How to Draw Sci-Fi Utopias and Dystopias

How to Draw Sci-Fi Utopias and Dystopias
Author: Prentis Rollins
Publisher: The Monacelli Press, LLC
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2016-09-27
Genre: Art
ISBN: 1580934463

A DC Comics illustrator shows readers how to conceptualize, draw, and digitally enhance their own science fictional worlds—whether for graphic novels, comics, movies, or video games. Sci-fi imagery commands today’s popular culture, from Star Wars to The Hunger Games and The Walking Dead. For clear-eyed artists, ages 12 and up, who see that science fiction is becoming science fact at an astounding rate, How to Draw Sci-Fi Utopias and Dystopias gives an in-depth look at the process of completing sci-fi illustrations—from the thought behind them (brainstorming and conceptualization) to constructing basic forms and objects on paper, converting roughs into finished pencil drawings, inking them in, and coloring them in Photoshop. The book is organized around the perennial distinction between two ways of representing the future in sci-fi: the pessimistic and the hopeful, or dystopian and utopian. After a basic primer on drawing (perspective, human faces, basic anatomy, light, shadow, rendering, and composition), five chapters detail the drawing of sci-fi humans, aliens and robots, land vehicles, flying vehicles, and cityscapes. Rollins demonstrates the astounding power of science fictional storytelling with 32 step-by-step case studies invented just for the book. Each demo is dated to a unique imagined future or alternate past and explained with fascinating detail. Examples include: battle-hardened mercenaries; a bizarre biomechanical alien that lives on a furnace-hot planet; a gigantic truck of the near future with a built-in apartment; a miles-long nuclear ramjet interstellar spaceship; a retro-utopia reminiscent of The Jetsons; and a galactic imperial city of staggering proportions. How to Draw Sci-Fi Utopias and Dystopias is packed with professional tips on the right tools, techniques, and materials; how to draw tech; when to Google a reference photo or use a background from istockphoto.com; how to get and stay inspired; and how to execute a unique story. The gorgeous and varied artwork, and thoughtful storytelling combined with friendly instruction, will leave readers with hundreds of new ideas to create worlds of their own.

How to Draw and Paint Science Fiction Art

How to Draw and Paint Science Fiction Art
Author: Geoff Taylor
Publisher: B.E.S. Publishing
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2011
Genre: Drawing
ISBN: 9780764146893

"Aspiring art students who have a special interest in science fiction-inspired graphic novels, computer games, book illustrations, and posters will find the help they're looking for in this comprehensive self-teaching course. The author instructs on ways to blend the exotic with the familiar in order to create believable yet dramatic future cityscapes, vehicles, extraterrestrial creatures, and more. From rough concept to finished illustration, his book shows artists how to convert their imaginings into dynamic and memorable images. He deals with all standard media, from pencil and acrylics to digital software, and he shows students how to blend colors in ways that give their pictures ethereal and futuristic atmospheres. Each lesson includes an "Idea File " sidebar feature that offers special tips and useful insights. Art students will also find helpful cross-references to closely related lessons. Vivid, how-to illustrations in color fill virtually every page of this highly instructive book"--Publisher's description.

Sci-Fi Art Now

Sci-Fi Art Now
Author: John Freeman
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 196
Release: 2010-10-19
Genre: Art
ISBN: 006200557X

A richly illustrated collection of the newest and most exciting talent in sci-fi art and illustration. SCI-FI ART NOW brings together for the first time the finest, freshest, and most exciting talents in the world of sci-fi illustration. Artists from around the world-from China and Singapore to the United States and Europe-are represented in this volume, which focuses on the latest and most imaginative work being produced today. This book brings to light the most groundbreaking and talked about sci-fi art, ranging in media from comic books, movies, and TV programs to art, posters, toys, literature, collectibles, board games and video games. SCI-FI ART NOW is a comprehensive compilation that reveals fascinating background information, anecdotes, ideas, and inspirations relied on by the crÈme de la crÈme of contemporary science fiction painters, illustrators, and creators (whether established professionals such as Brett Norton, Liam Sharp, Paul McCaffrey, Klaus Hutter, and John Picacio, or brave new talents forging into the future). By analyzing how technique, tools, materials and media are applied to popular sub-genres such Sirens of Sci-Fi, Spacecraft and Astronauts, Aliens and Alien Worlds, Radical Robots, Incredible Cities, Future War, and Steampunk, each chapter illustrates the astounding artistry and diverse imagination behind this perennially popular genre. Crammed full of exquisite art from around the world and fascinating insights from the artists and creators, SCI-FI ART NOW is perfect for the many fans of science fiction.

Extreme Worlds

Extreme Worlds
Author: Francis Tsai
Publisher: IMPACT
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2009-11-06
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9781600613418

This is a highly practical guide for budding artists who want to create their own extreme sci-fi worlds. Core elements of sci-fi art are taught through ingenious exercises and eleven detailed step by step projects. Subjects covered include aliens, robots, space ships, weapons, space stations and strange planets.

