Exoplanet - Red Dwarf Transit

Things have been going rather poorly on Earth lately (in America in particular), so this painting takes us someplace far away. We stand on a slushy, terrestrial planet at the outer reaches of its star's habitable zone. The sun here is a blazing red dwarf that looms above us, casting a ruddy, warm glow across snowy hills and a cold lake. Other worlds dance through their orbits in the sky, with one planet transiting the star as we watch. Total eclipses cannot happen here, but transits of other planets are a regular occurrence. To put it in perspective, a star system around a red dwarf is about the same size as the moon system around Jupiter, so with little optical aid, one could see details on the other worlds. Red dwarf stars live a very long time, so perhaps life will evolve someday on this cold planet.

Acrylic painting: 14" x 17"

Life on a Gas Giant's Moon...

So what would life be like on a world similar to Earth, but which is merely a large moon around a huge gas giant? This digital painting explores that possibility. Here, we see a cold world, not unlike Earth during an ice age, orbiting its parent gas giant. Such worlds would have massive tides, impressive auroras, and regularly solar eclipses. The concept of day, night, and seasons would be different with an additional element introduced since not only does the moon rotate and go around the sun, but the moon goes around the parent gas giant as well. Worlds like this one almost surely exist - we have found gas giants large enough to theoretically have moons as massive as Earth - all that is needed is for them to have enough water and exist in the star's habitable zone.

Digital painting create in Photoshop Elements 10

An Earth-like World...

Another of my space art creations, here we approach an Earth-like world, though with one interesting distinction from our own planet - most of this planet's land is fused together in a large super continent that dominates part of the southern hemisphere. Verdant temperate and tropical zones exist along the edges of this realm, though the interior is a scorching desert. Vast storms rage across the planet's single, huge ocean, causing havoc if they do make landfall.

Digital Painting in Photoshop Elements 10

Solar Echoes: Science-Fiction RPG

Over the past few years, a friend and I worked on designing and publishing our own tabletop science fiction RPG. We wanted to create a fast, fun game system that encouraged players to plan out their tactics and work as a team, and I believe we've achieved those goals. The game universe is inspired by all the classics of science fiction, but it clearly has its own identity and works well for any campaign setting, ranging from gritty, street-level special forces operations, to "high science fiction" with exploration across vast reaches of space and epic combat between deadly starships.

My own role in this game ranged from helping design the rules and creating missions to supplying the digital space art that fills a 2-page, full color spread at the beginning of each chapter in the core rulebooks. It was a fun experience, and the game is now available for purchase in both physical and digital forms.

Check out the website at: http://www.solarechoes.com/solarechoes/

Enjoy a grand mix of great artwork and fun gaming!

Stepping Stones to the Stars

One of my other hobbies is creating digital space art; while I've focused more on acrylic paintings in the past few years, this other form of art I also enjoy. Most of my space art was up on another website, but I felt I should bring some of it over here to present a consolidated collection of my artwork.

The road to the stars is represented in this image: life starts on the Earth-like world and eventually realizes the nature of the heavens above. Then, life moves on to the planet's moon, and eventually to other worlds in the star system. Someday, the bright star cluster beyond will be within reach...