The origins of the Gravitals from "Galaxy Guide", spread 18-19 of 53

Here is a spread from "Galaxy Guide" - a spec-evo sketchbook I kept between 1999 and 2002.

These pages  are important as they show my first ideas about mechanical life forms such as the Gravital.

Alongside the Gravital there were also the obligatory hostile, Berserker machines known as the Waxani; and also mysterious interstellar travellers known as the Gyrhangi.

When writing All Tomorrows I went back to this sketchbook as my "lego box of ideas", and re-booted the Gravital as hostile invaders.

For All Tomorrows Redux, I might go back to these ideas and resurrect the Waxani and the Gyrhangi in some form to accompany the Gravital.

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Provided that he directs his followers to this Patreon page, my friend @bewarethequ is also welcome to turn these pages into Youtube videos as he pleases. :)

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"Galaxy Guide" was a guide to an immense artificial habitat known as "the Wall" - where creatures from all timelines and all planets were brought together and allowed to proper. It was a wonderful place populated with arcane megastructures; and overlooked by strange, God-like intelligences named “Walleans”.

As I drew in my "Galaxy Guide" notebook for three years, rough pencil illustrations with detailed backgrounds gave way to fully-detailed watercolour illustrations of the creatures themselves. In those days there was no Photoshop and no Indesign - so I had to do everything from image placement to page layouts and text boxes by hand.

Many concepts I later used in Snaiad, All Tomorrows and beyond made their first appearances in this sketchbook, - indeed, the last image in "Galaxy Guide" was the first illustration from All Tomorrows itself!

Thank you for your support on Patreon, and I hope you enjoy "Galaxy Guide"!