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Description
Hello 2019!

wow, I totally fell behind on my art projects this last year. Seriously, adult life, and having to work to pay bills is a constant pain, even when you're doing what you like, paid work always comes before personal projects. so here I am, almost half a year after I started posting advances on this, still far from done on my first illustration, and frankly not quite happy with its current status, but alas, I have to post something so that you know I'm still alive and kind of working on this.

I figured I may as well post another preview and tell you a little more about the islands proyect:

Islands
“... everyone knew that all islands were worlds unto themselves, that to come to an island was to come to another world.”
― Guy Gavriel Kay, Tigana"It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination."
― Douglas Adams, The restaurant at the end of the universe.

Life is a rarity; it is spread thinly, randomly and improbably through the habitable planets, which in turn, represent only a fraction of the known worlds, which are just a fraction of the possible arrangements of matter in the universe, matter which amounts to almost nothing compared with the vastness of spacetime that holds it, in just one of the many branches of possibility that constitutes the Universe. but still, the Universe is such a mindbendingly big set of places that even something as relatively insignificant as complex, material, organic, natural life as we have come to know it is bound to exist in unimaginable numbers of forms, in every permutation possible.

Such islands of improbability, born from randomness and chaos, are bound to have unique characteristics, their inhabitants facing different challenges though different means, by different paths. But as far apart as we all are from each other, every living thing on the Universe is bound tho the same rules of survival; adquiring energy, optimizing available resources, adapting to changes and striving to perpetuate themselves. Such forces shape us all in particular, predictable ways, and so, paralells can be made almost inevitably between any two worlds; bridges through the void by which we can find common grounds, by contrast or analogy, with creatures totally unrelated to our earthly evolution.

The following chapters will explore, from an Earthly point of view, some of the most striking coincidences and discrepancies between our world and others. Trying to find paralells in difference, and discrepancies in coincidence, most of these worlds will seem like inverted paradoxes to the Earth reader, particular cases where a standard rule is broken and life is awkwardly compensating... but always keep in mind that everything is relative; given the uniqueness of life, every world is an exception to the rules of its neighbours. Life is equal parts order and nonsense, and every difference we find, is a hidden treasure, another piece in the infinite mosaic of knowledge scattered trough the islands of the Universe.

Chapter 1: The Walking Plants

"In the House of Upside-Down: cellar's top floor, attic's ground. In the House of Upside-Down: laughing cries, and smiles frown. In the House of Upside-Down: found is lost, and lost-is found…"
Island: 7B3309-2A-88 (Arcadia 88)
Gravity: 0.7 g
Atmosphere: 2.6 atm sea lvl.
Age: 3,900 my
Orbital Period: 3 earth years
Day Lenght: 1.5 earth years
Life: Carbon-Based, Water solvent
Water Coverage: 30%

Point of coincidence: Separate kingdoms of autotrophes and heterotrophes
Point of divergence: What if plants moved around and predators took root?

Arcadia 88 is the second planet in orbit around the bluish-white star 7B3309-88. Similarly to Sol System Venus 1, Arcadia's rotation is slow enough that its day lenght is almost exactly half its year lenght. This slow rotation, which is believed to be a stable phenomenon, has had an interesting and unique effect in the planet's lifeforms since their earliest days.

Contrary to Earth's life, which probably originated on the oceans, Arcadian life seem to have evolved from airborne origins; the planet's first inhabitants may have lived as drifting aeroplanckton.

Early on their history, Arcadian drifters evolved two different strategies to deal with the slow rotation and sluggish winds of their planet; one group of early life opted for a low metabolism and passive lifestyle; when the sun setted on the heavy air they fell to the ground like dust, and hibernated during half of the long year, waiting for the next sunrise relatively put. while the other group developed sensory and locomotive systems to follow the sun constantly, even against the wind. As life grew in complexity, these mobile, photosynthetic organisms became the dominant forms on the planet, and diversified into lots of forms; from agile, nimble flyers, to massive walking forms, and bizarre things like huge swarms of tiny linked creatures that look like clouds from a distance; a whole ecology of mobile photosyntethisers swipes the planet following the slow sunrise like a wave of life.

Naturally, this wave of life leaves a wave of death and decay in its path, and such plentiful bounty can't possibly be wasted. The passive, hibernating organisms that couldn't keep up with the sun, soon found out they could subsist exclusively on the dead and dying left behind by the sun, abandoning autotrophy almost wholly and thriving in the moving land of sunset, from this lineage arised a menagerie of parasitic forms, fungus-like creepers and sessile predators, each peaking during one time of the very long day and then fading into hybernating forms waiting for the next generation of walking plants.

Type Species 1 - Common Arcadian Walker (Ambulophyta proteus: 88arcadiensis)

More information coming soon!

