SFinspire | Steven Fayers

The Space Garden, a place for passengers and crew to relax and explore, inside the long distance liner Far Horizons. This ended up being quite a messy sketch and photo bash combo.

First Flyover Digital painting. A pair of visiting reconnaissance craft over Amethyst.

ADC Unit 8 "Big Chop" | This evenings sketch, a 2hr illustration based on one of my favourite game foes from when I was a kid. Do you know which? Will upload to my website with further info this weekend. This was quite a challenge with perspective, as far as freehand sketching goes. Would like to have taken this further but need to sleep.

Assault System I This evening's sketch. I enjoy quick sketches but soon it will be time for a detailed illustration.

'I waited with my family, watching the sky shuttle depart and the taxis approach the station, bringing the Messenger, and my next mission.'

| Exploring the Dirty Nebula | A frontier exploration vessel within the Trelia 3 system, at the edge of the Dirty Nebula. One hour digital black & white painting.

Mars Valley Aerial Digital painting and photo. Painted the valley shape and canyon, then overlaid a photo of the surface of Mars.

| Edge of the Dirty Nebula | "I`m on my way to pick them up. They`ve not moved for over 30 minutes... just... frozen, or hypnotised. Something might be wrong." Digital painting with Manga Studio 5.

|Continuation|. ‘The foliage thinned as Jack came out onto a platform and viewpoint. He stopped and dismounted from his bike. The city lay in front him, and with solid vegetation behind, he reassured himself that he was all but invisible. “So here we are”, Jack said groggily, mostly to himself, as he approached the edge, dropping his bag at his feet. Glancing at the twin crescent moons above, he knew he was on time, but checked his watch out of habit. He stood back and observed the platform, waiting for the signal.` Digital painting. I really enjoyed making this one. Another paragraph of the story and more info on my website.

`Asteroid Mining' Digital painting with Manga Studio. I should start using references so my asteroids don`t look like potatoes.. Another illustration in my learning journey.

'Silhouettes' - Environment and character design concept digital painting. I decided I needed and wanted to learn to draw characters to help make my illlustrations more engaging. Drawing in silhouetttes only seemed a good way to practise with forms without getting distracted by the details.

Desert Storm. Another digital painting (I did the mountains and sky) after following a tutorial, though I used my own photo plate, this time from Colombia, an amazing beautiful country.

Riverfalls. A 2D matte painting over one of my Mexico photos. Did this after watching a tutorial by the amazing Dylan Cole.

Strange curving rock formations. Matte painting over one of my mexico photos. I enjoyed trying out this technique..

Devoid of details, this Mountain Fortress never made it past the sandbox stage. Eventually it should have some windows knocked out at least.

Calm Sunset City. Digital matte painting over Penang Beach, Malaysia. #digitalart #digitalpainting #mattepainting #2dart #penang #malaysia #conceptart #sfinspire #landscape #sunset

‘John scanned the old brick wall in both directions, but couldn’t see far in the moonless night beyond the solitary lamp. He cautiously approached the dry wooden door as tree branches moaned overhead. It was slightly ajar, creaking in the wind. He raised his hand and hesitated, straining to hear the sound that led him here. After taking a deep breath, he tightened his grip on his torch, pushed forward and entered into the darkness.'