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Description
The honour guard has long wheeled, already distant. After forty years of unfailing service, still bearing the last of many battle scars, the once mighty Temeraire sets the course that will take her on her final journey. An ignoble pilot's sloop is her only companion she sails to take on the breakers, the last crew she will harbour.

For the old battleship this is no pitiful end, only the last triumph in a line of many. In her new life as a hundred frigates and fighters beyond counting, soon enough the Temeraire will sail again.

GIMP 2. Approximately 20 hours. Layout and themes based on the painting featuring a similarly named ship by J.M.W. Turner.

Something rather quickly put together to see if I still have the touch for space art. Not as refined as I would have preferred it, but deadlines are deadlines.
Quickly or not, still put a bit of thought into the themes behind it.

First, as should be apparent in comparison, the Temeraire is a rather symmetric, rocketship-like design, with a colour scheme that could have come from a John Blanche cover. All of these are things I enjoy very greatly in more military-styled starship designs (apart from aesthetically pleasing but highly impractical battleships transplanted to space), but which I have found are getting increasingly uncommon - perhaps were never common to begin with. Second, she is a "boresight" sort of warship: All of her main weapons are fixed, aimed along the spine. Again, this is an aspect of space warship design I find pleasing, but - save for a few holdouts - is not as common today as it once was.
The sloop, with its large, almost 3d-printed shell pieces and bright blue glowing details, is recogniseably a more modern design, the sort which appeared about 20 years ago. This is admittedly a design I am rather ambivalent towards, but it is undeniable that it has a powerful appeal - I would dare say today, it is nearly ubiquitous.
When I began this piece, sketching a Turner study, I recognised almost at once the only way I could successfully move the themes involved into space was to have the Temeraire herself as an older design of which I am very fond, but likewise very aware that the popular appeal of the same is long since diminished. The tugboat had to be a more modern design, one which in itself does little for me personally - but which is not only almost an industry standard, but also personally favoured by many of the contemporary space artists I hold in the highest regard.

No, there is no message, and there is no hidden meaning.
Now, enough. I should have been in bed eight hours ago, but decided to paint instead.

Description
The honour guard has long wheeled, already distant. After forty years of unfailing service, still bearing the last of many battle scars, the once mighty Temeraire sets the course that will take her on her final journey. An ignoble pilot's sloop is her only companion she sails to take on the breakers, the last crew she will harbour.

For the old battleship this is no pitiful end, only the last triumph in a line of many. In her new life as a hundred frigates and fighters beyond counting, soon enough the Temeraire will sail again.

GIMP 2. Approximately 20 hours. Layout and themes based on the painting featuring a similarly named ship by J.M.W. Turner.

Something rather quickly put together to see if I still have the touch for space art. Not as refined as I would have preferred it, but deadlines are deadlines.
Quickly or not, still put a bit of thought into the themes behind it.

First, as should be apparent in comparison, the Temeraire is a rather symmetric, rocketship-like design, with a colour scheme that could have come from a John Blanche cover. All of these are things I enjoy very greatly in more military-styled starship designs (apart from aesthetically pleasing but highly impractical battleships transplanted to space), but which I have found are getting increasingly uncommon - perhaps were never common to begin with. Second, she is a "boresight" sort of warship: All of her main weapons are fixed, aimed along the spine. Again, this is an aspect of space warship design I find pleasing, but - save for a few holdouts - is not as common today as it once was.
The sloop, with its large, almost 3d-printed shell pieces and bright blue glowing details, is recogniseably a more modern design, the sort which appeared about 20 years ago. This is admittedly a design I am rather ambivalent towards, but it is undeniable that it has a powerful appeal - I would dare say today, it is nearly ubiquitous.
When I began this piece, sketching a Turner study, I recognised almost at once the only way I could successfully move the themes involved into space was to have the Temeraire herself as an older design of which I am very fond, but likewise very aware that the popular appeal of the same is long since diminished. The tugboat had to be a more modern design, one which in itself does little for me personally - but which is not only almost an industry standard, but also personally favoured by many of the contemporary space artists I hold in the highest regard.

No, there is no message, and there is no hidden meaning.
Now, enough. I should have been in bed eight hours ago, but decided to paint instead.