Category Archives: Illustration

Congratulations to The Mars Society’s 2011 Convention Poster Winner: Markus Iske

“The German Mars Society’s member Mr. Iske’s submission was well-designed, being both aesthetically pleasing while also incorporating a number of the major themes from our organization’s upcoming international convention [scheduled to be held in Dallas, Texas on August 4-7], said Susan Holden Martin, the Mars Society’s Director of Public Affairs.

Autumn Society + Cartoon Network Illustrators + The Mars Society = Inspiring Outreach Coloring Book for Kids! Woohoo!!

Philadelphia’s Autumn Society have joined forces with the Mars Society to present Exploring
Mars, a scientifically literate children’s coloring book featuring the bright red planet and possible
future home. The cover featured above was printed locally in Dayton, Ohio just prior to the 13th
Annual International Mars Society Convention…an ISBN# and Amazon listing will be ready soon.
Special congratulations to Mars Society Executive Director Lucinda Land and Joseph Game
(Cartoon Network producer;  http://www.Chogrin.com ) for bringing this thoroughly professional
outreach project to fruition in only a few months. Standby for many sequels.
Participating Illustrators:
Lawrence Hugh Burns http://www.lhburns.com
Mark Wojtko [email protected]
Steve Streisguth http://www.streisguth.com
The Autumn Society is a collective of Illustrators from around the world. From art galleries, art books, to fundraisers, the Autumn Society offers creative solutions to creative needs. For more information, see: http://www.theautumnsociety.com/2010/07/exploring-mars-coloring-book-full.html
Chogrin (Joseph Game), the project organizer, had this to say, “Our Space program has been on hold for almost 30 years. Our last steps on the moon were in 1972. As a generation I feel, we should aim for more and achieve almost anything as many aspired to do much strongly decades ago. Anyways I just wanted to share this with you, for I feel it is important for us, our future, and our survival. With our art and visions we could inspire ourselves & future generations to go beyond anything we can imagine.”  “This animation was inspired by reading many books by Robert Zubrin, specifically, The Case for Mars, which contains a beautiful quote by Italian Philosopher Giordano Bruno. And so inspired by these great ideas and dreams of someday terraforming Mars and making it our second home, I made a short video, using my Illustration and the beautiful track, “108 the boat”, by the amazing Ambassador Etc.”  Chogrin

_____2010 International Mars Society Convention Poster____ Designed by Former Ogilvy and Mather Art Director Mike Neal

Congratulations Mike Neal! Easily the coolest design for any space-related event
in the last 10 years; exceptional artists by nature want to see humans on Mars.

Mike Neal is a design and architectural writer currently completing his MFA at the School of Visual Arts in New York City as part of the inaugural class of its graduate design criticism program. He was born and raised in Southern California, where he worked for many years, first as a graphic designer, then as an art director for the Los Angeles office of the worldwide branding and advertising agency, Ogilvy and Mather.

As part of his critical studies, Mike has focused on examining the fields of space architecture. His graduate thesis deals specifically with the historical links to Modernist design theory in relation to current planning and design that would accompany the first human explorers to Mars. For first hand research Mike served as the journalist and executive officer for the Mars Society’s 84th crew at MDRS.

The concept for Mike’s design for the Society’s upcoming convention was initially inspired by a quote by architect and designer, Buckminster Fuller, who decades ago had tried to pioneer a design/science revolution. Always a challenger of the status quo, Fuller was particularly scrutinizing of the language we use to describe our universe; he once noted, “If you still use the terms up and down, you’re still thinking in terms from the dark ages.” Fuller argued instead there was only “in”, towards the Earth’s gravitational center, and “out,” towards space.

This idea is translated in the convention poster in the constantly shifting perception of orientation of both space and time. Up and down—in and out—are in a state of flux between the gravitational centers of blue Earth and vermillion Mars, as ground and sky interchange. The conventions theme also changes though maintaining its intent; “Reaching Higher,” as the Wright brother’s did in their first flight, and continuing on that trajectory to the “Higher Reaching” goal of Mars.

The Single Most Influential Visual Mars Artist

Carter Emmart is human, check out his Facebook profile picture. Looks like a fun guy climbing out on his monkey tree. Most of us don’t bother to climb, content to spend our lives waiting for permission even to live. As a space advocate with his own understanding of ‘professional,’ Dr. Emmart has become a legendary figure in the space advocacy community: no one has been more influential in promoting humans to Mars through art than Carter Emmart.

No one.

An original founder of the Mars Underground while at the University of Colorado, Carter Emmart has been Director of Astrovisualization at NYC’s Hayden Planetarium since the late 1990s. He has collaborated with visualization teams from the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and the San Diego Supercomputer Center.

The American Natural History Museum’s full dome space shows are now playing in world wide distribution. Emmart, who previously worked at NASA Ames Research Center and the National Center for Atmospheric Research, received his BA in geophysics from the University of Colorado where he was an organizer of the Case for Mars Conference series.

Realistic. Near-term. Human. If you are interested in Mars you have almost certainly seen his definitive, archetypical drawings. Created before CG — black and white, in pencil — they still inspire like no others. Their informed, educational, scientifically literate themes set a standard in Mars Art to which all Mars Artists in any medium aspire.

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The above artwork is from the book, “Strategies for Mars: A Guide to Human Exploration”, a textbook on the issues associated with the human settlement of Mars. Edited by Carol Stoker (NASA Ames Research Center) and Carter Emmart (then at the National Center for Atmospheric Reseach), this ground-breaking text draws together twenty-six individually authored chapters by noted authorities in fields considered crucial for understanding human settlement of Mars.

This book was originally suggested as an idea by the former Thomas O. Paine, NASA administrator from 1968-1970, and Chairman of the National Commission on Space, 1986. He died in 1992, leaving as his last work, a chapter for this book. His design for the Mars flag is shown on the cover being raised by his grandson.

Directed by Carter Emmart, Journey to the Stars is an engrossing, immersive theater experience created by the American Natural History Museum’s astrophysicists, scientific visualization, and media production experts with the cooperation of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and more than 40 leading scientists from the United States and abroad.

Featuring extraordinary images from telescopes on the ground and in space and stunning, never-before-seen visualizations of physics-based simulations, the dazzling new Journey to the Stars launches visitors through space and time to experience the life and death of the stars in our night sky, including our own nurturing Sun. Tour familiar stellar formations, explore new celestial mysteries, and discover the fascinating, unfolding story that connects us all to the stars. Those who come along for the journey may never see the night sky in the same way again.

Journey to the Stars, narrated by Academy Award-winning actress Whoopi Goldberg, premiered on July 4, 2009, in the Hayden Planetarium at the Frederick Phineas and Sandra Priest Rose Center for Earth and Space. More information may be found here: http://www.amnh.org/rose/spaceshow/journey/

On your personal computer, straight from the Haden, you can also begin a personal expedition of our magical Galaxy, here: http://www.haydenplanetarium.org/universe/download/

“The Space Show,” hosted by Dr. David Livingston, interviewed Carter Emmart in 2007:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUnGYKcvTLY

And of course a collection of Carter Emmart’s original drawings may be viewed here: http://spot.colorado.edu/~marscase/emmart.html

A hundred years from now Martians living in a thriving vibrant human community will ask what motivated Mars settlement. Who wrote the pictures with a thousand words? Carter Emmart.