Type, layout, and cutting what a design does not need.

Four anchor points and eight handles. In a vector tool, a circle is four curves with handles 0.552 of the radius long. It looks like a circle, but it is a very close approximation.

One colour fills the shape. Many posters stop here, and the planet looks flat, because nothing shows where the light comes from.

One light, from the star. The shape is the same, but shading now makes the flat disc look like a sphere.

The surface, in three tones of one colour: dark low areas, the wing's sand, and pale high points. The colours are chosen before the detail is added.

The same surface data now shapes the light instead of the colour, so the dunes cast their own shade. At 1600%, each square of the grid is one pixel at 100%.

A thin glow at the edge, where you look through the most air, brightest on the lit side. This is the finished planet the rest of the site shows.

Six layers, and each one does something. Hide a layer to see what it adds. If you can tell when it is missing, it earns its place.