Congratulations on finishing such an amazing image. I totally love it (although I have to say I do like the before version of the big-foots more ;)).
My wife also loves the image and we now think of getting some kids so we just have an excuse to use it as a wallpaper.
Hope to see you in the next challenge.
Torsten
Mark,
A wonderfully imaginative detailed piece. Great job here and very different from all the other entries in this challenge.
Finished already? Cool. Too many characters there I got to see the close up first… but it’s fun to see that various activities
Finished already;)…hey mate, come on ,its not finished! The story goes on and on and on…
Mark, this is a wonderful piece of artwork, its fantastic ,excellent, exciting …and outrageous!
Hope there will be one day in near future a large posterized version …
Thanks for the broader version we will love to have it on our desktops!:love:esp my lifetime companion and the kidsat her kindergarten shes been courous how its gonna be developing…
Thanks alot keep em up goin’ …you rock
Peter
Hey Mark, simply fantastic!!
This is a really awesome image, and image to see forever Incredible and funny characteres, each one with a well defined personality, this is a incredible and superb touch on your image. I love to explore that amazing town and try to meet all the habitants ( from earth and outearth :D) The stairs and corridors are an other great element on your image, one cant resist going through all :D. Love the palette that you use in your image, really warm and works wonderful.
It was an experience and great learning, to witness the entire development of your idea. And once more, has been a real pleasure to be able to share with you this challenge my friend! Congratulations for this awesome artwork Mark :drool: And now… yeeeeeeea !! time for extra big barrel of cold beer and a lot of tequila !! Cheers my friend and all the best !! 
Fantastic final Mark, it’s great to see such a fresh and original style in the challenge. I’ve realy enjoyed watching the progress, good luck.
You’ve finished Mark! such a great job too, definately in my top five fav’s for this challenge 
shakes
Hey buddy, thank you It was a shame you’ve been too busy to enter this one. Thanks for dropping by
varma
Thank you Mathias. That is very kind of you mate
nookienick
Thank you very much. Yeah, me too! Sometimes I think delaying growing up is part of the job description in this business!
walrus
Hey Mike, thank you. Funny that you should mention that chair. There are a couple of unused chairs in there. At first I was going to put people or aliens in them but I thought they looked a bit more intriguing empty, for example it might suggest that the occupant had fallen out or something.
And once again I’m grateful to you for your amazingly sharp eyesight. You are right. Those two guys were identical with their linework. And they were not meant to be! I now realise how that happened - I’ve been regularly cloning people to ensure I keep the same scale throughout the image. And in all the confusion that clone got left behind and given the full colour treatment and became part of the scene! I’ve now replaced him with a guy in a different pose.
I am pretty sure now that after fixing that, every character and spacecraft is drawn differently and I’ve updated the final, and the versions available for viewing online
nwiz25
Thanks buddy. That is very kind of you
MartinNielsen
Thank you very much for your kind words! I’m not sure it’s what the organisers had in mind when they launched this challenge - well, no actually I’m dead certain it’s not what the organisers had in mind. But I always learn stuff in these things and I’m grateful for the fact that the cgsociety opens its challenges to all sorts of illustration styles
Gunilla
Hey thanks Gunilla. Such a shame we weren’t able to see your delightful mind at work producing an entry this time. I love the approach you bring to these challenges
gpepper
Thank you! The file is pretty huge because of all the complexity and so that’s why I’ve been shrinking the stuff down so much. However a slightly bigger version (at 25% resolution) is here. (856k)
Here’s a bit of the scene at 50%, and this should give a pretty good idea how the file looks at bigger size.
I’ll post some more bits in a post after this one
Russel-Nash
Hey many thanks buddy. That’s a shame the bigfoots don’t look as good for you any more. Oh well. But at least they can run around a bit more easily now
Slav
Many thanks
miketche
Thanks mate! Much appreciated
Pegahoul
Thank you very much. I admit I could have squeezed many more characters into the scene but I was keen to not let it look too busy, or worse, messy. So that’s why I stopped here
neudecker
Thank very much That is much appreciated
Ferx
Hey buddy, thank you! I really appreciate your kind and supportive comments throughout this and my other challenge entries here
handlebar
Thank you buddy. Much appreciated
Pearlyking
Thank you so much for your kind words. I’ve really appreciated your comments
GOSH your The Endless-imagination-man :surprised
Those made my laugh a lot is kind of pink “dogs” flock (without ears) moving in a flying metal ball.
David.
Hi mate. I like your image, different idea, different style and sort of puzzle for a mind
Cheers,
K.Polak
Thank you for the really kind comments folks. I very much appreciate what you’ve said
Here’s another couple of details. 50% resolution again
How do you come up with ideas for all these crasy aliens? Do you just start painting them directly, or do you draw some sketches first?
MartinNielsen
Hey Martin, no I don’t plan any of the characters. I just sit down and draw them directly. It’s pretty quick.
The way I draw is to do a very rough sketch directly onto the scene (that’s when the character takes its basic form). Then I draw the proper linework on a new layer over that.
Here’s the workflow - you’ll see that it’s pretty basic stuff.
As for where the ideas come from, I’m not sure I can answer that. I’m certainly inspired by nature and see countless potential ideas in the design of insects and other animals. If you ever want to get some ideas for monsters you need look no further than macro photography! But the truth is, if I need to come up with 50 different designs for aliens then I will sit down and just draw 50 different aliens, usually in 2 or 3 sessions. I draw pretty fast so that does not take very long
Still a lovely work! I love to explore this artwork and look for any ‘easter eggs’. Thanks for helping me to relive my childhood! All the best!
