UPDATED Doctor Who Pinups

Way back in 2010 I started a series of vector drawings of all the various incarnations of the Doctor (there were eleven at the time). Now that I've had a few more years of experience in working with vector, I decided to update them all and fix some things that were bothering me about them. And to add the recently introduced War Doctor and the Twelfth Doctor to the mix.

Please forgive the ugly watermark on the illustration. I swore I would never add one to my art, because I know that 99.99% of my readers would never even think of stealing it. But earlier this year I had a run-in with an art thief who was not only stealing my work, but selling it as her own! Hence the watermarks. This is why we can't have nice things.

Lost Futureboy Drawing

Way back in 2009 I posted a couple of entries about Futureboy, a character I created in the late 1990s. You can read all about him here. 

Imagine my surprise when I was googling myself today, as one does, and ran across this: a vector drawing of Futureboy.

At least I think it's forgotten. I don't remember posting this one before, and it didn't show up when I searched for it.

I completely forgot all about this drawing. This is the first (and so far only) time I've ever drawn him in vector. It's definitely my work, but I have no memory of drawing it whatsoever, or even why I did it. It's kind of eerie seeing something I obviously did but don't recall. Like there's another version of me out there posting things and jet setting about the globe and generally having a better time than I am.

I suppose I'll have to chalk this one up to old age, as my once steel trap-like mind becomes more like a sieve. Next stop: adult diapers!

Thelev The Andorian

From Star Trek The Original Series, it's Thelev the Andorian.* Thelev appeared in the episode Journey To Babel (aka The One With Spock's Parents).

I always liked the Andorians; they had a cool, retro pulp sci-fi look to them that really stood out from the pack of relatively mundane aliens on the show. Klingons? Big deal, they were guys with swarthy makeup and goatees. Vulcans and Romulans? Humans with pointy ears and Moe Howard haircuts. But the Andorians, now there was an alien race with some style.

Sadly, the Andorians were criminally underused on the Original Series, showing up in only three episodes (four if you want to count the one where we saw a couple of frozen Andorian corpses in the background). Would it have killed them to have included an Andorian crew member in the cast?

Once again I have to assume the reason they weren't used more often was budgetary. Gene Roddenberry was always going on about how they never had any money on the show, so it was probably cost prohibitive to paint a guy blue, slap a white wig on him and glue antenna to his head.

Fortunately for Andorian fans the Enterprise series utilized them much more often. Thanks to Enterprise we learned that they come from a moon called Andoria which orbits a ringed gas giant called Andor. Andoria is an icy world, where the temperature reaches a balmy -18º F in the summer months.

Not surprisingly, Andorians have blue blood. There is also an Andorian subspecies called the Aenar, who have white skin and are blind and telepathic.

Andorians are generally distrustful of aliens and even refer to humans as "pink skins." I guess the message here is that racism is timeless. Despite this, Andorians were one of the four founding members of the United Federation of planets, along with Humans, Vulcans and Tellerites.

Andorian marriages require four participants. No word as to how many are involved in the honeymoon.

Over the years the placement of the Andorians' antenna has varied greatly. In the Original Series the antenna grew from the back of the head, while in Star Trek: The Next Generation they appeared to sprout from the very top of the skull. By the time of Enterprise the antenna were shown growing directly out of the forehead. Just what Star Trek needs, another makeup controversy like the Klingon forehead ridges.

*To all the Trek nitpickers out there-- I am aware that in the Journey To Babel episode, Thelev here is not really an Andorian. He's actually an Orion who's been surgically altered to look like an Andorian in order to infiltrate and disrupt a peace conference. Do yourself a favor and ignore all that and just enjoy the drawing.

Thelev is a vector drawing, done all in InDesign. His hair was originally pure white, but I soon came to realize that wouldn't work, as I was going to be putting a white outline around him. So I had to darken up his hair quite a bit to keep it from blending in with the outline. Not a fan of the giant crotch arrow on his costume, but whddya gonna do?

Here's the original sketch I did of Thelev. Not much changed in the final version.http://bobcanada92.blogspot.com/2012/08/kang.html

Kang

Straight from Star Trek, it's Kang the Klingon.

Kang first appeared in the Original Series episode Day Of The Dove. He was played by Michael Ansara, a Syrian born actor who often portrayed Native Americans and Hispanics on various TV series throughout the 1960s and 1970s. 

Ansara played Kang three times on three different Trek series over the years: in the aforementioned Day Of The Dove, the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode Blood Oath, and the Star Trek: Voyager episode Flashback.

Ansara was at one time married to Barbara Eden, TV's Jeannie of I Dream Of Jeannie fame! Some guys get all the breaks!

