NewMyths.com Issue #73 - The Universe Engine

Creation of The Universe Engine

Stages of Progress from Concept to Completion

“The Universe Engine” was a personal work that I did between working on my regular book cover jobs. My concept was to show a nomadic ship which had been wandering the universe for thousands of years. No-one had remembered when it was built, nor even what civilization had built it. Its crew had long since grown old and perished, or had passed on to other lifetimes, The ship had remained on automatic in an endless search for other life across the void of space. Its massive hull was battered by meteorites over the thousands of years, but its needle-like antennae stretched out from the surface still probing the heavens for the faintest signal from any direction. The thunderous rumble of its self-sustaining engines kept it ever searching…

The creation process took place over nearly a year: My concept was to create a ship that was

massive in appearance. To do this, I wanted the surface to be highly detailed.

I first constructed a skeletal frame of armature wire that was roughly 2 feet across.

I then hand-sculpted the ship using non-hardening clay.

I used several, variously-sized dowels of wood to press longitudinal lines across

the ship and enhance the feeling of great perspective.

To create a realistic appearance of the glowing thrusters, I carved holes in the

underside of the model and shone a bright flashlight into the holes.

The planet and small moons were also hand-sculpted out of clay.

I used tools that had a convex shape, such as the but-end of a pen, to press various-sized

craters into the clay. Then I used a tiny, needle-like tool (similar to an exacto knife)

to scratch tiny ridges and canal-lines into the surface.

One of the small moons sculpted out of clay.

Both sculptures I then photographed in a studio lighting setup, to put a strong light source

from the upper left (to simulate the bright light of a star), and a bluer, fill source from the lower right,

to simulate the blue glow from a nearby nebula.

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