‘Sects Wednesday 08/02/2017
*Always be yourself, unless you can be Batman… or the Doctor… and if you can be both? Be both! 🙂
Those Who Throw Milestones…
So… as I sit to type this live on the blog, the hit counter is at 29,999. To paraphrase from classic Doctor Who, this moment has been prepared for…
Over the weekend I prepared the above simple animation, knowing the milestone would probably happen early this week. Truth be told, this probably would have happened in January but the combination of illnesses and some Internet outages took away from my normal stream of visitors. I didn’t lose any followers (thank you all!) during those times but I did obviously lose hits those days when I hadn’t posted new nonsense.
I’ve continued the tradition of building upon the first animation I made when I hit the 10,000 hit milestone… then again at 20,000. Will I keep doing this? Who knows. I kind of like keeping the aspect of where-I-came-from by continually building on what came before for each new milestone.
Meanwhile… some less celebrated, but still occurring, milestones… I have over 975 posts on the blog now. Sometime in the next couple of weeks I will make the 1000th post on the blog. I’ll try and pay attention and do something special for that. That’s a lot of blogging in about 2.5 years! Also of note… at some point this past week I reached 650 episodes of my comic strip ‘Sects on the blog. I’ve had a lot of skipped days, some will be revisited, or that count could have been higher. Again, lots of nonsense from me the last couple of years! 🙂
I would like to take this moment to thank everyone who follows, and everyone who visits regularly. You give me encouragement to keep the nonsense going. Thank you! Also thank you to everyone who randomly stops by irregularly… one day I’ll ensnare you in my web of nonsense! 😉
Doctor Who, Lucky Thirteen: Peter Capaldi
Last month I created another entry in my series of Doctor Who portraits, based upon the actors who have played the title role in this long-running BBC science-fiction series. I time-traveled to the year 2013 this time, for an illustration of the current incarnation of the Doctor, as played by Peter Capaldi. Some people will quibble over the numbering, but I’m counting him as number thirteen and that’s that! 🙂
The thirteenth actor continuing the role of the Doctor is Peter Capaldi…
Peter Capaldi is a proper fan of the show too, having grown up watching it and even famously writing fan letters! With the ever-younger modern casting of the role, he had feared perhaps his time might have passed him by before being cast. Maybe it is his look, but he reminds me a bit of Jon Pertwee (the third Doctor) but if I close my eyes I can almost hear Tom Baker (the fourth Doctor). I guess what I’m saying is that while he is absolutely putting his own acting talents and spin into the role, he is evoking classic Doctor vibes as well, and that is a part of what makes this whole regeneration thing work for the show.
This is actually my first color illustration in my portrait series. My earlier illustrations of the first Doctor and the second Doctor were in black and white with shades of grey as a homage to how their episodes were shot and originally aired that way. All of the other Doctors have been shot and broadcast in full color, so that’s how they will be drawn by me.
Who will be next? Only time will tell! 🙂 Meanwhile, please let me know what you think of this and remember, if you’d like an original commission by me or would like to hire me as an Illustrator, please use the Contact page and let me know as much as you can about your request.
April O’Neil… but Probably Not the One You Were Expecting
I actually drew this last month, but various rounds of illness have put me behind in some of my intended blogging. One word of caution up front, if you’re not familiar with this woman, please be careful searching online because you’re going to pull up some images of adult situations.
April O’Neil is an adult film performer and, yes, she did take her performing name from a love of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles character of that same name. She is also equally well-known for her love of all things geek and you are just as likely to find her cosplaying or geeking out over Doctor Who or Star Trek as you are anything else you might normally want to associate with adult film performers. Take note, for example, of the bad wolf tattoo on her left arm. 🙂 As a result, she challenges your perception of what a person is like based upon their chosen profession.
I found a nice image of her from an industry awards appearance, and that served as reference for my illustration here. I liked her look here in general, but especially the glasses. I was not able to completely capture the golden gleam of the dress she was wearing, but I think the overall effect still works here. As an aside, you might be surprised at just how difficult it was to find source images online of an adult film actress in clothing. I realize I’m probably in a weird minority group of people actually executing that search, but still!
Please let me know what you think and remember, if you’d like an original commission by me or would like to hire me as an Illustrator, please use the Contact page and let me know as much as you can about your request.
Doctor Who, Innovating Television: Patrick Troughton
I’m finally getting back to my promise of creating a series of portraits based on the actors who have portrayed the Doctor in this classic BBC science-fiction program. Patrick Troughton took over the role in 1966 from William Hartnell, who was there in the beginning. This was a huge thing, conceptually for a television program of any kind to attempt.
Sure, actors have replaced other actors in roles all the time. It happens on the stage regularly and people don’t really bat an eye… but there is an understood contract with the audience in play when it happens. The actor agrees to do his best to continue the role began by another and the audience agrees to ignore the change in actor and assume the character is the same as it has always been. This is far easier to do in a play, where it is a single story being played out over and over again. Serialized television, however, asks you to accept that the new stories with a different actor are still happening to the same character as before.
Some shows cannot pull off the switch. When an actor decides to leave a role, or unfortunately is taken by surprise death in real life, studios have to make a tough call as to whether to attempt to continue the role, and even the show, without that actor or write off the role, or cancel the show. Many a show has been derailed by a casting change.
