If you have trouble reading, please click on the picture to see it in full size! The size of the image is a compromise between being able to show details and making it still render on a screen. It's meant to be viewed on a desktop computer and should be readable (and scrollable) if set to the width of the screen. I'm afraid it won't display well on small screens like phones. Maybe some tablets...
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For all the other science geeks, background theorists, Sonic lore masters, fanfiction writers and comic artists out there, and of course any other Sonic fan who, like me, likes to overthink stuff for fun.
I've had the idea to make something like this for years. Everyone who knows me will know I'm a science geek and a big fan of Angel Island. I have so many theories and concepts about it, but so far they were scattered across ten years worth of fanfic and forum posts and the like. Now, here's a condensed overview!
During a recent move, I found back a favourite book from my childhood. It was one of those science books that covered everything from the formation of the Solar System over volcanoes, dinosaurs and how tornadoes work. I loved it as a kid, and it had these two page pictures that explained a topic in easily understandable details, with cutesy images and lots of arrows and info boxes.
It finally gave me an idea how to fit all this headcanon on Angel Island I have into a remotely coherent shape, and I decided to try go for that style, keep the illustrations simplistic and not too full of detail, stick to the style of drawings in kids' books. (And boy, sometimes that was so hard. I'm a gradients guy; I really struggled to keep the shading as rough as I wanted it for the style...)
I quite love what became of the style. See the adorably distressed Island facing the wrath of that storm cloud? That's my favourite.
But really, take the time to look at all the details, at the clouds and the different vegetation zones and all the tiny, tiny drawings.
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A few liberties were taken with these concepts. They're not canon in the most direct sense. If you're nitpicky, you'll certainly find things to complain about.
But canon is often a blank sheet when it comes to making sense of stuff. I took what I know about meteorology, about volcanism and climate systems and other things, and gave it a good spin to fit to something as ridiculous as a floating island. They're theories, personal headcanon ideas I came up with to turn the many inaccuracies and blank spaces that canon gives us into a semblance of coherence, into a model that makes sense to me and that I can work with.
Hope you enjoy it, and that now Angel Island makes a tad bit more sense.
Illustrations drawn in MyPaint, Layout and texts in GIMP