Space Art

Space Art
Author: Michael Carroll
Publisher: Watson-Guptill Publications
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2007
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780823048762

Space... the final art frontier... What is it like to walk through an alien world? Artists have been imagining otherworldly landscapes for hundreds of years—but only in the past few decades have we started to see what other planets and moons really look like. These exciting scientific discoveries have led to ever more "realistic" space art.Space Artshows artists how to capture and create these partly real, partly imagined vistas by combining the latest facts with traditional landscape drawing. Put the two together and the results are memorable, dreamlike, haunting. AuthorMichael Carroll, one of the country's most distinguished astronomical artists, explains how to use washes and texturing, how to paint water and ice, rocks and geological formations, craters and alien skies. Linear and atmospheric perspective, color, composition, color, value, and shading are also covered as they relate to showing otherworldly landscapes. Fourteen paintings, building in complexity, are presented step-by-step, accompanied by NASA photos and the author’s own photos of mysterious landscapes closer to home: Death Valley, Iceland, Alaska. For everyone who has ever wanted to travel to far-off worlds... or just show what they’re imagining...Space Artis a rocket to the stars. • Combines the latest scientific research with landscape painting techniques • Author is one of the world’s foremost painters of space art • Twenty projects shown step by step—an art course in a book!

Technophobia!

Technophobia!
Author: Daniel Dinello
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2006-01-01
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0292709862

Techno-heaven or techno-hell? If you believe many scientists working in the emerging fields of twenty-first-century technology, the future is blissfully bright. Initially, human bodies will be perfected through genetic manipulation and the fusion of human and machine; later, human beings will completely shed the shackles of pain, disease, and even death, as human minds are downloaded into death-free robots whereby they can live forever in a heavenly "posthuman" existence. In this techno-utopian future, humanity will be saved by the godlike power of technology. If you believe the authors of science fiction, however, posthuman evolution marks the beginning of the end of human freedom, values, and identity. Our dark future will be dominated by mad scientists, rampaging robots, killer clones, and uncontrollable viruses. In this timely new book, Daniel Dinello examines "the dramatic conflict between the techno-utopia promised by real-world scientists and the techno-dystopia predicted by science fiction." Organized into chapters devoted to robotics, bionics, artificial intelligence, virtual reality, biotechnology, nanotechnology, and other significant scientific advancements, this book summarizes the current state of each technology, while presenting corresponding reactions in science fiction. Dinello draws on a rich range of material, including films, television, books, and computer games, and argues that science fiction functions as a valuable corrective to technological domination, countering techno-hype and reflecting the "weaponized, religiously rationalized, profit-fueled" motives of such science. By imaging a disastrous future of posthuman techno-totalitarianism, science fiction encourages us to construct ways to contain new technology, and asks its audience perhaps the most important question of the twenty-first century: is technology out of control?

Utopia/Dystopia

Utopia/Dystopia
Author: Michael D. Gordin
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 302
Release: 2010-08-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 1400834953

The concepts of utopia and dystopia have received much historical attention. Utopias have traditionally signified the ideal future: large-scale social, political, ethical, and religious spaces that have yet to be realized. Utopia/Dystopia offers a fresh approach to these ideas. Rather than locate utopias in grandiose programs of future totality, the book treats these concepts as historically grounded categories and examines how individuals and groups throughout time have interpreted utopian visions in their daily present, with an eye toward the future. From colonial and postcolonial Africa to pre-Marxist and Stalinist Eastern Europe, from the social life of fossil fuels to dreams of nuclear power, and from everyday politics in contemporary India to imagined architectures of postwar Britain, this interdisciplinary collection provides new understandings of the utopian/dystopian experience. The essays look at such issues as imaginary utopian perspectives leading to the 1856-57 Xhosa Cattle Killing in South Africa, the functioning racist utopia behind the Rhodesian independence movement, the utopia of the peaceful atom and its global dissemination in the mid-1950s, the possibilities for an everyday utopia in modern cities, and how the Stalinist purges of the 1930s served as an extension of the utopian/dystopian relationship. The contributors are Dipesh Chakrabarty, Igal Halfin, Fredric Jameson, John Krige, Timothy Mitchell, Aditya Nigam, David Pinder, Marci Shore, Jennifer Wenzel, and Luise White.

Space Demons

Space Demons
Author: Gillian Rubinstein
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2023-12
Genre:
ISBN: 9781761281259

Book one in the Space Demons trilogy. Andrew has never seen a computer game like Space Demons before-a mysterious experiment, captivating in every way, blurring the boundaries between the real and the virtual. But as the demons creep into the real world, he can no longer afford to treat it as a game.

Mecha Mania

Mecha Mania
Author: Christopher Hart
Publisher: Random House Digital, Inc.
Total Pages: 132
Release: 2002
Genre: Art
ISBN: 9780823030569

Offers instructions for drawing various robots and futuristic figures in Japanese comics and animation, including spaceships, cyborgs, and weapons.

Even Aliens Need Snacks

Even Aliens Need Snacks
Author: Matthew McElligott
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 22
Release: 2014-08-05
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 080273815X

In this read-to-me eBook follow up to his breakout picture book, Even Monsters Need Haircuts, Matthew McElligott brings back the young monster barber in a new tale where his culinary concoctions bring him galaxy-wide fame. Creating snacks that make most humans queasy, this chef has found a new clientele--aliens. Readers will delight in McElligott's gently offbeat humor and unique artistry as spaceships full of hilarious creatures line up for a taste of the intergalactic cuisine.