Adventures in Time and Space

Hopefully I’ve got a feel of the contemporary setting into this one – lots of collage bringing the tones of the Inferno and nightlife into it, precise black lines from the post Office Tower, and the big mechanical first of the War Machine – mechanical, logical, clinically cutting through all that. And a sketch of Ben & Polly – because they’re gorgeous and I had to get a pic of them in somewhere! Looking at it, though – perhaps my figure-drawing is a bit rusty.

Graphite and glittery wrapping paper! Another very simple, crisp and clean image, stroking lines representing the clinical nature of the story’s threat, and the flow of life-force. A bit of a study of the contours of Jaeger’s face.

As an aside, I’ve noticed that there’s some distinct tendencies emerging between seasons now we’re getting into the swing of things – Season 1 might be characterised as brooding, dark, “atmospheric”, Season 2 much more colourful, but murkier – it’s harder to pin down to specific imagery, but to patterns and montages. Meanwhile, Season 3 is much crisper, cleaner, a futuristic minimality to complement some of the strongest adventure productions the show has seen.

The Wild Wild West! I wanted to do something that reflected the really atmospheric setting, the hot dusty streets, the bars and jails and desperate men on both sides of the law. I also wanted to bring some of my favourite American art into it, the Action Painting of Pollock, the Colour (or should that be color?) Fields of Rothko – at that is Romanticised, heroic. I did this all in a wide frame, though – intending to mask off and black out the top and bottom quarters of the image, reflecting the cinema’s infatuation with the Gunfight. However, I just really liked the splashes coming out of the picture and into areas of white, its got an airiness and a clarity to it which give the picture much better atmosphere, and sort of feels like gunshots and spilt whiskey.

I’ll be honest, this is one of the few Dr Who stories I really don’t care all that much for. I just find it really disappointing in the execution. However, it does present us with a handful of really strong images to explore – the idea of a game universe in some abstract sense, the images of playing cards and games, perhaps the first real use of the “Police Box” image in a metatextual way, playing on the iconography it had developed.

So I decided to go off on a tangent a bit, and try something a bit Pop Art. The sketch is a bit of a collage, with playing cards stuck on. The Tardis is an MS-paint drawing, blimey I haven’t used Paint in years, I really wanted the old atari/ceefax-type look, because all these games are kind of nostalgic, and it’s a lovely sense to be taking Dr Who fan art back to basics, to the times when images were simple, and a photo shop was where you took the film to get it developed! I’m pretty sure in everyone’s spare room or attic, there’s a box with an old deck of cards, a beer-mat, a couple of jig-saws, it’s the sort of thing that gets put away when anyone moves house and never unpacked again in years… sort of a little pocket universe in a cardboard box tied together with string…

Usurped! The plan has changed…

Someone will one day say, “ware that man [...] he has blood on his hands.” The Doctor sees cities burn, blood flow. Here, Hartnell’s dual role gives us a sense of foreboding of the Doctor that is to come. The familiar old grandfatherly professor is replaced by a completely different character, and perhaps it’s a harbinger of the change, and the loss of the man who has been the one constant on our journey so far…

Behind the arc of our solar system, across the curve of alien horizons, beyond the music of the Spheres, the Daleks are waiting for us. Beyond, even, the crisscross politic of our own world…

Despite this being possibly the most successful foray by Dr Who into comedy territory, I decided to steer clear of “comic” images – I’ve done a few too many cartoonish sketches of late (see “The Time Meddler” and “The Romans”). Instead I decided to focus on the horse, which is of course the image for this story – it’s sort of what the entire thing hangs on the pivot around which the situatio turns from comedy to tragedy in the final episode. It’s also a remarkably strong design – perhaps the first time we see Doctor Who really moving away from more stagey productions to “modern” production design. It’s angular body has always grabbed my eye – completely off-topic, I happen to quite like Franz Marc, and it reminds me of his animals in many ways. Strange how visuals connect sometimes across cutures and contexts isn’t it?

This also gave me a chance to try using Oil Pastels – I usually use Soft Pastels, and realy have thought of Oil pastels as a bit like trying to draw with lipstick! However, the short, angular marks proved a good way to experiment, and I got the hang of using them, and their unique way of blending, fairly quickly, so all in all this sketch came together in a matter of minutes! I chose to stop fairly early on this one – less is more! (actually, I’m bearing in mind a discussion I recently had about Egon Schiele with doctorwhoforum.com member Draculasaurus, and his comment “That guy really knows when to put down the brushes and call it finished. it’s the shameless opposite of over-worked.” True of a lot of my favourite artists!)

A grim, inhospitable planet, three humans and an army of Daleks and their un-natural offspring. One episode, no Doctor to save us, and only one terrifying concusion… Exterminate, Exterminate, Exterminate!

I really wanted to bring this one to life, we’re really into “forgotten” Who territory here. I wanted to take the landscape, and the tension between groups, and make it vivid. At the same time, I wanted to reflect the somewhat ambiguous feelings towards this story. As a result, I’ve gone for acrylics, and tied to get something with some Impressionist influences together, light, airy and unresolved, for this most alien of stories.