Megastructures 10 The Bishop Ring

A Bishop Ring is a space habitat similar to but much smaller than a Niven Ring. Instead of being centered around a star, it is orbiting a star or planet, thus has a much smaller diameter.

It was first proposed in 1997 by Forest Bishop of the Institute of Atomic Scale Engineering. The original proposal would have it be 1000 km in radius and 500 km in width, although other proportions would be possible.

The ring would spin to produce artificial gravity using centrifugal force, and would not need to be enclosed as is the case with other spinning space habitats, as it would be large enough for the atmosphere to stick to the surface through gravity and possibly an atmospheric retention wall.

By giving a tilt to its orbit, you could achieve a natural day and night cycle, or illumination could be achieved using mirrors or an artificial sun at its center.

The Story of Inc On Sale Now!

"The Story Of Inc", a scifi narrative artbook, hardcover, 168 pages with well over 200 paintings by 11 professional artists in the film and videogame industry. A story of a man and his robot trying to survive on an almost waterless desert planet. After a successful kickstarter in 2017, the book is now for sale and ready to ship! Order your copy today!

https://gumroad.com/artofsoulburn

99% of Kickstarter Books Have Shipped

So great news, first off, 99% of the kickstarter books are now in the amazon queue for shipment. Some of them have already in fact shipped and arrived, so there's people out there with their copies of Inc in hand, and we couldn't be happier! Of course, some orders will take longer to arrive depending on what country you're in, so don't worry if it doesn't show up in the next week, it is in the mail and headed your way as fast as the post office can get them there.

You may ask "Why 99% shipped?" Well, it turns out that one country has been particularly difficult to deal with. My home country of Canada! Apparently there's a law that states that amazon is not allowed to ship books to Canada from the US, as it endangers the Heritage of Canada. No, I am not kidding. So to my Canadian friends and family, due to government silliness, I will be shipping these books by hand, which will take extra time, so hang tight!

Once you get your book(s), if there are any issues at all, it arrives damaged, you get the wrong book, the wrong number of books, etc, please don't hesitate to contact us, and we'll get it resolved ASAP. We want everyone to have the best experience possible!

Also, the last item that will be sent via email to those who ordered it is the "Secret Stash", a pdf of extra Inc artwork. Since the artwork contains mild spoilers for the story, we will wait a little longer before sending it out, so you have a chance to read the book first. But it is coming!

Thank you again to everyone who donated to the kickstarter. We are already working on new books that will go on sale in the coming years, so if you've enjoyed Inc, follow along and see what new projects we're up to. We'll also be selling additional copies of Inc starting tomorrow, May 16th, 2018, so if you missed it the first time around, or need extra copies, your chance will be here. You all rock, and we hope you enjoy the book!

Inc Coral Desert Wandering

You can never have enough paintings of Inc and Landis traversing the Coral Desert :) Again, most of my environments start off as a simple thumbnail like this, so I can focus on creating a striking composition, then worry about adding details later in the finished painting

Monolithic Buildings

A bunch of thumbnails of monolithic buildings, all my environmental paintings usually start off as one of these simple thumbs, in the hopes of finding the perfect composition

The Books Are Shipping

The mailing started last friday on The Story Of Inc, and wanted to get you a photo of the Premium Edition final cover. This edition, as well as the regular edition, will go on sale in about 2 weeks, after the Kickstarter customers have all been shipped. When your books arrives, send me some pics, would love to see the book out in the wild.

Look What Showed Up At My House Yesterday!

After a long trip across the pacific, "The Story of Inc" is finally here. So there are two shipments now, one came to my house, and the second went to the amazon warehouse in Kansas.

The Kansas shipment has arrived at amazon, and the truck is in line to drop off the books, however, and this is pretty shocking to me, the line is currently about 1 week long! It's insane how much stuff they must receive to cause a 1 week long truck line.

So, I'm going to start shipping the kickstarter books personally, you've waited long enough, and once the amazon ones get unpacked and put on the amazon shelves, I'll use amazon to ship the remaining books that I haven't had a chance to send yet. Whether you get the book directly from me or amazon, it's the same book, protected in the same cardboard bumper box so it arrives brand spanking new.

And for those of you who didn't join the kickstarter, I will be placing the book up for regular sale right after I get all the kickstarter books sent.

Thank you everyone for your patience, not long now!

Megastructures 7 Star Lifter 3

Work on the megastructure book continues, here's an alternate Star lifter design. As a recap, a star lifter removes mass from a star for either raw materials or to change the nature of the star itself. For example, you may remove mass from the star to collect hydrogen or other elements. Or you could remove mass in order to extend the life of the star, to make the star dimmer, or reduce the chances of a super nova.