Saturday, July 7, 2012

Rainbows End illustration


I read the book "Rainbows End" by the writer Vernor Vinge, in it he weaves a tale that takes Augmented reality to it's ultimate fruition.  There are other sci-fi themes too, such as life extension and rail guns.  I decided to paint up something that illustrated a scene in which the main character Gu, wonders into the desert outside of San Diego.  The scene in the book is mostly about reflection on his own life (having just been revived from near death of Alzheimer's).  He catches are ride in an automated car and encounters a facility with large rail guns.   This facility is called UpEx, a  play on the company FedEx, it launches parcels into the air so that they can be air dropped with pin-point accuracy into the hands of the recipients.  Since I have a general interest in transportation and the movement of goods and people, this is one scene that sounded fun to draw (that and the one in which the USC library is made to walk about!).