That's really cool.

Looks really nice! Good job on getting the other cover in there nicely

When she's done with that. please remember Mars does have convenient recycling bins for your waste.

Mars has to have recycling facilities. Garbage pick-up is $80,000,000 a pound.

That or we just chuck it into Valles Marineris, but then the Martian EPA and RedPeace get all huffy.

Now, now... if we all started throwing our garbage in Valles Marineris, it would be full up in 1,116, 500,000 years.

Is that in Earth Years or Martian Years?

Also, while that'd solve a lot of problems, I'm tried of seeing the crying Native Martian on the TV

I wouldn't worry about the Crying Martian, unless you have the Disney channel. They bought all rights and their army of vampire lawyers have already spread out over the land, suing gift shops, museums, and publishers for copyright infringement.

That's in Kjola years, which are a tad less than 95 terrestrial days long.

Excellent work, Taral.

Whatever she's reading must be very interesting on certain levels.

F770 usually has SF & fannish news, also reviews, editorial natter by Glyer, and articles of various sorts by numerous people, including me. Of late I've contributed a bit of fan fiction about a guy working in the Daily Planet who notices something odd going on, some observations on the Rotsler Award winners to date, and an upcoming piece on ten fanzines I valued highly over the previous twenty years. Still, I'd probably be too busy looking under Martian rocks to read a fanzine.

sweet. I still say this is some great work.

Is there a specific techneque you use for drawing the backgrounds? I'm trying to get into that, but i can't ever seem to make them look good.

Specific technique? No... but lord, it took lots of trail and error over the years. I can advise really looking at things, and trying to think about how you'd render them, not just (as most people do) categorizing them as "oh, a tree," or "mountain."

The only specific trick I can mention is choosing how much detail to include. Things far away appear in less detail than things close up. You may not even be able to make out their shape well. And because they're usually indistinct, due to haze and dust in the air, you want to use finer lines.

well thanks. i actually find that helpfull. ^^

Something else occured to me about backgrounds. Natural formations have their own aethetic, which isnt the same as Man's. It's partly random and partly orderly, but not entirely either. You have to develop an eye to looks "right." A mountain range shouldn't look either like sawteeth, nor totally disordered. There's a limit to how much (and how little) disorder there is. Not only that, but natural processes can sometimes be very distinctive. A certain kind of forrest produces a certain kind of horizon that's different from other forests. And rock formations can be angles, vertical, rounded, or have other shapes, depending on what formed them. Familiarity with the sort of landscape you're illustrating is a big help.

Well i did a partial not too long ago that i rather like:

http://www.furaffinity.net/view/2287514/

Got any cratique you could offer? Keep in mind that the plants are made up to reflect world of warcraft's plants.

Great work! I saw it a while ago in a journal! Congradulation for the contract!

In a journal? Howzzat? You mean a fanzine? Or has somebody already "borrowed" it without my knowing for some cheezy chan?

Well, the publication (Sorry, journal is a newspaper... I forgot that it wasn't an english word! Lol!) was named The Link and it have been used to announce the Sci-Fi Worldcon 2009... I scanned the journal if you whant it. Also, if it have been used without your agreement, I sincerly feel sad for you!

I know of The Link. It does call itself a journal, though a tabloid newspaper is what it is. I did the original art for them, in fact. The difference is that Saara is holding a copy of The Link instead of the fanzine File 770, and it has The Link's logo and graphics at top and bottom. Later, I adapted the art to be used as a fanzine cover. After all, who other than the residents of Montréal, ever reads The Link?

I have two or three copies of that issue in my archives. Pity the "interviews" were so short. I know from the one I gave that the journalist collected far more material than that. Also, it's a pity they could get nothing at all from the Pro GoH, Neil Gaimon.