A painting by Jim Burns used in Great Space Battles, a Terran Trade Authority Handbook by Stewart Cowley and Charles Herridge. It was probably originally created for a different publication.
The large lander looks intriguingly alien with its organic curves and asymmetrical design, while the pods shooting out of its ports look more like familiar machinery, creating interesting diversity in the aliens’ technology. The emerald ovals on the pods mirror the structures near the top of the lander, tying the two designs together.
empyr3an:
Siryl:
The AAF 212 Hornet, a Terran Trade Authority spacecraft by Tony Roberts.
This makes me realize I hardly ever post T.T.A. art anymore. I’ll have to do something about that.
Cover art by Peter Elson for The Outposter by Gordon R. Dickson. Reprinted in Great Space Battles by Stewart Cowley and Charles Herridge to illustrate the mutiny on the Terran deep-space troop-carrier Lima.
The color balance of the picture on the artist’s website (left) is so different from how it appears in Great Space Battles (right) that I decided to post them both.
aardwolfpack:
siryl:
An Interstellar Vampire from Galactic Aliens by Alan Frank. It took hours of work in Photoshop to get this scan to look right, so please don’t steal it.
Reiterating what I’ve said before, Galactic Aliens is full of incredible artwork based on clever concepts. Individual illustrations are not credited, but the artists are Colin Blackhouse, Alan Daniels, Bob Fowke, Colin Hay, Stuart Hughes, Peter Knifton, Angus McKie, Terry Oakes, and Tony Roberts. The large size and unusual format make the art hard to scan. I highly recommend this book, especially to those who enjoy the pseudononfiction books of Wayne Douglas Barlowe and Dougal Dixon.
There needs to be more love for this incredible book.
Buy this book. Then you’ll understand why I rave about it so much on this blog (and now my other blog as well).
aardwolfpack:
siryl:
The Great Unmanned Spaceship from Galactic Aliens by Alan Frank. Frustratingly, none of the awe-inspiring artwork in this book is credited to any artist (although Alan Daniels’ signature can be discerned in some, and one is very recognizable as Bob Fowke’s style). So this piece may be by Terry Oakes (that would be my guess), Alan Daniels, Bob Fowke, Angus McKie, Colin Hay, Tony Roberts, Peter Knifton, Colin Blackhouse, or Stuart Hughes.
There needs to be more love for this incredible book.
If you love the Terran Trade Authority Handbooks, you’ll love this book. If you love Expedition, you’ll love this book. If you love Barlowe’s Guide to Extraterrestrials, you’ll love this book. If you love After Man, you’ll love this book. If you love the monster manuals for roleplaying games you don’t even play, you’ll love this book.
aardwolfpack:
siryl:
The Living Rocks of Planet -9-Byqwassuy-7**7, scanned from Galactic Aliens by Alan Frank. I’ll accept stone life-forms that can sense and shoot down aircraft, but I can’t believe anyone would give a planet a name like that.
I don’t know who painted this, but the illustrators include Angus McKie, Tony Roberts, Colin Hay, and Alan Daniels of Terran Trade Authority fame, as well as Terry Oakes, Bob Fowke, Peter Knifton, Colin Blackhouse, and Stuart Hughes.
There needs to be more love for this incredible book.
This blog has been losing followers lately, so reblogging my own posts might not be the best move. But I want to make people aware of Galactic Aliens. Consider it art evangelism.
brighter-suns:
backtothese:
The Fifth Head of Cerberus, by Gene Wolfe
Such a good collection of stories. Jim Burns giving us more awesome cover art.
This painting was awkwardly shoehorned into Great Space Battles by Stewart Cowley and Charless Herridge, where it illustrates a hallucination experienced by the colonists of New Erewhon.
Cover art by Peter Elson for To Arkon! by Kurt Mahr. Scanned from Spacewreck by Stewart Cowley, which repurposes the painting to illustrate an alien spacecraft dubbed “the Warthog.”