There's lots more long-winded rambling to go. Read it by clicking below!

"Earthshock" Cybermen

I recently posted my drawing of the Cyberleader from the Doctor Who episode Earthshock, so I figured why not go ahead and draw one of the regular Cybermen as well?

Honestly it wasn't very tough to draw the Cyber-Minion. They're pretty much identical to the Cyberleader, except they have silver "handlebars" on the sides of their head. So I just flopped the Cyberleader image and changed the handlebars from black to silver. Oh, and I added the ray gun. And a new arm to hold the gun. And I reversed the highlights so it wouldn't look like the light was coming from two directions. OK, actually it wasn't as easy as I thought. Forget I said anything.

Both Cybermen and the background were drawn entirely in InDesign.

Space Vampire!

From the darkest depths of the universe, where it's always nighttime, comes... Space Vampire!

A quick little vector drawing, based on a doodle I did during a meeting. Don't worry, I can doodle and listen at the same time.

Originally I drew him with light green skin, but it didn't go very well with the other colors, so I changed it to a pale blue. I like the high contrast provided by the bright red cape.

I briefly considered calling this one "Alien Vampire," since I just did a "Space Accountant" drawing, but that just didn't have as good a rhythm as "Space Vampire."

This is a vector drawing, drawn all in InDesign. The text was hand drawn.

Here's the meeting sketch I did. Nothing much changed in the final drawing, with the exception of the markings on his forehead. I have no idea what that was about or what I was thinking when I drew it, so I opted to leave them out in the final.

Gojira!

An alternate version of my recent Gojira illustration, sans the city background.

It kind of reminds me of a model kit box.

This is a vector drawing, done all in InDesign.

Gojira Vs. The City Planner

Hey, It's Godzilla, or Gojira as he's known in the Land of the Rising Sun.

I've always been a fan of Godzilla movies. Well written dramas with Oscar™ winning actors are fine, but every now and then you just want to watch a guy in a dinosaur suit fight a big moth on a string.

I've read that Toho studios is planning a new Godzilla movie and that for the first time he will be an all CGI creation, rather than the traditional man in a suit. I don't think I like that idea. The rubber suit and the intricate model work is part of the charm of these movies and I think it's a mistake to abandon them. Ah, but what do I know? You young kids get off my lawn!

The very first Godzilla movie was actually quite serious and somber and commented on the legacy of the atomic bombings of Japan. As the series progressed though, things got quite a bit sillier as it devolved into pitting Godzilla against ridiculous looking monsters in slapstick battles.

I think Godzilla movies were the first to teach me of the evils of pan & scan. When I was a kid and watched Godzilla movies on TV I noticed that the battles often seemed poorly framed and hard to follow, and much of the action took place off-screen. I wasn't imagining it; most of the films were shot in 2.35/1 aspect ratio, meaning the image was 2.35 times as wide as it was tall. When the movies were shown on TV, they were usually chopped down to 1.33/1 in order to fit the home screen. That means we were missing almost half the picture! No wonder they looked bad!

Do yourself a favor and check out the original Japanese language versions of the films if you can. They're presented in their proper 2.35/1 aspect ratio and are much more coherent than the appalling Americanized versions, with their atrocious dubbing and crude editing (that quite often changed the plot!). 

Godzilla went through quite a few looks over the years, as Toho studios built a new suit for just about every movie. All of the suits featured a lumpy, striated texture. I tried to recreate this texture in my version of Godzilla, but it just didn't work out. He ended up looking more like a watermelon than a giant lizard, plus it just looked too dense and complicated. So I scrapped that plan and went with a more simplified and cartoony texture.

This is a vector drawing, drawn all in InDesign. I'm experimenting with blurred vectors again, trying to make the background and foreground buildings look out of focus.

This illustration went through quite a lengthy gestation period, and ended up looking quite different from my initial tries. At the top is my original vector version of Godzilla. He's looking pretty stiff and uninspired, and quite honestly doesn't look much like any movie version of Godzilla. I got fed up and shelved the drawing for several months.

Much later I decided to try it again. The second version has a bit more energy, but he still doesn't look much like Big G. In fact that nose looks more like a pig snout! Once again I shelved the drawing and moved on to other things.

The problem with these is that I was trying to be a big shot and draw him from memory, and I failed miserably. 

Once I finally admitted to myself that I really didn't know what Godzilla looked like and used some actual photo reference, things improved quite a bit. Here's the sketch I used for the final illustration. Finally he's starting to look like himself! That's today's lesson, kids. Don't be afraid to use photo reference.

Psst! Hey, Buddy!

