Adventures in Time and Space

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.

For this I went for a bright, colourful cartoon look. It’s a historical of sorts, but story-book historical. The Character of the Monk is a particularly vivid one, and an unusually motivated one, which only Dr Who could carry off. So in creating a sketch, I started from the question of how he would fit into the image. Being “naughty” and mischievous, I figured that he would try all sorts of tricks, and getting into the same image multiple times would be just his sort of timey-wimey money-business!

In many ways, any analysis of this story has to look back to The Keys of Marinus – the “quest”/”chase” format is almost unique to Terry Nation. This has given me a chance to look again at the abstract layering I used then. This time, I’ve brought an element of collage into it – when Ian and Barbara return home, their fanfare is in the form of a photo montage. This time, however, I wanted to focus on their decision to leave – the story elements are in blue boxes at the side of the image (they’ve left the blue box, geddit?). This framing also harks back to the beginning of their story, the way I suggested adventures yet to come when doing a sketch for An Unearthly Child.

The textures hopefully reflect the eclectic settings – the organics of the Mire Beast and Mechanus, the linearity of the Empire State and the Mechanoids…

I’ve kept the actual drawn elements of this fairly simple (almost childish). That’s because I see it as being a child-like story, the VHS got almost worn out when I was a kid!

A lot of people say that episode 1 of this story is brilliant, and the rest is a real let-down. Actually, I love the rest of the serial, it’s got an opimistic, cheap-and-cheerful b-movie quality to it. By scrawling the word “revolution” across the sketch, as Vicki shouts it out, I hope I’ve refected that – the pose I’ve used is also infuenced by that tone. It’s a kids’-book illustration, big brush-strokes swirl around her (they’re acrylic, the writing is oil pastel, she is ink & watercolour). I also think I’ve cracked the ink-and-watercolour look that I’ve been experimenting with in some sketches. At the same time, I’ve tried to suggest that she’s an unlikely “forces’ sweetheart” or sex symbol for this revolution!

The Lionheart! There are so many things I could have done with this story, so many sizzling performances, such rich visuals, full of texture and flavour and tension, but in the end I had to go for a portrait of Julian Glover as Richard. It’s such a performance. The thing is, whilst the story is actually very domestic, and about his household, his relationship with his sister, Glover’s performance is laced with the tensions and strength that give us a great portrait of leadership – it’s an intense and arresting star-role, and I wanted to do a sketch to reflect on that, the king a hero and as a poor judge at once. I’ve used pastels and charcoal on a fairly smooth cartridge paper, which allows them to blend very smoothly – perfect for close-up anatomical detail. However, I’ve held back from over-working to keep an energy and a passion to it. Colour’s an odd thing – I’ve tried t use some intense tones here, because though I’m working from a black-and-white source, the story feels colourful – exotic, passionate…

Isn’t this story great? It’s as if at some point during Planet of Giants, someone said “let’s have some more giant ants, but this time slip the writer some LSD and see what happens.” It’s shit-crazy mentalism of the highest order, and a visual goldmine. I was eager o do something with the insect patterns – the wings, the animus, etc, but also to pay homage to the huge amount of spin-off visuals (the Annual stories for example.) This is a mix of watercolours, ink, pastel…..

Here’s Hartnell in full swing – lyre, Roman get-up, and about to kosh someone with a Roman urn. What’s a Roman urn, I hear you ask? Not a lot on a BBC budget!

Proof if it’s needed that I’m going potty.

Ah, back on-topic… it’s a mix of watercolours and watercolour pencils. I wanted something quite vibrant and colourful, and a bit reminiscent of Roman art (the mosaics and murals).

Koquillion is the focus of this sketch – an amazing mask, and the deception at the heart of the story. I’ve rendered it in charcoal because that’s how I see this story, really – it’s the dark caves, the dirty film print, just feels charcoal-y.