After a few fundamental hitches in the project, regarding the originality of the very concept and genre of images I was going to produce, I’m finally underway producing images again. No matter how jejune the final product may be, it feels good to be imaging again! I’d quite like to share my new Earth texture with you.

In this image I have used Earth maps and cloud maps maps as reference only, everything has been painted over or altered in some way. The real purpose of this was to try and get a decent atmosphere for once, something I’m finding a lot easier now I have my Wacom! Finding the right brush textures to use for cloud painting was also a big part of it.

I’ve altered the world a bit too, as you can see. California suffered a fairly catastrophic quake (or.. something) and part of it has drifted off, planning to go hang with Japan. Britain, fed up with Europe’s odour, has slinked off as well, heading for warmer climes. As Earth’s core is superheated by intensifying sunlight the convection currents go crazy. This accelerated the tectonic plate movement, causing Africa to collide with Europe, closing the Mediterranean Sea and creating the Pan-African Mountains. As I say, terrain texture and colour was less important to me than atmosphere this time, but I’ve had good fun playing with Geography, I must do it again some time. Just work in progress, more to come =]