Gabriele De Santis Project collection / Photoshop
National Geographic

Digital Earth Future

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Concept

Imagine how technological progress could change the planet, saving it or dooming it.

BIOFUELS,
ALGAE AND AUTOMATION

“Technology and nature meet: the future of zero-CO² energy begins at sea, where innovation grows without taking space away from our planet.”

Marine Bio Energy (external site)

Process

Grayscale sketch: the tower seen from the seabed, the water’s surface above and dark seaweed in the foreground. Grayscale sketch: the tower cut by the waterline, with other submerged buildings around it and skyscrapers in the distance.

Sketch

AI reference

AI-generated reference image: a tower covered in vegetation between sky and sea, with coral, fish and a small submarine.

Composite

Digital Earth, the final composite: a skyscraper half above and half below the sea’s surface; underwater the facade is covered in algae and a submersible lights up the seabed among corals and schools of fish.
Composite detail: the submersible with its two headlights on, among schools of fish, with seaweed in the foreground. Composite detail: the submersible’s light beside the algae-covered corner of the sunken tower. Composite detail: the base of the sunken tower, with algae on the facade, a beam of light and the rippled sand of the seabed.

Layers

More projects

Portrait before retouching: a woman with purple makeup and blue peonies in her hair, with skin blemishes still visible. The same portrait after retouching: even skin, with makeup and colors intensified.
Photomontage: a bear made of fire walks through a misty autumn forest; on the right, in close-up, the face of an old man with a white beard.
Night photomontage: a young woman in a neon-visored helmet holding a futuristic rifle, a motorcycle, and the pink and blue lights of a city street.
“two thousand and twenty three” poster: a figure in black and purple with a tangle of machinery for a head, acid-green brushstrokes and Japanese characters on white. “Dai forza alle tue idee” (Power your ideas) poster: black-and-white skyscrapers on red.
“Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” poster: Scarlet Witch with glowing hands in front of a red portal, among shards of glass.