Tom2′s shirt is a horrible bastard of a tomcat named Chingado, created by my buddy Jill C.
While this page obviously took a while to draw, surprisingly most of the time it took was spent in looking at the panel I’d marked out as “money shot of Vespa spaceport”, not in actually drawing it.
The main thing I was thinking of while drawing that panel was the Cygnus from “The Black Hole”, especially the way it was all lit up from within. Supposedly one of the main inspirations for it was Gothic cathedrals. (Skip to about 1:40 in this video to see it lit.) I wanted that sense of something massive, without it feeling dead and alone the way the Cygnus did.
Oh, and here’s a high-res copy of it if you want a new backdrop or something.
Cons are upcoming! I’ll have some art in the show at Foolscap this weekend, plus some Tarot decks and other stuff in the print store. The weekend after that, I’ll be behind a table at Rainfurrest, selling art and decks. There’s a slim chance I’ll have copies of book 1 of Rita, but I’m not holding my breath.
Looks like Rita4 is coming down with a case of purple. Interesting.
I like what you did with the Vespa spaceport. At first glance, it looks like those are smokestacks, but upon closer inspection I see they’re actually solar collectors. At least, I think that’s what they are.
Looking at the whole of spacetime from outside tends to change people, and Rita4′s no exception! n.n
I’m actually not sure what those bits sticking out of the top are intended to be! I believe I was thinking some oddly-angled docking bays, but then spaceships didn’t end up getting drawn on ‘em. There are some things meant as solar panels but they’re wayyyy in the back, barely visible behind the boxy thing on the right.
They look like radiator panels to me. That’s something real space stations need – the ISS has some big fold-out radiator panels in addition to all the solar arrays. They’re white, as opposed to solar panels which need to be dark-colored, so those are an acceptable visual match.
And, yes, the solar panels are dark. Nice catch!
That spaceport image is quite grande. Any chance it could be marketed as a poster-sized print?
This is a terribly good idea. Why did I not think of it before? Probably because I’m busy doing the comic!
Anyway, you can go here to grab one!