With the directive to create a unique alien scene, a setting no one has seen before, the recent Alienware Challenge spawned a superb collection of alien landscapes. James Kaufeldt talks about his depiction of the cataclysmic choreography of alien creatures in Submerged Ballet.
The idea for this image was born out of sheer panic! Before starting work on this concept, I had been struggling with another concept on and off for several weeks. It refused to take off simply because it was a very bad idea. In fact, it was not an idea at all; merely a number of unrelated alien objects lacking a fundamental theme.
With just twenty days remaining before the challenge deadline, I started from scratch and came up with what was to become Submerged Ballet. By this time, I had already wasted two thirds of the available time on an unworkable concept, so I had to work fast.
The basic concept was pretty straightforward: I had to come up with something that was somehow recognizable, yet resembled nothing. The human form is arguably the most recognizable shape of all, to humans at least, so I started from there. It would obviously need a considerable amount of camouflage to hide its true shape. |
