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LEXLOTHOR — AE Megallenium
Published: 2008-06-28 01:15:55 +0000 UTC; Views: 3994; Favourites: 118; Downloads: 0
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Description
More of my paleontology illustration appears in this gallery:[link]
This illustration was intended to suggest what a civilization might be like if it had existed for MILLIONS rather than just thousands of years. If the dinosaurs had never become extinct and they had evolved into intelligent forms the last 65 million years would have been more than enough time for them to colonize the entire galaxy.
This invokes the Fermi Paradox. If star-travelling alien races exist, where are they? We should see them everywhere.
As an artist I am particularly proud of this work. The original ink drawing is rather large and it took months to complete.
This image is a hand colored photocopy that had been reduced to 8.5x11". As an experiment, I used ONLY THREE colored pencils. All of the colors you see are a result of combining safron, magenta and cyan with white paper and black ink falling out.
This is essentially a HAND RENDERED four-color separation.
It was an insane thing to do, but I did it just to prove I could.
art (c) John P. Alexander
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Comments: 38
we chose not to colonize the galaxy; we have enough worlds undertalon.
very nice image.
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THANX.
I created the ink drawing in 1981. I colored a scan of it several years ago.
Oddly this evening I finished a sketchcard with the same subject matter. I will post it soon.
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No, its just being dramatic.
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Brilliant, and very imaginitive. That you used such limited materials is also pretty amazing. Limiting your materials can really bring out the creativity. It's like writing Haiku. Doing as much as possible within limited perimeters.
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The color scheme was more of an experiment in technique.
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there is something strangely alluring about this....
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Beautifully executed concept, but you had me at space dinosaurs.
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This is a concept that has appeared in a number of science fiction novels since the 1980s.
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I really should look into this sort of thing more... grew up kind of sheltered and nowadays if it doesn't pertain to glass, I stumble upon it only by chance- just as I did your beautiful art.
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This is what I do with glass:
[link]
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They're beautiful! They look like they a very nice tactile quality to them.
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So to speak, I do not dull the edges. They can slice paper.
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i dont know wtf is going on but wwooww! ^^b nice work
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It is my impression of what a 65 million year old civilization may be capable of doing.
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Very very cool. I love it! It is beautifully made, and very intriguing!
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THANX.
The original pen and ink drawing was posterboard sized, so it kept a lot of resolution.
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Answer to Fermi-paradox: Who told you that we should see them? If they exist for that long they could find a way for travelling on great distanses unseen. By so called hyperspace or else how.
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I interpret Fermi's paradox to be if extraterrestrials exist, they would have visited us.
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That is the paradox of the paradox.
Otherwise it can be intrepreted from the Frank Drake persective of why haven't we monitored millions of ET communications on the radio.
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Lol, this is the part i like most about Fermi-paradox.
Also...Maybe they just don't use radio anymore?
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That's all that Fermi knew about at the time.
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Gotta second W.W.'s above comment...and I must also apologize for constantly over/under-analyzing your dino designs. On second observation, that skinny conical tail & slim leg build basically screams 'raptor'. And for the record, the muzzle works well (better, at any rate, than that Troodon-derived 'dinosauroid' I recall from several 80's tomes).
As for the Fermi Paradox...lame as this may sound, I simply chalk the absence of overt E.T. presence up to the vastness of the universe & dearth of planetary conditions suitable for intelligent 'life' as we would perceive the term.
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This is to stunning for words to describe.
The detail and perfection you put into your work even with the simplest sketches is amazing and awe inspiring.
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THANX
I am very flattered by your kind remarks.
I only wish that commercial success was proportionate to the effort I have often put into my projects.
I have never gotten feedback like this until I started posting my art on DA, and I have been selling art since the 1970's.
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That's a shame. You should be more recognized.
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Now THIS is just wild. Nebulae, moons, spacecraft/stations with enough running lights to nearly blend with the cosmic backdrop...an Earth with a clearly non-current continental arrangement...and a theropod cosmonaut sporting one of the most original (not to mention ornate) spacesuit designs I've ever seen. And ye gods...three colored pencils? All in all, you have every right to be proud of this one.
Incidentally, is our intrepid space traveller some form of allosaur? That skull seems a bit broad & rugged for dromaeosaurs/troodonts, and the arms (unless he's using cybernetic extensions) seem to contradict tyrannosaur descent.
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THANX
Actually the picture depicts a colonization fleet arriving at an earth-like planet elsewhere in the galaxy.
I would draw the dino differently today, but the three fingers would stay. At no time was I extrapolating from tyrannosaurs. I was attempting to depict a reduced muzzle on a dromaeosaur, so the proportions are different. I would now make the skull medio-laterally thinner.
The giant space craft have two inspirational sources: the mothership from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and old Soviet Luna landers that were spheres that popped open four pie-shaped panels. The hardware is otherwise very Jack Kirbyesque.
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there out there but just watching ,I just find it hard to believe that we could be the ones in such a big universe.anyway reallly great pic,love the scene
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