Mr. Johnson was walking home from the office and made the mistake of making eye contact with someone on the street.

Sadly, that was the last anyone saw of Mr. Johnson.

This was a very quick (about two, maybe three hours) little experiment to see if I could make a kind of soft focus illustration in a vector program (which generally is best for creating sharp, hard edges). The result: I'll let the viewer decide, but I think it worked.

Drawn all in InDesign.

Here's the original sketch. Not much to look at, but I guess I saw some potential in it somewhere.

Dr. Schmerton And Inspector Thorlock-Crammington (Scotland Yard, Ret.) Are On The Case!

Detective Inspector Reginald Thorlock-Crammington was a preeminent detective for Scotland Yard for many years, specializing in cases involving the strange and usual. When his partner, the eccentric physician Dr. Schmerton, was transformed into a demon by a wizard masquerading as a local chemist, he came out of retirement to help his old friend.

The two now travel the Queen's Realm investigating the curious and astonishing.

Hey, how'd you like that biography I just made up? I had no idea who these two were when I first doodled them. I do that a lot; doodle the character first, worry about who they are later. That's probably backwards from how most people do things, but it seems to work out OK for me.

This is a vector drawing, drawn all in InDesign.

Here's a look at the sketch page for these two. You can see the early versions of the characters at the bottom. Obviously they started out as two totally separate characters and originally weren't meant to be together. There are lots of other guest star sketches on the page as well. That's Dr. Smith and the Robot from Lost In Space at the top left. I don't know who the black-eyed guy is. Next to the Robot are Dorian and a Headless Monk from Doctor Who. I ain't saying who the stern-looking guy at the right is supposed to be. I was trying to draw a celebrity from memory and it didn't work.

Welcome To Monster Burger

"Me Welcome Monster Burger. Would like Monstersize order?"

Uh-oh, looks like Gorthank had to get a part time job at Monster Burger to make ends meet.

This is a vector drawing, drawn all in InDesign.

 

Here are the original sketches I did.

Dumb Alien

Is "mouth breather" considered an insult if you don't have a nose?

He gives the term "navel gazing" new meaning! Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, I'm here all week!

This is a vector drawing, drawn all in InDesign.

Here's the original sketch. Note that his right hand's in that same sort of "pardon me" gesture that I use way too much when I can't think of something for a character to do with their hands. So I ended up just having both hands at his sides. He looks dumber that way.

That title's pretty lame, but my brain's tired this week.

Davros

I'm working on another Doctor Who Infographic, this time featuring the Doctor's enemies. It's slow going, so in the meantime I thought I'd post a sneak peek at one of the characters.

Davros is a member of the Kaled race from the planet Skaro. The Kaleds fought a thousand year war with their enemies the Thals (also from Skaro). Centuries of radioactive warfare mutated and weakened the Kaleds to the point where they couldn't survive on their own.

Davros decided that in order to save the Kaleds he must mutate them even further, to their ultimate evolutionary state. He built special mobile life support units for them, thus creating the Dalek race. As a final touch, he stripped them of all emotion, save for a hatred of all things not Dalek.

At some point in the past Davros was injured and crippled in an unexplained accident. Like his Dalek creations, he can't survive outside his special life support chair. Blind, he sees through a single cybernetic eye and has only one functioning hand. He is a megalomaniac and tends to give frequent overwrought and over-the-top speeches, usually about how he plans to destroy the Doctor.

Davros has seemingly died or been killed on several occasions, but like all good villains, somehow always manages to come back to plague the Doctor and the universe at large.

Michael Wisher originated the role in the 1975 episode Genesis of the Daleks. Like most Doctor Who characters, Davros has been portrayed by multiple actors, most recently by Julian Bleach in 2008.

Davros is a vector drawing, done all in InDesign. At first I was going to leave off the coiled red wires around his head, because I thought it would be too tough to draw them in a vector program. But I thought I'd give it a go and after a few tries I came up with some curly wires I could live with.

Want to see more? Check out my new blog! All the cool kids are doing it!
I'm also on Twitter for some reason.

Have A Sip!

 

Go ahead, have a sip of my potion! Don't worry about the calories, it's DIEt! Get it? DIE-it! 

Yes, it's jokes like TV horror hosts used to tell.

The character is a vector drawing, done in InDesign. I imported him into Photoshop to add a scratchy, painterly background and a grunge texture on top of everything.

 

Here's the original sketch. I decided at the last minute to move his nose up closer to his eyes.

The Conversation

Hmm, I wonder what they could be talking about? Who conducted the better recording of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Leonard Bernstein or Herbert Von Karajan? Perhaps they're discussing which is the better wine, Mounton Rothschild or Chateau Margaux? Or maybe who was the hotter monster mom, Lily Munster or Morticia Addams?

