Mood Boards

I began by looking at the alien as something that possesses human qualities but doesn't quite come off as entirely human. I looked at characters that aren't aliens or aren't treated as aliens in their own canon to see how they managed to pull off human characteristics. The characters from Ratchet and Clank are good examples as you don't see them as aliens. You see them as people who just inhabit different parts of the universe.
Ratchet and Clank are also good at pulling off robots as well so I might look into designing a robot.

Initially I wanted my spaceship to look like a human skull. I did a few sketches of the spaceship and it just didn't work. Instead of looking quite menacing, they just looked gaudy. I still wanted to include some aspects my original idea into the design though so I looked at fish skulls and skeletons instead.
I really liked how they looked quite delicate but slim and sturdy at the same time. They also looked quite alien and not of this world. I highlighted shapes that I particularly like and would like to incorporate in the design.

I looked at motorbikes because motorbikes look cool. I saw the spaceship as this skeletal frame wrapped around a massive engine so I briefly looked at motorbikes to get some ideas of how it could work. I also looked into giant machines and engines like the large hadron collider because I really liked the colours and they reminded me of the engine from the Heart of Gold.