Sci-Fi Concept Art

When I was a kid, I was really into the space exploration. I couldn't get enough books on the subject. One of the things I loved was all the speculation on future space travel. I was a big fan of the works of Willy Ley. I not only enjoyed reading his stuff, but looking at the concept art that went with his work. My favorite articles in Weekly Reader (anyone remember those?) were the ones about domed cities, flying cars, and other speculations on what the future held. I'm sure my mother has kept a number of my own drawing of rockets designed for the Moon, Mars and beyond.

Discovering science fiction later as a teen opened up whole new realm of spaceship concept art. I took a chance on a number of novels by unknown authors based primarily on the cool cover illustration. Two artists that really stood out in terms of spaceships was Chris Foss and Syd Mead. Their styles are very different, but both produced ships that had a hard feel to them that made them look plausible.

As it seems that I am moving into the realm of sci-fi gaming, I have been more on the lookout for anything to give me inspiration. These blogs came up the other day on TMP and seemed worthy of note: concept ships and concept tanks. Both of these have lots of illustrations that are pretty good and provides inspiration for models.