tkdguy Posted January 28, 2015 Report Share Posted January 28, 2015 I've been thinking of publishing my hard SF campaign. However, I don't have any artwork. Since I can't afford to pay an artist, I'll have to find art that's in the public domain. Unfortunately, hard SF artwork is hard to find. Most SF art is either Pulp SF or space opera. Any suggestions on where to look? Thanks in advance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted January 28, 2015 Report Share Posted January 28, 2015 ... Oof ... No idea. Sounds like a toughie. Keeping my eye on the thread in any case. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted January 28, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2015 It actually is tough to find. Maybe I can use a drawing program, although my artistic skills are nonexistent. Would a product without artwork have any appeal? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted January 28, 2015 Report Share Posted January 28, 2015 There might be some astronomical clip-art out there ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted January 28, 2015 Report Share Posted January 28, 2015 And art-less gaming supplements? Might work, if you are careful with the layout and have sidebars to break up the block of text. Anyway, if you can find the NGD Art thread, it's got some of my Sketch-Up spaceships. If you like them, they're yours to use. If you have descriptions, I could maybe work something up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted January 28, 2015 Report Share Posted January 28, 2015 ... Poo. Found the NGD Art thread, but it's been archived and all the pics in it are gone. Well, at least I still have my pictures. Let me know if you want to have a look, and I'll post them here, or something. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted January 28, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2015 Sounds good. Thanks again. But here's a partial list of the artwork that would come in handy: Realistic spacecraft and space stations Colonies around the solar system, maps would be helpful Living and working in space Futuristic buildings and city plans I'll probably have to come up with the maps and blueprints myself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted January 28, 2015 Report Share Posted January 28, 2015 I've got a few spacecraft and shuttles. Here we go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted January 28, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2015 Nice! Thank you so much! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted January 29, 2015 Report Share Posted January 29, 2015 No problem, just glad to actually have a use for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scott Baker Posted January 29, 2015 Report Share Posted January 29, 2015 You might check what NASA has. They may have concept drawings, etc. Their multimedia guidelines can be found here: http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/guidelines/index.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted January 29, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2015 Thanks, Scott. I have been thinking of some images put out by NASA, mostly photos of solar system objects. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted January 29, 2015 Report Share Posted January 29, 2015 That NASA link gave me a Page Not found. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted January 29, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 29, 2015 Click the Multimedia tab at the top of the page. It will reload the page. You can also watch NASA TV. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted January 29, 2015 Report Share Posted January 29, 2015 Hey, lookit that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Liaden Posted January 29, 2015 Report Share Posted January 29, 2015 Well, just doing a Search for "hard science fiction art public domain" turned up some interesting images, and a couple of websites with potential. This one has a number of concept images for space colonies, which it declares are public domain: http://publicdomainreview.org/collections/space-colony-art-from-the-1970s/ Now this website has numerous sci-fi desktop wallpapers for free download, which its disclaimer says are "believed to be in the public domain." Some of these are based on known properties, though, so I'm not sure you'd want to take a chance. But the others are diverse and gorgeous: http://thehdwall.com/abstract-desktop-wallpaper/sci-fi-desktop-wallpaper/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted January 30, 2015 Author Report Share Posted January 30, 2015 Thanks, LL. I did try a Google search with similar results. The images are interesting, but not too many of them fit my genre. The space colony website is cool. I was thinking of something along those lines. I'll see if I can find some Moon/Mars colony art as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueCloud2k2 Posted February 1, 2015 Report Share Posted February 1, 2015 Check Deviant Art. You should be able to ask the artist for permission to use their art. Also, you might try hitting conventions of Cosplayers and table-top Wargamers (40k and the like). Take photos, and use Photshope/Inkscape/Gimp to alter them a bit. PM me ur email address and I'll try to do a mock up picture. As long as you change it enough, nobody should notice/get mad. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted February 1, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 1, 2015 Thanks for the offer, BC. I'll see if there are any SF conventions around soon. Deviant Art sounds like a good idea too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tkdguy Posted February 2, 2015 Author Report Share Posted February 2, 2015 My campaign is set in the near future, so a few modern-day images would also work. In terms of looks and technology, my setting is closer to Firefly and the Battlestar Galactica reboot than to Star Trek. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sinanju Posted February 7, 2015 Report Share Posted February 7, 2015 I've been thinking of publishing my hard SF campaign. However, I don't have any artwork. Since I can't afford to pay an artist, I'll have to find art that's in the public domain. Unfortunately, hard SF artwork is hard to find. Most SF art is either Pulp SF or space opera. Any suggestions on where to look? Thanks in advance Well, it's not public domain, but I'd recommend looking at Dreamstime.com. It's a site where you can buy the rights to use an image (non-exclusively) for publication. For less than $20 (typically, and depending on the size and resolution of the image you want) you can get non-exclusive rights to use an image in up to 50,000 copies of a publication. (You can buy an extended license if you are going to exceed that for not a lot more.) There are a number of other such sites, but I find Dreamwidth to be the easiest to search and it tends to have the most choices of images. Check out the cover art for my Starship Repo series (the books by Will Tate on the Amazon link below). Rights to each cover image were $20 or less, for a 300dpi image at least 1200x2100 pixels in width and height. It would take only a few book sales for each book to make back I paid for the cover images--well worth it, in my opinion. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=starship+repo&rh=n%3A133140011%2Ck%3Astarship+repo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
L. Marcus Posted February 7, 2015 Report Share Posted February 7, 2015 Nice! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.