Deus Est Machina

For those wondering, the title translates as “God is the Machine.”

So, for the past... three months(?) I’ve been working on a “live client” project for University, where we find a client who agrees to supervise us for the duration in order for us to get some real word experience before we graduate this year. My client was ImagineFX (the art editor Paul Tysall, to be precise) and I had to create two cover images that fit the brief “Art is Our Religion” (which was the brief for the 50th issue).

This is the first one, which is based on the Omega Nebula - my leap of logic was “nebulas are the birthplace of stars, which is basically creation at work.” Because I needed to get away form any overt religious imagery, I wound up going for a huge machine creature sat in the nebula creating a star. Or “eating it” as my brother suggested because then it could also be a Necron C’tan (Warhammer 40K fans will know what that is).

For those wondering what the title means, it translates as “God is the Machine.”

The composition could be better and more epic, but I’ll tell you what, it looks fantastic printed out on glossy paper.

The second image for this project can be seen here. [link]

Additional information and WIPs for both images can be seen here. [link]

Omega Nebula © Open to debate
Concept © Leanne Jennings