We may never know.

This is a vector drawing, done all in InDesign.

Advertising Mascot In Search Of A Product

We're living in tough economic times. Even advertising mascots are feeling the pinch. Grunkdon here's ready and willing to be the official mascot of a product. Any product. Seriously. He doesn't care. Cereal, fast food, laundry detergent. Heck, he'll even hawk hemorrhoid cream.

I used to love all the animated advertising mascots of the 1960s and 1970s such as the Raid Bugs, Quisp and Quake. I used to spend hours trying to draw the characters I'd see in commercials. They don't seem to use advertising mascots so much anymore. Too bad.

A quick vector drawing done in InDesign.

Doctor Who Infographic

Hey, it's another infographic. Here's everything you've ever wanted to know about the Doctor, but were afraid to ask.

I think this is the first time in my life I've ever drawn the TARDIS. It was surprisingly hard! It seems like it would be simple; after all it's just a blue box with some windows. But there are tons of little details and recessed panels and whatnot, and it took forever to get it all straight.

This piece took quite a while to finish. I worked on it a little at a time over several days. There was a lot of moving around of elements and a lot of text editing to get everything to fit in an efficient manner. Hopefully there aren't any glaring errors in the information.

I've had the grid system drilled into my head since design school, and normally I'm a devoted disciple of it. This time I said nuts to grids and just sort of let the design happen organically. I kind of liked it. I may start ditching the grid more often.

Laid out entirely in InDesign. All the Doctors, the Sonics and the TARDIS were drawn in InDesign as well.

The Eleven Doctors

I'm a big fan of Doctor Who, and now that I finally finished my individual drawings of the eleven Doctors, I thought I'd combine them all into one image. One incredibly long image.

I've only seen bits and pieces of the first three Doctors, so I have to admit I don't really have much of an attachment to them. Like most Americans, my "first" Doctor was Tom Baker-- he defined the role for me and was my favorite for many years. I liked Peter Davison, Doctor #5 a lot as well. I've only seen one episode each of the Sixth and Seventh Doctors, which isn't really enough to judge them fairly. I thought the Eighth Doctor was OK; too bad he only got to appear one time. I enjoyed Christopher Eccleston's Ninth Doctor, and was sorry to see him go after only one season. David Tennant's Tenth Doctor quickly became my all time favorite. Matt Smith is no slouch as the Eleventh Doctor though. He won me over by the end of his first episode.

I really like the new series (or NuWho, as some fans call it) that started up in 2005. Although the old series had its charm, what with the cardboard sets and paper mache aliens, it's nice to finally see the show done with a larger budget and modern production values. 

I tweaked a couple of the drawings for this group portrait, fixing some little things that were bugging me. I think the blue background might be a little intense. I may have to desaturate it a bit. When you've got eleven characters it's tough to find a color that goes with them all.

You can get a better eye full of the Eleven Doctors over here.

All eleven Doctors are vector drawings, done entirely in InDesign.

While I was messing around with the main image, I accidentally changed all the drawings to solid black. I kind of liked the way they looked and decided to post it. I was amazed that you can still tell which Doctor is which even in silhouette.

Space Dweebs

 

It's the adventures of the Space Dweebs!

I feel like they have some potential, but I have no idea what to do with them. I need to let them simmer some more.

This is a vector illustration, drawn all in InDesign.

 

This illustration started life as just the yellow alien. I'm not sure why, but it just didn't do much for me. Maybe because he didn't seem all that dweebish to me. So it was back to square one and I reworked him and added his two friends.

  

Here's the original sketch of the Space Dweebs, which admittedly isn't much to look at.

Evil Thoughts

Looks like someone's thinking some dark thoughts.

This is a vector drawing, done in InDesign. OK, so I cheated a little and added a bitmapped grunge texture to the background.

 

Here's the very rough original sketch.

Lest you think that all my illustrations just fall out of the mouse fully formed, here's a look at the InDesign pasteboard for this drawing. The final drawing is there on the actual page, but note all the rejects and false starts strewn around it. The one in the upper left corner is the very first version. I just couldn't get it to work, no matter what I did.

Also note that in all the versions on the left hand side, the monster has some kind of weird hollow tube on top of his head. My original idea was to have the evil cloud emanating from this tube. Why? I have no clue. It didn't make much sense even to me. In the end I came to my senses and replaced the tube with a horn and just had the cloud erupting from the general area of his brain.

That's today's tip: Don't be afraid to scrap something and start all over. If a drawing ain't working, maybe there's a reason.