Hatchlings by Adrian Salmon

One of the limitations – if you want to call it that – about TV Doctor Who is the budgetary limits that prevent many things being realised on TV. Also, and especially with the new, shorter stories we don’t get to see much of the aliens/creatures that falls outside the remit of ‘baddie of the week’.

I am drawn to the more reptilian creatures of ‘Who, and I do like to wonder about the lives and society that these creatures may come from. As the Silurians and Sea-devils are reptilian, it makes sense that they would be hatched from eggs.

Beside a calm, languid pool in a tropical rainforrest, from some leathery eggs hatches the first seasons clutch of new Sea-devil infants, ready to wriggle their way into the pool until the Overseer comes along to pick the the ones he think will be the best choice to enter The Academy where they will be trained in all the reptile martial arts.

 

Or something.

 

 

Ade has really captured essence of what I was looking for in this illustration, and it is the first ‘wash’ type of picture he has painted for me. I hope it wont be the last!

Convention Sketch by Marc Laming

 

This is a convention sketch, drawn for me at NerdFest  (renamed as Nottingham Comic Con) last year. The creature is from King’s Watch, a Flash Gordon, Mandrake, Phantom crossover comic that is fantastically drawn by Marc Laming.

I made sure I got there early, and made a bee line for him, as he only has a limited number of slots available. You can see why – this isn’t your normal convention sketch, and is a fair size! I was a happy chap that day. I hope he’s there again this year, so I can go for another.

 

Marc Laming can be found on Twitter at @monkey_marc and his blog is monkeymarc.blogspot.com

Nottingham Comic Con is @NottinghamComic and nottinghamcomiccon.co.uk

 

 

‘Weetabix’ cards by various

As a child growing up in the ’70s, us Doctor Who fans didn’t have the masses of merchandise that’s available now. The occasional Target novelisation, the odd special publication (The Doctor Who Monster Book, etc) and that was just about it. Not even a comic or magazine. For fans of a certain age, one piece of merchandise has a special place in our hearts – not a big flashy gizmo or highly detailed model. No, it’s a set of cards given away free in some breakfast cereals! Yup, we were easily pleased back then!! The ones I remember fondly is the second set, dating from 1977. I had a thought of getting some artists to recreate the set using their own style, and using the aliens they wanted, although I did stipulate one card had to be a Zygon. (Yes, I know).

First stop, Adrian Salmon

 

I think I commissioned Ade for these before he did the superb free gifts in Vworp Vworp magazine, but as my memory is rubbish, I stand to be corrected. The original set of cards were very colourful, but here Ade has gone against type and plumped for a black sky, but boy, doesn’t it work well?

Next up, it’s Nick Neocleous.

Nik (as he’s possibly better known) went New Series on me with his choices. Whilst I enjoy the new series’, I think I’ll always be a Classic series fan at heart. Having said that, Nik did choose two of my favourite stories to illustrate. Serendipity! Oh, and the zygon is based on a model I made that he found on my deviantArt site, so I guess this a particularly personal piece.

The last ones I commissioned were from Paul Hanley. If you don’t recognise his name, you will more than likely know his work – more than one of his pieces have gone viral. As with all the artists I feature, I urge you to check out his art in the links below.

 

Paul came up with a great idea for his set, using  The Pandorica as a linking theme, hence Stonehenge in the background and the little spacecraft in the background. I don’t think I led him in any way, but he must have picked up over the years that I have a liking for the reptilian species. Something that had totally passed me by until a certain Mr. Salmon drew my attention to it.

 

I hope you enjoy these pieces, I really like them; I had fun coming up with the slogans at the bottom of each card, and also the Message(s) From The Time Lords, although I have to admit, Paul Hanley came up with the cracker on his. I’ll leave you to decipher the legends

 

 

Adrian Salmon can be found here      adriansalmonart.blogspot.com      http://ade1963.tumblr.com    @AS1963

Nick Neocleous can be found here        http://planetnik.com/

Paul Hanley can be found here            paulhanley.deviantart.com

“Fetch!” by Steve Beckett

One of my latest commissions.

This one is by Steve Beckett, Beano artist.

I asked for the Fourth Doctor playing with fetch with a dinosaur. It just seems such a Tom thing to do! And if you had a time machine, you just would, wouldn’t you??

Steve’s done a cracking job, hasn’t he?

More of his work can be found here,

http://sjbeckettdesign.wordpress.com/

The Sixth Doctor by Roger Langridge

This piece appeared in Doctor Who Magazine 363, and I think is entitled “Too Many Colins”. Not something that is possible! I really enjoyed Colin Baker’s portrayal of The Doctor. I don’t know if I knew at the time that the plan was to gradually knock off the rough edges, but I do like the idea of a development for the character. I think the way this has developed in the Big Finish audios has been really well realised, as well as showing that an older companion (Evelyn) can work when written well. I think Baker is the Doctor that has been the biggest success for me as regards Big Finish, and I wish we could have seen more of him on TV.

