Mars editorial illustration

Project for the Domestika course “Visual Storytelling For Compelling Illustrations” taught by R Kikuo Johnson. We had to create an editorial illustration about the theme of a book, article or film. The goal was to capture the conflict within that story, and to portray it in a self-contained narrative illustration. He has a style inspired by comics, which is right up my alley.

I interpreted an old short story of mine about the life and loss on a Martian colony, set in the near future. The illustration here is less a literal portrayal of that story, and more broadly about some dangers of Mars colonization: dust storms, impacts from meteoroids and asteroids, and crushing isolation. Out of frame, an astronaut lies dead after being struck by a micro-meteor that pierced his space suit—causing his spilled blood to boil and evaporate in Mars’ extremely sparse atmosphere. Due to the atmospheric composition, sunrises and sunsets have a bluish tinge there.

Realistically, the colony would be located underground in an ancient lava tube. That would be the only long-term protection from cosmic radiation; unlike Earth, Mars has no active magnetic field to deflect that radiation. Anyway, for the sake of an “artist’s interpretation” (and more importantly, illustration practice) this works OK.