But with Doctor Who, the BBC did something quite genius that hadn’t been tried before… they not only didn’t ask you to ignore the change in actor… they specifically asked you to embrace the change by acknowledging it within the show itself. Regeneration was offered as an explanation of how a Timelord could restore a failing body to new life. The old personality and facade goes away and is replaced by a new persona with all the memories and experience of the previous edition. The viewer doesn’t have to ignore anything, it’s all incorporated into the story! You get to know the new Doctor as he gets to know himself. The grandfatherly curmudgeon was thus replaced by the scheming amiable prankster, and the show marched onward.
The second actor tasked to continue the role of the Doctor was Patrick Troughton…
While Hartnell is properly credited for being a huge part of the show’s early and ongoing success… Troughton is sometimes not given enough credit for establishing the template that would allow this show to endure for more than 50 years now! Patrick Troughton unquestioningly convinced you that he was both the same Doctor that always was AND an entirely new Doctor you had never before seen. His run in the role made it possible for all the other actors that followed.
Similar to my first illustration in this series, this one is in black and white as well. The TV show did not change over to color production until the third doctor (Jon Pertwee coming soon). I like the look of this style of illustration and feel like it pairs well with my previous drawing of the first Doctor.
Please let me know what you think and remember, if you’d like an original commission by me or would like to hire me as an Illustrator, please use the Contact page and let me know as much as you can about your request.
‘Sects Friday 09/23/2016
*So there we go… some questions answered, new ones posed. Nerf was responsible all those years ago for trapping his fellow Time Flies, he just hadn’t done it yet, and he didn’t do it on purpose! Molting is the Time Flies version of regeneration, so Nerf ends up becoming Buzz in the process as a result of his sacrifice to save the universe and the effects of having been forced to eat butterfly toffee… something that causes memory loss for any Gadfly. But questions remain to be answered… who is behind it all? was that really What’s That?! and why, when Nerf first met Buzz, did he think he was an old friend named Frank? To be continued! 🙂
Doctor Who, the Beginning: William Hartnell
Doctor Who is a science-fiction program produced by the BBC. It goes way back to before I existed, debuting in November of 1963. The show originally ran until 1989, minus a couple of setbacks in production, before ultimately going on a long hiatus. A poorly received 1996 joint venture with FOX for a TV movie was all there was to be, until the successful modern relaunch of the series in 2005. If you’re already a fan, then you know more than I could ever tell you in a brief blog post. If you’re not a fan, look it up! 🙂 Seriously, it is a wonderfully unique and uniquely British take on aliens and time-travel that you can’t help yourself but enjoy.
One of the interesting twists with the Doctor is his ability to regenerate. It’s a beautiful solution to an old problem in television… what do you do when the main actor wants to move on but you still want to keep the show running? This nifty little work around allows the show to continue while replacing the Doctor with a new actor and not insulting the viewer OR dissing the previous actor. The show must go on… and it does!
I’ve decided to tackle illustrations of all the Doctors, beginning with the very first one… William Hartnell.
The early years of the show were in black and white, so I opted to work this illustration only in shades of grey instead of in color. I plan to do the same for the second Doctor when I get to him. I feel like this has a nice effect, and it also keeps true to how most people will recognize seeing William Hartnell as the Doctor. Hartnell’s Doctor was a little gruff and brash, but also grandfatherly to his companions, ultimately saving the day and chastising them for getting into nonsense along the way.
I haven’t yet decided whether to draw the Doctors in order… or skip around. My next in the series will either be the second Doctor, portrayed by Patrick Troughton, to complete my black and white illustrations or I might skip to the end and go with the current Doctor, Peter Capaldi. Either way be on the lookout for all the Doctors coming soon to this very blog!
Please let me know what you think, and feel free to wax poetic on your love of this timeless (see what I did there?) bit of science-fiction. Remember, if you’d like an original commission by me or would like to hire me as an Illustrator, please use the Contact page and let me know as much as you can about your request.
R2-D2: The Force Awakened Me to Draw You
So… I actually drew this back in December. I was inspired, admittedly, by the new Star Wars movie that came out to finally tackle R2-D2. This was every bit as difficult as the AT-AT I drew earlier last year and the Dalek I had drawn prior to that. In fact, I’ve always thought R2-D2 and Daleks might be distant cousins!
Many of you have already seen a smaller version of this, because I already used it in a Fringe Kisses cartoon last year. That’s how I roll with these things. Once I have a nice clean vector rendering of a thing, I then try to find other cool or funny uses for them. One day I’ll probably have to draw a C-3P0 to go along with him, but that’s for another day!
Please let me know what you think and remember, if you’d like an original commission by me or would like to hire me as an Illustrator, please use the Contact page and let me know as much as you can about your request.
Tardis Appearing Act…
So… I was proud of my Doctor Who inspired Tardis drawings from a couple of weeks back, and decided I had a good candidate to once again dip my toes into simple animation. Behold the mysteriously appearing Tardis, which then disappears again just as mysteriously, over and over again…
If I had this to do all over, I would do two simple things differently. One is that I would make the light on top blink a bit slower. I think it blinks a bit fast and it’s easy not to notice it blinking at all. The other thing I would change is to actually put something behind the Tardis so that the materialization and dematerialization obscures and then reveals something in the background.
Felt like I ought to get this posted before the end of the current series (only a couple more new episodes to go after tonight) so people could see it while in the right mood. Remember, if you are interested in requesting my services as an Illustrator, please use the Contact page and let me know as much as you can about your request.
i.e. Sequential... Journal... Visual... 
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