A skeuomorphic synthetic meat manufacturing space station. It would have masses of genetically engineered muscle-like cells that keep replicating when fed with raw materials, like a big petri dish. As it grows, slabs would be chopped off, packaged, & shipped out. Or maybe it would be grown in the packages. It could be cheaper & more efficient for people living in space to get meat-like food this way than transporting it from Earth.
The setting is the same space station as the 1st illustration, now in shadow. A transport of packaged synthetic meat blasts off. A large nutrient resupply vessel comes in slowly. Hiding & emerging from behind it are 3 thief bots attempting to swoop in & snatch cargo from the transport. The nutrient vehicle attempts to maneuver away but only makes itself off-kilter. A security bot rushes to meet the thieves.
Initial ideation of the Space Steaktion & accompanying spacecraft.
Detail ideation
Initial sketch of the nutrient supply vessel. A fusion of a brain & industrial agriculture images made for an interesting appearance.
More finished sketch of the nutrient supply vessel.
Then I added the scifi analogs for corn stalks, although they just store nutrients rather than growing them here. I sketched 1 & made Smart Object copies. That proved a lot harder than I expected as the overlapping had to be just right & the size of each 1 tweaked to be in perspective.
3-armed sheriff bot. 1 arm for shooting, 2 for apprehending. Plus 3 propulsion pods.
Sheriff bot with color & shading. I later put some green in the exhaust. Just yellow didn't create as much color interest with the overall brass/bronze badge hull color. It also tied it into the blue-cyan of the weapons.
Wrustler bot, based on biting insects & Old West bandits. Small, fast, & somewhat fragile. Its red & white plating gives its vulnerable fuel tanks the minimum of protection. It has a cage for holding stolen meat containers.
Synthetic meat transport, based on a wrapped styrofoam meat tray. It carries wedge-shaped meat containers to waiting markets around the solar system.
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Space Steaktion Series
A series of Sci-Fi illustrations for my parents' special days. It was an experiment in hand drawn greebling, including lights, & scifi-ifying familiar shapes.
