For the 2011/2012 Aniway school agenda I was asked to make an illustration. I chose 'space opera' as my theme (with blue as my assigned colour).

I've not done any space related pictures before, but I love astronomy so this was definitely an assignment I was looking forward to diving into. I examined how nebula looked and how our planet and atmosphere look from space and then created a fictional planet and setting.

I also created a backstory fitting with the space opera theme. The space opera genre within anime is often based on a fight or flight theme. It can span decades, where the protagonists are in a constant struggle with aliens (often of the mysterious type). I created the character of the young cadet who sees the planet he grew up on destroyed. He's shocked, angry and sad and he (of course) wants revenge!

Close-up of the young cadet's face

Depicting the aliens was tricky at first. They had to be easily recognizable as enemies. Smooth metal spaceships just didn't work, so I went for the insect-like approach (it's been done before, but it works :)

Alien insect-like spaceships

View the entire illustration in the Illustration gallery