

[Starscape]

Since December's "A Prophecy Foretold" challenge my mind has kept returning to the Bajorans but an idea never quite clicked until this month's "Gift Shop Goodies".

I've started with a Wormhole / Celestial Temple graphic which I plan to use on a pilgrimage sourvenir or token. I'm sure Quark would have a minion hawking such items on the Promenade to any Bajorans journeying to view the Celestial Temple open.

I haven't quite decided how to use the design, yet. Traditionally a pilgrimage token would be a metal coin/badge/medallion but I quite like the idea of having it adorn a large pebble too. I am a little concerned that the design might be a little too fussy for a coin, I may need to simplify it.

 

[Laura Cynthia Chambers]

Neat, it looks like a TV channel logo. Wormhole News Network.

 

[Cyfa]

Great idea, Starscape! I really like the design and simplicity, but I can't stop seeing the central opening as one of those camera shutter things. I wondered if the inner points were moved away/separated from their neighbouring segments and pointed more towards the centre, would that negate the effect? Or perhaps if they actually overlapped the next segment instead?
Of course, no one else may see it like that - unless they do now that I've mnetioned it. In which case: Sorry!

 

[Starscape]

I've been rumbled! A camera shutter was my initial inspiration for the centre of the wormhole. But given how organic the other spirals ended up the centre does look a little too mechanical. I was more concerned about the centre looking too much like Unicron, so was trying to avoid points towards the centre.

How is this new version?

Thanks for the input, @Cyfa.

 

[Cyfa]

Oh, yes, that's much more like it. Not a Unicron in sight, thankfully (I'm sure the Bajorans wouldn't be too pleased about having a planet eater so close to home)

 

[Starscape]

Thanks, @Cyfa.

I couldn't quite figure out how to proceed with a pilgrim coin so here's my idea for the pebble based token:

Of course, now I've posted that the coin ideas are starting to percolate.

I'll see what I can do over the weekend to finalise this. It'd be nice to have a little batch of souvenirs within the scene.

 

[Starscape]

I made two attempts at a coin over this weekend, the first was a little over complicated and didn't look too good lit in 3D. I almost settle for a render of the rock and postcard for my entry but I had one more attempt today and although I'm not entirely satisfied with this version of the coin it'll do.

Final entry:

 

[Cyfa]

They look great, @Starscape! I'm just wondering what's on the other side of the coin - Kai Opaka's head, perhaps? (I hope it's not Kai Winn's!)

 

[Michael]

I love this, @Starscape! Totally reminds me of the “Isik For Your Thoughts” contest we had a few years back, where I designed some Bajoran paper money …