{"id":42569,"date":"2024-02-22T13:52:58","date_gmt":"2024-02-22T18:52:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/?p=42569"},"modified":"2024-02-22T14:05:22","modified_gmt":"2024-02-22T19:05:22","slug":"sci-fi-textures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2024\/02\/22\/sci-fi-textures\/","title":{"rendered":"Sci Fi Textures"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

When the blank page or screen is staring at me waiting for me to fill it with something illustrative and I don’t really have a solid idea, I doodle digital science fiction textures. I play around with colors and shapes until I cobble something together that piques my interest. If they turn out well, I put them aside figuring that they may come into play should I get another book cover assignment like Rimworld<\/em><\/a> or Ice<\/em><\/a> which I recently completed.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nThese digital doodles may wind up as part of the exterior of a space station or a corridor within a starship. A pattern may wind up being the chainmail on space armor or the ornate walls of an alien throne room. It all depends on how I interpret the work of the author I may be working with or it may be whatever happy accident looks “kinda cool.”<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

All of this work is vector art produced mainly with my absolute favorite vector art program Affinity Designer<\/em>. Vector art is infinitely scalable which is a nice thing to be in case I have to blow one of these things up to poster size. Some of it is done in Adobe Illustrator<\/em> like the columns above. They started as a shape in Affinity<\/em> and were extruded in Illustrator<\/em>. If Affinity<\/em> ever works an extrusion tool into their suite, I’m pretty sure my days as an Adobe<\/em> user will be over. There will be no looking back. Affinity<\/em> makes fun tools!<\/p>\n

I am slowly building a library of these illustrative elements. I chuck them into a virtual junk drawer which I will be rummaging around sooner or later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When the blank page or screen is staring at me waiting for me to fill it with something illustrative and I don’t really have a solid idea, I doodle digital science fiction textures. I play around with colors and shapes … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,26,318,5790],"tags":[3465,27,3661,5,195,915,2119,480,1034],"class_list":["post-42569","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-illustration","category-stuff-joe-likes","category-technique","category-vector-illustration","tag-affinity-designer","tag-digital-illustration","tag-illustration","tag-joe-williams","tag-science-fiction","tag-space","tag-texture","tag-usa","tag-vector"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/sci-fi-background-02-21-2024.jpg?fit=700%2C452&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1ed1x-b4B","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":42704,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2024\/03\/19\/tuesday-digital-doodle-automaton-powers-on\/","url_meta":{"origin":42569,"position":0},"title":"Tuesday Digital Doodle \u2022 Automaton Powers On","author":"Joe","date":"March 19, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"This is another vector doodle I did in Affinity Designer. In preparation for the occasional science fiction book cover I illustrate, I will play with metallic tones and mechanical shapes. I am figuring out how I may approach that starship or robotic marauder that may feature in a future novel,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Doodle Tuesday"","block_context":{"text":"Doodle Tuesday","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/it-came-from-the-sketchbook\/doodle-tuesday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Automaton.jpg?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Automaton.jpg?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Automaton.jpg?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Automaton.jpg?fit=800%2C800&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":42603,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2024\/02\/27\/tuesday-digital-doodle-type-treatments\/","url_meta":{"origin":42569,"position":1},"title":"Tuesday Digital Doodle \u2022 Type Treatments","author":"Joe","date":"February 27, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"I was searching around a few older hard drives when I found this digital doodle I did in Affinity Designer. In the same way that I scribble away in sketchbooks, I will play around with vector shapes, colors and textures on the computer. If I like the results, I will\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Doodle Tuesday"","block_context":{"text":"Doodle Tuesday","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/it-came-from-the-sketchbook\/doodle-tuesday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Lava-texture.jpg?fit=1000%2C545&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Lava-texture.jpg?fit=1000%2C545&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Lava-texture.jpg?fit=1000%2C545&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/Lava-texture.jpg?fit=1000%2C545&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":43056,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2024\/04\/02\/tuesday-digital-doodle-comin-at-ya\/","url_meta":{"origin":42569,"position":2},"title":"Tuesday Digital Doodle \u2022 Comin’ At YA!","author":"Joe","date":"April 2, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Today's digital doodle was a happy accident I made while playing with Affinity Designer's step-and-repeat feature. I was playing around with a logo I worked up a while back for J.L. Curtis's series of science fiction books and seeing how duplicating, moving and slightly reducing the type treatment would look.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Design"","block_context":{"text":"Book Design","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/book-design\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Rimworld-zoom-logo.jpg?fit=1000%2C647&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Rimworld-zoom-logo.jpg?fit=1000%2C647&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Rimworld-zoom-logo.jpg?fit=1000%2C647&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/Rimworld-zoom-logo.jpg?fit=1000%2C647&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":42659,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2024\/03\/12\/tuesday-digital-doodle-gritty-city\/","url_meta":{"origin":42569,"position":3},"title":"Tuesday Digital Doodle \u2022 Gritty City","author":"Joe","date":"March 12, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in the '80s, there were a number of guys in art school playing with grayscale textures created by flicking a toothbrush loaded with ink onto a piece of bristol or illustration board. They would carefully cut frisket masks like a stencil and painstakingly flick an inky toothbrush at the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Doodle Tuesday"","block_context":{"text":"Doodle Tuesday","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/it-came-from-the-sketchbook\/doodle-tuesday\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/texture-city.jpg?fit=800%2C517&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/texture-city.jpg?fit=800%2C517&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/texture-city.jpg?fit=800%2C517&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/texture-city.jpg?fit=800%2C517&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":42470,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2024\/02\/04\/vengeance-is-best-served-ice-cold\/","url_meta":{"origin":42569,"position":4},"title":"Vengeance is best served ICE cold…","author":"Joe","date":"February 4, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"J.L. Curtis' new science fiction novella ICE is available NOW as an electronic edition with a cover by yours truly. The author describes his latest science fiction adventure as such: Vengeance is best served cold... Twelve years old is NOT the time to learn about murder and survival on a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Book Design"","block_context":{"text":"Book Design","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/book-design\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/ICE-type.jpg?fit=800%2C336&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/ICE-type.jpg?fit=800%2C336&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/ICE-type.jpg?fit=800%2C336&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/ICE-type.jpg?fit=800%2C336&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":37333,"url":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/2022\/03\/07\/joe-college-1970\/","url_meta":{"origin":42569,"position":5},"title":"Joe College 1970","author":"Joe","date":"March 7, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Illustration"","block_context":{"text":"Illustration","link":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/category\/illustration\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Joe College 1970","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51916241703_8af170620b_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51916241703_8af170620b_z.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/51916241703_8af170620b_z.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42569","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42569"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42569\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42570"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42569"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42569"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/willceau.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42569"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}