vendredi 22 novembre 2013

Mission to Phobos


I've been wanting to depict Phobos from that angle for a long long time...
In case you don't know, Phobos is the main moon of Mars (the other being Deimos) and rotates close to Mars (about 9,400 km from its surface - considering Mars has a diameter of 6,779 km), which means when on Phobos, you would have a majestic sight on Mars. Also, Phobos has almost no gravity, which means you could almost approach it as an asteroid, which differs a lot from approaching our Moon.
I've worked around 6 hours on this photomanipulation, made with Gimp (+ a 3D sphere mapping of Mars with Blender).

All on Linux-Ubuntu.

ENJOY IT IN HD on my DeviantArt gallery.


jeudi 26 septembre 2013

Martian Oasis

After quite a long time without update, here comes a new photomanipulation for future Mars !
Actually, this is one that I made quickly months ago for my recent giant mosaic, but I thought it deserved some improvements and an individual and large presentation here.
The original photo, which is public domain, is of a small village in the mountains of southern Afghanistan.
What we see here is a pressurized tent sheltering an oasis where the future of Mars agriculture is being tested and developed. Some tiny super resilient plants are already able to grow on the surrounding hills, but the atmosphere inside the tent allows a vast variety of farming inspired by the experience of thousands of years on Earth. The tent shelters very few buildings in order to leave as much space as possible to the cultures. That said, the area hides a vast inhabited underground complex. The exterior buildings are just the visible part of this scientific base.
As always, I made this with open-source program GIMP on Linux-Ubuntu.



mardi 13 août 2013

Interview with Ludovic Celle on Red Mars exhibition

My current "Red Mars" exhibition in Grenoble (France) is opened until September 7th, and if you are interested in a little dive into the details of this long term image work and all the process behind this science fiction art series I am producing, you might enjoy this video :
This is a 30 minutes interview by Cause Toujours, a local information channel focused on citizens initiatives. The discussion deals not only with art but also politics, ethics and ecological issues, topics very much related to the writings of Kim Stanley Robinson whose inspired all my Mars artwork.

FOR ENGLISH SUBTITLES : on YouTube, turn on the subs with the white rectangle button at the bottom of the video.

vendredi 5 juillet 2013

The Mars Trilogy mosaic - 588 images inspired by KSR's books



This new Mars Trilogy mosaic is my kaleidoscopic vision of the incredible wealth of the Kim Stanley Robinson's martian books. 588 pictures gathered here as a sort of eye mandala with the 3 colors of the terraforming stages.
This giant mosaic full of details is an ambitious new take on a first attempt last year.
The images come from various public domain sources (a lot are from NASA) and from my personal photographs, 3D models and photomanipulations. The majority of the images have been through a manipulation process to stick as much as possible to the Mars theme. For instance, I had to give a brown sky to almost all the photos that had a blue one. This whole work of gathering images and caring for all the details and tones is a huge process along the past 6 months.

Here the file is 2000 pixels large, but the original version is very very big, designed as a mural whose details would still look sharp if printed by 5m large! This mosaic is the biggest piece of my current Mars exhibition in Grenoble (see previous news) where it can be seen printed at 2,50 wide.
TO DISCOVER THE HUNDREDS OF DETAILS IN THE MOSAIC, SEE IT BIGGER HERE (DeviantArt)

Made on Ubuntu with Gimp (for the photomanipulations and crops) and with AndreaMosaic (to assemble the mosaic). The 3D models that appear on some images were made on Sketchup and Blender.

dimanche 30 juin 2013

Photos from the opening of my "Red Mars" exhibition

Last thursday (june 27th) in Grenoble was the opening event of my exhibition of Red Mars photomanipulations, in the city center's library.
Here are a few photos of this very nice event that allowed me to publicly introduce the intention behind those pictures and the process of image making I go through each time I try to give life to Mars.
The whole exhibition content is based on the depictions of Kim Stanley Robinson in his Mars trilogy, mostly Red Mars, hence the exhibition title. 13 visions of Mars (landscapes, vehicles, habitats, life...) including a series of 5 on the space elevator, a dramatic peak of the novel and a very exciting topic to put in picture. At the exhibition entrance stands a 14th artwork, a brand new mosaic I have been designing these last months with the whole Mars trilogy in mind. It's 588 pictures relating to the exploration and colonization of Mars arranged in a mandala-like mosaic, a kaleidoscope of the wealth of KSR's novels with the 3 colors of the terraforming stages.
From the start of this long term art exploration of KSR's Mars books, I have always wish to take people in an immersive experience of what this planet really is and what it will be to live on it just like the settlers of Red Mars. Sticking to the excellent book source, I have build those visuals in a hard-SF spirit, but I wish and try to bring poetry and a sort of non-SF feel to my images.
On the opening day the public reception was very positive, even though that Mars theme was rather new to most of the attendees.
I noticed that several said they would love to see the images in much much bigger ! Well, I do to, and I am going to work on making a more immersive and a wider scale exhibition possible.



(photos by Gil Cantinelli)

vendredi 21 juin 2013

"Red Mars" - my photomanipulations exhibited in Grenoble


In Grenoble (France), from June 20 to september 7th (except july), I hold an exhibition of my Red Mars photomanipulations. The title is "Mars la Rouge - photo-montages de Ludovic Celle"
It is located in the town center's library (Bibliothèque Centre-Ville, 10 rue de la République). Though the exhibition already started yesterday, the actual launch event will happen on june 27th at 6pm.
The exhibition features 13 of my photomanipulations + a brand new giant mosaic made of around 600 pictures of Red, Green and Blue Mars (which I will soon unveil in HD on the web). The prints are from pretty large size to very very big, the kind of dimensions my pictures have always been made for.
The library staff, my friend from KimStanleyRobinsonInfo and I have gathered a nice selection of KSR books that are displayed in the exhibition to connect my artwork with the novels themselves.
If you pass by Grenoble, come have a look at my Mars exhbition and don't hesitate to contact me by e-mail in case I am available to guide you!
If you are on Facebook, you can like my graphic art page where I often post new art and photos from the exhibition and other events around my work. It's in french, but mostly visual.

lundi 18 mars 2013

My Mars Society 2013 Convention poster art


This is the art I recently submitted for the Mars Society 2013 Convention poster contest.
I didn't win, but I have a special honorable mention from the Mars Society. See here for more info and a look at the smart winner poster by Cody Edwards.
I made this poster with Inkscape as it's mostly vector work (including the characters and the lights in the sky). The few textures were prepared on Gimp before use in Inkscape.
The theme of the contest was "Finding Life and Bringing Life on Mars". I chosed focused on "Bringing Life" : the descending ships like seeds falling down to the soil, the "Earthrise" habitable dome behind the horizon, and a group of pioneers standing on the Martian surface, starting life and culture on the barren planet.

mardi 26 février 2013

Orbiting Mars

Here is a new photomanipulation I made today.
We are looking at Mars from a manned spacecraft. The 200km wide view is on Ophir Chasma, a region of Valles Marineris.
With all the Mars trips projects announced or to be annouced these days, we are just a few years away until this picture becomes real.
The photos used for this image are both from NASA :
-The ISS cupola shot during STS-130 (2010)
-Ophir Chasma shot by Viking 1 in 1976

As always, I made the photomanipulation with GIMP on Linux-Ubuntu.