Paintings: Interstellar Voyager

"Interstellar Voyager" by Rob Rey

6" x 8" Oil on board original painting.

Created for Every Day Original

Link Round-Up: June 26, 2017

"Spaceship concept V02" by Encho Enchev

All Over the Map is a neat blog from the folks at National Geographic.

The “Andy’s Dad” theory from Toy Story has been floating around the internet for a while. Now, the full story of how the boy’s father fits into the movie’s world has been released, and oh wow is it ever sad.

The influential, instructional illustrator Ed Emberley is in his 80s and still drawing. He has a range of styles, from the Caldecott Medal-winning Drummer Hoff (1967) to his creatively die-cut Go Away, Big Green Monster (1992), and perhaps most memorably a whole range of drawing books, which generally start with the reminder that if you can draw these things → · U D Δ □ ⇝ you can draw all kinds of things. If you can't find his books, the EMBR Group has a blog of Ed Emberley's Drawing Pages.

Photography: Emancipation of Dissonance

"The Emancipation of […] Dissonance" by Charlie Davoli

Prints available for purchase from Society6. US$16.50

Photography: Space Travels Through Norway

"Space Travels Through Norway" by Ole Marius Joergensen

A mysterious traveler is photographed against landscapes across Norway... or is it the surface of another world?

Short Film: 2am

"2am" Directed by New Monday

"2am" is an animated short film that contemplates the concept of loneliness amid a backdrop of robots and alien landscapes.

Video: Exploration

"EXPLORATION - NASA Cinespace 2015" by Ryan J. Thompson from VFX Productions

"Exploration" is one of the best entries in the CineSpace short film being held by NASA.  It's basically a movie trailer showcasing NASA's scientific legacy.

Speaking to Lens Distortion, Thompson discussed his motivations for creating the film:

"When I think of NASA, as I’m sure is the case with most people, I immediately jump to the space race and man landing on the moon. I think of pride and ambition and wanted to celebrate that in this short, so that was my starting point. I came up with several ideas which I still like and will hopefully use in the future as my own shorts. These were more narrative and sci-fi based, but my mind kept going to a sort of compilation/documentary summation style – shots jumping back and forth between time, between archive footage, between people and space."

Humor: Not Even Fun

Ain't even Fun by John McNamee of Pie Comic

You just know that people were telling Michael Collins that Moon walks probably aren't even fun his entire life.  Worst case of feeling like a third wheel EVER.

Photography: Greetings From Mars

"Greetings From Mars" by Julien Mauve

"In 1492, Christopher Colombus discovered America. Less than 500 years later, it has become a common touristic destination for wealthy people from every part of the world. What remains of the Wild West has now been transformed into National Park where people can quietly enjoy breathtaking landscapes.

Unknown worlds are now located far from Earth and our most famous explorer is a robot. "Curiosity" is the Christopher Colombus of our century, crawling the surface of Mars, searching for clues and informations about its past. As with the Wild West, we could imagine a point where Mars would become a touristic destination for people to visit and experience. NASA and SpaceX are already working on it and it is obvious that in less than 50 years, humans will walk on Mars.

I have always wondered what it would be like to discover a totally different world, lifeless, full of wild landscapes and to photograph it for the first time as if I was Ansel Adams. So I came up with this project, which is about space exploration and discovery. But it's also about our behavior in front of landscapes and how we create pictures that will share our personal story with the world. In every spots I stopped, carefully chosen for their similarities with the red planet, I imitated stereotypical tourist poses. It's interesting to observe the way we act in front of the camera, how we include ourselves in the landscapes, how those landscapes trigger the desire to affirm our presence. And how the way we take pictures exposes the vanity involved in our endless pursuit of self-definition."

Posters: Mars Travel Posters

Mars Travel Posters by Space X

For those of you who haven’t jumped on the bandwagon yet, SpaceX just dropped some travel posters of the Red Planet to entice you. For a company known for pushing the technological envelope forward, the Mars travel posters are endearingly retro. 

Short Film: ANOMALY

"ANOMALY" Directed by Salomon Ligthelm & Dan DiFelice from ANOMALY

Anomaly is the latest stunning collaboration between Directors Salomon Ligthelm & Dan DiFelice. Set amidst the starstruck euphoria and espionage-soaked paranoia of the 1960's, Anomaly draws from the same creative wellspring as the works of Steven Spielberg and Terrence Malick.

"Set against the space-race canvas of the 1960's, Anomaly is inspired by the traditional Christmas Nativity and explores, through a modern-day lens, the events of two-thousand years ago. It is a story about relationships that intertwine around an unprecedented astronomical event, as a couple navigate life's realities at a time of unfathomable significance. Filmed on location in NYC, Maine, Kansas, and Colorado, the film features Christian Cooke, Lexi Johnson, Andrew Sensenig, and Anthony Lopez."

Posters: Exoplanet Travel

Exoplanet Travel Posters from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Inspired by vintage posters from the golden age of travel.

