Of Martian Giraffes and Infectious Art

I finished my cover for Out of the Silent Planet and learned how to make an animated GIF of my progress shots. You can see some of the odd solutions before arriving at better ones, especially with the creature in the foreground. Also, I will note that the pinkish version of the illustration is the base-color I established with a gradient map before adding the local color of different objects. You will notice that it starts off quite vibrant before I back off on saturation and move the color scheme more evenly around the canvas.

And the final illustration: 

In other recent news, the Infected By Art website is compiling their 3rd volume of artwork. Judges will be making most of the calls, but the artwork will be open to virtual public voting, which will guarantee the inclusion of 3 pieces. The dates for public voting have changed a bit due to the avalanche of submissions, but I believe it is from December 3-9. Good luck trying to decide on your favorites! There are over 1,000 to choose from...

Here are the pieces I entered:
- "Out of the Silent Planet"
- "The Last Unicorn"
- "Monocle Mantis"
- "Reckless"