There’s not really much to say about Roger Langridge – it’s obvious he is a brilliant artist, with a gift for capturing character.  His work on The Muppets comic is superb, as is his Fred the Clown.

Here is the colour version, as printed in the magazine

I urge you to pop along to his website, and just enjoy the vast amount of art that is there,

http://hotelfred.blogspot.co.uk/

The 3rd Doctor by Coll Hamilton

A pastel drawing of Jon Pertwee as Doctor Who. Coll Hamilton has a very unusal, angular style that I love. I can’t ever imagine sitting down and drawing in this style, it just isn’t in me. I love the way the seemingly random straight lines, angular blocks build up to make a great portrait. He also uses colour to great effect.

See more of his work here,

http://collhamilton.blogspot.co.uk/

And buy some here,

http://www.artpistol.co.uk/search/art-gallery/coll%20hamilton

The 11th Doctor by Robert Hack

Matt Smith as the Doctor. Superb actor, arguably let down by dodgy scripts.

No let down with the artwork, though (see what I did?). I love the way Robert Hack does these pieces; the orange brown wash on the textured base, then inked over with (I assume) a dip pen. It has an old-school feel to it colour-wise and a real vitality in the linework, which really suits Smith’s interpretation of the Doctor, an old man trapped in a young body.

You can find more of Robert Hack’s work here,

http://roberthackstudios.com/

The Eighth Doctor by Paul Hanley

Here is the Eighth Doctor as drawn by Paul Hanley. This was drawn sometime after Paul McGann adopted his blue leather jacket look for new publicity photographs, that Big Finish since adopted. As The Night of the Doctor had a different get-up (I hate the way it’s described as costume) for the Doctor, it makes Paul’s thinking for the design he adopted quite prescient. Not really surprising, as Paul is a cracking good writer, too.  You can read Paul’s thoughts, and see the coloured image, here

http://paulhanley.deviantart.com/art/The-8th-Doctor-the-Time-War-years-273388257

Whilst you are there, take a look at his other work. It’s stunning. Especially noteworthy for ‘Who fans is his webcomic ‘goodbye’ to The Brigadier, “Don’t Fade Away” written by him and illustrated by Shawn Van Briesen. Go read it, it’s very touching.

I wont go into detail here as to why I like Paul’s work, I have several more pieces to post where I’ll cover that.

Cyberman UKCAC by Adrian Salmon

 

I was a huge fan of The Cybermen strip in Doctor Who Magazine. Lots of story put into one page, and some very, very striking art from Adrian Salmon. It was the first page I turned to when I got my new magazine.

I love the way Ade makes the cybermen so SOLID. His use of blacks is really inspired, giving the pages a real WOW factor. I would love to own a page of the artwork from that series, and whilst I keep a look out, I don’t realistically think it will happen. So you can imagine my excitement when I saw this piece for sale! And, it’s a piece I’d never seen before. It’s a very striking cover for the convention booklet, and you can see the solidness of the figure, the way the cyberman has been stylised and the use of blacks. I love it!

 

More Adrian Salmon art can be found at the following sites

http://adriansalmonart.blogspot.co.uk/

http://ade1963.tumblr.com/

@adriansalmon

 

Homeworld? by Andrew Skilleter

Here we have a top-notch painting by Andrew Skilleter. I commissioned this from him a few years ago now, and it was my first experience of commissioning art from a professional. I was very nervous when I typed out the email, not knowing what to expect. Thankfully the experience was thoroughly enjoyable, and Andrew was very helpful and patient.

There can’t be many Doctor Who fans of a certain age that didn’t love the work of Mr Skilleter firstly on the covers to the Target books, and then on the BBC Videos (any younger readers will have to Google what a video was). This was the reason I went to Andrew – I grew up with his art, and often copied his trying to get a good. I could never work out why my fog and clouds didn’t look like his; I had never heard of an airbrush!

For this painting, I asked for zygons coming out of the mist, on an alien planet, possibly their homeworld so with alien flora. I asked for this, as I think Andrew has a very identifiable way of rendering them, and if I was going to have a painting by him it should be one that showcases everything that he does well. I know he captures a good actor’s likeness, but I like to have my commissions mostly Doctorless. I was greatly influenced by the back-up strips in Doctor Who Weekly, and like the ‘expanded’ world of ‘Who

More of Andrew’s work can be seen here

http://andrewskilleter.com/

https://www.facebook.com/artofandrewskilleter?sk=app_4949752878