Description
Hello 2019!

wow, I totally fell behind on my art projects this last year. Seriously, adult life, and having to work to pay bills is a constant pain, even when you're doing what you like, paid work always comes before personal projects. so here I am, almost half a year after I started posting advances on this, still far from done on my first illustration, and frankly not quite happy with its current status, but alas, I have to post something so that you know I'm still alive and kind of working on this.

I figured I may as well post another preview and tell you a little more about the islands proyect:

Islands
“... everyone knew that all islands were worlds unto themselves, that to come to an island was to come to another world.”
― Guy Gavriel Kay, Tigana"It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination."
― Douglas Adams, The restaurant at the end of the universe.

Life is a rarity; it is spread thinly, randomly and improbably through the habitable planets, which in turn, represent only a fraction of the known worlds, which are just a fraction of the possible arrangements of matter in the universe, matter which amounts to almost nothing compared with the vastness of spacetime that holds it, in just one of the many branches of possibility that constitutes the Universe. but still, the Universe is such a mindbendingly big set of places that even something as relatively insignificant as complex, material, organic, natural life as we have come to know it is bound to exist in unimaginable numbers of forms, in every permutation possible.

Such islands of improbability, born from randomness and chaos, are bound to have unique characteristics, their inhabitants facing different challenges though different means, by different paths. But as far apart as we all are from each other, every living thing on the Universe is bound tho the same rules of survival; adquiring energy, optimizing available resources, adapting to changes and striving to perpetuate themselves. Such forces shape us all in particular, predictable ways, and so, paralells can be made almost inevitably between any two worlds; bridges through the void by which we can find common grounds, by contrast or analogy, with creatures totally unrelated to our earthly evolution.

The following chapters will explore, from an Earthly point of view, some of the most striking coincidences and discrepancies between our world and others. Trying to find paralells in difference, and discrepancies in coincidence, most of these worlds will seem like inverted paradoxes to the Earth reader, particular cases where a standard rule is broken and life is awkwardly compensating... but always keep in mind that everything is relative; given the uniqueness of life, every world is an exception to the rules of its neighbours. Life is equal parts order and nonsense, and every difference we find, is a hidden treasure, another piece in the infinite mosaic of knowledge scattered trough the islands of the Universe.

Chapter 1: The Walking Plants

"In the House of Upside-Down: cellar's top floor, attic's ground. In the House of Upside-Down: laughing cries, and smiles frown. In the House of Upside-Down: found is lost, and lost-is found…"
Island: 7B3309-2A-88 (Arcadia 88)
Gravity: 0.7 g
Atmosphere: 2.6 atm sea lvl.
Age: 3,900 my
Orbital Period: 3 earth years
Day Lenght: 1.5 earth years
Life: Carbon-Based, Water solvent
Water Coverage: 30%

Point of coincidence: Separate kingdoms of autotrophes and heterotrophes
Point of divergence: What if plants moved around and predators took root?

Arcadia 88 is the second planet in orbit around the bluish-white star 7B3309-88. Similarly to Sol System Venus 1, Arcadia's rotation is slow enough that its day lenght is almost exactly half its year lenght. This slow rotation, which is believed to be a stable phenomenon, has had an interesting and unique effect in the planet's lifeforms since their earliest days.

Contrary to Earth's life, which probably originated on the oceans, Arcadian life seem to have evolved from airborne origins; the planet's first inhabitants may have lived as drifting aeroplanckton.

Early on their history, Arcadian drifters evolved two different strategies to deal with the slow rotation and sluggish winds of their planet; one group of early life opted for a low metabolism and passive lifestyle; when the sun setted on the heavy air they fell to the ground like dust, and hibernated during half of the long year, waiting for the next sunrise relatively put. while the other group developed sensory and locomotive systems to follow the sun constantly, even against the wind. As life grew in complexity, these mobile, photosynthetic organisms became the dominant forms on the planet, and diversified into lots of forms; from agile, nimble flyers, to massive walking forms, and bizarre things like huge swarms of tiny linked creatures that look like clouds from a distance; a whole ecology of mobile photosyntethisers swipes the planet following the slow sunrise like a wave of life.

Naturally, this wave of life leaves a wave of death and decay in its path, and such plentiful bounty can't possibly be wasted. The passive, hibernating organisms that couldn't keep up with the sun, soon found out they could subsist exclusively on the dead and dying left behind by the sun, abandoning autotrophy almost wholly and thriving in the moving land of sunset, from this lineage arised a menagerie of parasitic forms, fungus-like creepers and sessile predators, each peaking during one time of the very long day and then fading into hybernating forms waiting for the next generation of walking plants.

Type Species 1 - Common Arcadian Walker (Ambulophyta proteus: 88arcadiensis)

More information coming soon!