Where are you going on your next vacation? The beach? The Grand Canyon? Hiking in the mountains? NASA has a much better idea.

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology is marketing three other-worldly travel destinations in the form of hypothetical posters from the fictional Exoplanet Travel Bureau. The posters, released in December, depict three exoplanets—planets that orbit a star other than our sun—the way travel posters in the 1930s portrayed Australia, Palestine, the Soviet Union and even Amtrak lines, as Business Insider points out.

The posters were created by NASA JPL Visual Strategists Joby Harris, David Delgado and Dan Goods, says Elizabeth Landau, a spokeswoman for NASA JPL. They were published on PlanetQuest, the public information site for NASA’s exoplanet exploration program.

Jewelry: Galaxy Collection

Galaxy Space Bracelet, Locket, Necklace, and Ring by Lauren of Jersey Maids

Prints available for purchase from Etsy.

Christmas is fast approaching, meaning that it's time to rush out and begin scouring the malls for stocking stuffers.  This collection of trinkets is perfect for that special girl in your life with whom you love to curl up and watch Carl Sagan's Cosmos.

Posters: Historic Robotic Spacecraft

"Historic Robotic Spacecraft" by Chop Shop

"Historic Robotic Spacecraft" is a Kickstarter that celebrates the most popular and notable interplanetary NASA robotic space missions - Voyager, Cassini/Huygens, and Curiosity.

Each space mission poster was chosen through an online poll and will be screen-printed in a minimum of three colors by Vahalla Studios, and there are various other perks in this campaign, including T shirts, additional prints and even membership to The Planetary Society, which was founded in 1980 by Carl Sagan, Bruce Murray, and Louis Friedman.

There's just under a week to go and the campaign is fully funded with the total currently just over $17k. But the more you pledge the more prints that become available through their stretch goals.

If they go over $22K, they will design and print the fourth most popular mission from the Planetary Society poll: The Mars Exploration Rovers; Opportunity and Spirit.

Posters: Interplanetary Travel

Interplanetary Travel Posters by Steve Thomas

Prints available for purchase from Etsy and Zazzle. US$1 - $42.95

Posters: Solar System Infographics

"OMG Space" Solar System Infographics by Toronto-based Margot Trudell

Prints available for purchase from Society6. US$15 - $85

"With this project I wanted to communicate to people what we've managed to accomplish in space exploration in simple terms; I found that many people don't know much about the subject because of how it's typically communicated, with scientific and technical jargon. Through the use of infographics that simply and clearly illustrated a lot of information, people could easily take a brief look at one infographic and even without looking closer grasp that we've managed to send a lot of things and people to the moon for example, and looking closer they could see that China has plans for a manned lunar mission within the next few years, for example. This simple and easy to understand approach is meant to encourage people to look into the field more, and the OMG SPACE name is meant to encourage excitement about space exploration, especially amongst younger people."

Posters: Dis_Solution

"Dis_Solution" by Germany-based Martin Grohs

"What you take from the Earth,
You must give back.
That is nature's way."

Posters: Vintage Planetary Art

Vintage Planetary Art Posters by South Carolina-based Christian Petersen

Prints available for purchase from Etsy. US$20

"Inspired by space, the solar system, and exploration of the unknown; these prints take a simplified, geometric approach to display the majesty and mystery of the heavenly bodies swirling around us at millions of miles-per-hour. All 9 prints are vividly textured and printed on a high-quality, archival, luster photographic paper."

Posters: Faceted Planets

"Faceted Planets" Poster Series by South Carolina-based Christian Petersen

Prints available for purchase from Etsy. US$22

"Great for the budding scientist and explorer, these prints are illustrated in a modern, geometric, low-polygon style.

This infographic poster features a history of scientific exploration. Probes, satellites, space stations, etc. highlight the achievements of man in astronomic discovery. Each poster in this series also features the distance from the sun, rotational period in days/years and the number of confirmed, natural satellites."

Posters: Sci-Fi Planet Travel

Sci-Fi Planet Travel Posters by Dean Walton

Prints available for purchase from the artist's website. £60

A limited edition series of posters based on the greatest sci-fi movie planets. Available as individually signed posters or canvases.

Short Film: Uprooted

"Uprooted" directed by Johnny Likens

Despite a complete lack of dialogue, this short science fiction film is as emotionally intense as anything we’ve ever seen come out of in the theater.  Quite frankly, this is what I expected going into the theater to see Gravity.  Likens achieves more in three minutes than Gravity achieved in ninety minutes.  The film follows the journey of an astronaut as she heads into space, and while "Uprooted" doesn't end in one of Hollywood's neat little bows, it's certainly leaves one thinking.

Eschewing expensive CGI, Likens assembled the backdrop from public domain NASA footage which he dropped into the scenes using Cinema 4D.

""Looking at these stars suddenly dwarfed my own troubles and all the gravities of terrestrial life. I thought of their unfathomable distance, and the slow inevitable drift of their movements out of the unknown past into the unknown future."
— H. G. Wells, 1895"