Time Team: Ambassadors Of Death

I remember a couple of things from when I drew this. Firstly the image you see here is from before I redrew Jon Pertwee's head ( which I pasted in using Photoshop later). The other was the first colour version was all greens and blues which editor Clay Hickman felt wasn't punchy enough . The ambassador's outstretched arms was inspired by the famous publicity shot from the story which always reminded me of Jack Kirby cosmicness - hence all the Kirby dots on my image!

How to draw a Viking...

Historical illustrations fascinate me , artists like Charles Keeping , Mike Charlton and Victor Ambrus uniquely bring history to life but not in a staid photgraphic way , there pictures breathe sweat and blood and move the viewer. Just google any of these guys and see if I'm wrong. Just as there are illustrators , the field sports many writers well worth your time , Rosemary Sutcliff and Henry Treece to name just two from my favourite period of the 1960's-70's. Whilst reading Treece's viking books last year I was fired to try some historical illustration myself which is the roundabout way of getting to the *why* of this post.

I wanted to draw an iconic image of a viking . Nothing fancy.No horned helmets. A warrior alone on a shore. The initial sketch was on paper and this was imported into Manga Studio. I set myself a new layer and totally redrew the sketch ( which you see below). Once happy I went straight into painting the picture on different layers before deciding to *ink* it at the end which binded the picture together. I'm quite pleased with it and if any passing editors want to offer me some historical work - don't hesitate!

Time Team 2011

One thing we all wanted was to drop the grittier inking style and return to the more classic TT look for the new series. Not so much a clean slate but a more stylised approach was on my mind. Episode one ROSE presented a few illo choices - Rose being hounded by the Autons at the start , Mickey going Auton mental in the restaurant but in the end only one picture would fit the brief. It's Rose's first heroic scene in the series where she swings down to save the Doctor. Both leads were in it plus the threat.

I knew I wanted Rose to be central in the image , the focus point . I tried a shot of her swinging directly at the viewer but eventually opted for a more side angle - frankly her flares were making things difficult! Once the pencil was approved I inked the picture then imported it into Manga Studio to give the lines extra sharpness. This blackline drawing was then coloured in Photoshop. I planned on coming up with a unique colour scheme using a pinky rose colour - but couldn't make it work. Eventually the colours seen in the episode were the only option - the blue of the Tardis  adding a bit of zing !

Next month THE END OF THE WORLD .... so much to choose from.