The making of Jupiter Five

I'm happy to be able to show the thinking and stages this picture went through, from early sketch to finished piece. It took me around two months, on and off. I'm not sure how many hours in total. It's a cover for the fifth anniversary issue of the great UK SF magazine Jupiter which is available July 2008. You can see more examples of cover art in my gallery. Enjoy!

I'm using Artrage for the first few stages. It lets me make a quick, textural thumbnail. At this stage I'm only concerned with pushing paint around in an abstract way, just trying to find a composition that pleases me. I'm making decisions about colour too, but I know that this will change later.

Already I can see objects emerging - those dark blobs to the left and right. I often use this random, vague way of starting because a picture seems to emerge naturally, as if it's just waiting for me to uncover it.

A bit more work, a doubling of image size, and I'm settling on the left object being a floating vehicle. I paint in some kind of billowing smoke coming out of the top of it. Perhaps it's in trouble, damaged in some way? It also seems to be facing what is becoming the foreground. I work some sweeping curves into this foreground, and define its silhouette better.

I'm always thinking of how the image will be used. It's going to be a wraparound cover, so essentially this single image needs to work as two separate, but linked images. Interesting on their own, but their relationship is uncovered when viewed as a whole.

I make some more decisions about the composition. I sketch in a darker patch on the right-hand border, and some kind of bridge under the floating vehicle. This helps frame the areas of interest.

I've been eyeing up the sky area, and already know I want to have a big planet there. It's Jupiter, so I sketch in some yellow and red bands. The main scene light source is coming from the right.

The foreground is becoming clearer now. Some kind of structure, a pipe or two. I love pipes. I want the figure to be pumping his fist into the air - celebration perhaps? This is for Jupiter SF's 5th anniversary issue after all. My figure drawing is quite weak, and it shows! It's always good to try, though.

I'm working on describing forms and planes. The landscape in the middle now has a bit of perspective due to the blocks of colour with jagged gaps. I straighten the bridge.

The planet needs some work - the bands are too even and simplistic - it looks like a beach ball.

I use a reference photo of Jupiter overlaid on the image, and will rework it completely over the course of the image.

There's some tightening up all over, and I lay down a bunch of figures. Those on the bridge to give a sense of scale, and some more in the foreground. It's important to keep the overall detail level balanced, and to resist taking something interesting and detail it out. I think the area behind the ship needs some more interest - the right-hand half is dominating. I make a mental note to do something about this.

Tightening. I download a trial version of Painter X, so I get 30 days to use it on this image. I own a license for Painter IX, but having moved and changed to a macbook, I can't find it currently. Boo. It's good to have access to Painter's unrivalled blenders.

Right, I found a reference photo of an oilrig and heavily worked over it, deleting chunks, adding bits. I overlaid it on the image, and erased where it was hiding the ship.

Now that's what I call over-blending. Most areas needed it mind, as the resolution is higher than the original stages. What worked as textural brushstrokes early on began to look very blurred as the image interpolated upwards. I plan to retrieve texture and detail later - the basics still need work and there's no time like the present for that.

I make some big progress on the ship. The perspective was always off, and I work on the forms purely by eye and experience. I also work on the structure behind. When I zoom out it's a surprise to see what looks like a desktop PC case there, complete with two CD drives. Eh?

Jupiter's circular edge has been tightened - it was all a bit smudgy before.

Another mammoth session. I demolish the PC case and introduce some soaring spires. The structure needs to be tall I think. I work on giving the smoke form with some subtle lighting. Atmospherics and chaotic things like smoke and clouds are always hard to do convincingly, as the human mind naturally tries to bring order and regularity to what it's doing.

The foreground silhouette has some new elements too, especially the stakes / spikes driven into the ground. I especially wanted something to interrupt the shape of Jupiter to stop it being so static.

I'm defining shapes in the foreground, using lightsources. The foreground was a very solid silhouette. This is fine for finding a strong composition, but the darks and lights need to harmonise, to work into each other more.

I'm going off the poor figure in the foreground. I also wonder what that figure to the right of Jupiter is doing up there. Even the ship's head looks like a cross between Vader and a Cylon fighter.

I much prefer that ship to the one with the helmet! It seems more impersonal and threatening. Or is it on their side returning from battle victoriously? I don't like spelling things out too clearly.

Lightening the shadow elements of the picture is necessary because they seemed way too dark. That's a drawback of working on a laptop screen - it's hard to guage where the correct gamma eye-level is. Move my head up, more detail in the shadows. Move my head down, shadows appear to clip to black.

Always tightening the details overall. A major change here is the sky. I was having trouble making it blend overall so I create a layer and use a gradient fill before erasing around the structure, planet and foreground.

That shadowy nude foreground figure really bothers me.

So he's discarded. I didn't use a separate layer for him - I always try to work on a single main layer - so I paint him out instead...

...and paint in a robot!

I finally tackle the structure behind the ship. It takes care to get the detail and value range right. By 'right' I mean to a level where it doesn't grab the eye away from the more important elements like the ship

Having a critical look at the picture, I feel the left half still needs something extra. I consider what the collection of figures are doing, congregating on the bridge. Perhaps they've banded together, combining their powers. Trying some lightning-like effect, I think it works!

I increase the contrast a touch, and introduce a bit of flare around bright highlights. I could noodle details for ages, but it's time to call it done.

If you enjoyed reading this, let me know!