Sunday, November 25, 2012

M. Smith - The Doctor

Hello!

M. Smith - The Doctor, 2012.

Finito. I'm not Italian - Duh!- but all the same. The Doctor. My favourite alien. Never thought I would ever have a favourite alien, but, now I do. I have been wanting to do a Doctor Who piece for a while now, but, I could never decide on who I wanted to do. I never really wanted to draw Ten, even though he was my favourite for a long time. So why Eleven, then? Because I think he deserves it. Over the course of series 5 to current, Eleven has gone from being one I didn't like and probably had some bias against - Yes I admit it! - to being the Doctor I completely adore. I felt strangely guilty not very long ago when I switched favourites, but I, like many who had once, "sworn allegiance to Ten", to put in one way at least, have been won over by Eleven. What can I say? I'm not very loyal and I'm quite fickle, stubborn too - That's enough! So I'm not perfect, eh. But Eleven, he has everything you want in the Doctor.

So the drawing. Like I said in Work in progression, the reference image was a lot more challenging than I had thought, yarda, yarda, yarda... But, luckily it did turn out alright. There's nothing new about the materials I used to do this drawing. The usual. Although, I should probably invest in a kneaded eraser 'cos my regular eraser ain't achieving the sharp wisps I desire anymore. What's new, is I decided to go with a grey background with cross hatching. I decided to skim on the tweed 'cos learning how to do the realistic texture of tweed is not quite up there on exciting drawing techniques. I was going to skip the print patterns on the shirt too, but, later on did it anyway. And lastly, I am quite happy with the outcome; it was fun, like it always is.

Good night.

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Stamp of Approval

The ultimate stamp:
"Whoa dude! No! Lily Aldrin is special. You hold on to that girl!" ~ college Ted to college Marshall
Just when I felt HIMYM has been losing its heart for a while now, it leaves me in awe.

Monday, November 19, 2012

River Song

Long story short her life's a big jumble, it's all back to front, yarda, yarda, yarda, simple right? Well... no.

This is what a person gets up to when they should have been studying for their finals, they decide "Hey, I'll just go draw out the tangled timeline of River Song from Doctor Who. I have time."

Let's start from the beginning...

The Big Bang - Conceived on the TARDIS while flying through the time vortex. Therefore, a baby to be... not with a "time-head", fret not Amy, but, one with Time Lord DNA.

A Good Man Goes to War - Newly born Melody Pond is kidnapped at birth by Madame Kovarian and the Silence on the asteroid, Demons Run to be used as a weapon in the Silence's plan to kill the Doctor.

The Impossible Astronaut //Day of the Moon - L'il Melody escapes the orphanage she's been held captive during her early childhood. She has her first run in with the Doctor and Amy. Lots of stuff goes down but by the end she gets away to safety but not unscathed and so regenerates.

Let's Kill Hitler - Newly regenerated Mels tracks down her parents. Not Amy and Rory but li'l Amelia and l'il Rory and grows up with them to present day, all the while being highly obsessed about the Doctor. Mels finally meets the Doctor formally; hijacks the TARDIS, plots to kill Hitler, accidentally gets shot by Hitler and regenerates. Revealed to be a psychopath, Mels poisons the Doctor, who she feels suspiciously knows a lot about her. Mels learns to fly the TARDIS, learns of River Song, learns of her future part in the Doctor's life and revives the Doctor but loses all her regenerative energy and finally embraces her identity as River Song. She receives the TARDIS diary as a gift from the Doctor and in the 52st century, River pursues studies in Archeology to find the Doctor again.

Closing Time - River graduates as Dr River Song of archeology and is kidnapped by Madame Kovarian once again.

The Wedding of River Song - River refuses to kill the Doctor at Lake Silencio causing the fixed point in time to collapse. Stuff goes down and River marries the Doctor and the fix point is reinstated when River appears to kill the Doctor at Lake Silencio, faking his death. River is sentenced to prison for his murder.

First Night - The Doctor takes River on their first date, on the first night of her prison sentence. He has a dress picked out for her but she hates it and he explains to her the purpose of the diary and the rules. All the while she is suspicious of another woman present in the TARDIS.

The Pandorica Opens //The Big Bang - River obtains the vortex manipulator from Dorium and pretends to not recognise Rory when he meets her for the first time as the plastic Centurion.

First Night // Last Night - After being chased by Sontarans, River finds refuge in the TARDIS parked in the same place and time as on the night of their first date, oblivious that it is that night from the Doctor's perspective. Having served 5 years of her prison sentence she still professes her dislike for the dress hanging beside the TARDIS console and hounds the Doctor for hiding another woman "again", unbeknown it was her respective selves she heard the Doctor talking to. The Doctor eventually programs her vortex manipulator and sends her back to her prison cell.

A Good Man Goes to War - River returns to Demons Run using her vortex manipulator and reveals to the Doctor, Amy and Rory who she really is, to comfort her parents after the kidnapping of their baby.

The Impossible Astronaut //The Day of the Moon - River returns to Lake Silencio as a witness to the Doctor's death by her younger self all those years ago. She keeps the truth about the Doctor's death from Amy and Rory; and aids the younger Doctor in discovering and defeating the Silence. She is also seen wearing the Doctor's dress she had previously expressed dislike for, as she dives of the skyscraper in escape. The Doctor receives his first kiss from River, who upon realising frets that it may be her last.

Time of the Angels //Flesh and Stone - Amy meets River for the first time and the Doctor learns news of River's prison sentence for the first time. The Doctor let's slip that River will be a professor in her future. With her knowledge about the cracks in time River hints to the Doctor the next time he'll meet her will be when the Pandorica opens.

The Wedding of River Song - After climbing out of the Byzantium and of course sneaking out of her prison cell, River visits Amy telling her about her day and reveals to Amy that the Doctor is alive.

The Angels Take Manhattan - River is now a professor and seemingly has been pardoned for some time due to the Doctor deleting all records of his existence from all databases in the universe. River writes a novel under the pseudonym Melody Malone.

...

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Last Night - River wearing the dress she use to dislike, accidentally enters the wrong TARDIS on her date with the Doctor and briefly mistakes the younger Doctor (ready for his first date with River) as "her" Doctor, who had parked his TARDIS around the corner. Unbeknown to River, this is her last night with "her" Doctor. He takes her to Derillium to see the Singing Towers and gives her his sonic screwdriver.

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Silence in the Library //Forest of the Dead - River meets the Tenth Doctor, who she soon realises has not seen her before, for this is his first time ever meeting her. She reveals brief clues that she is from his personal future, someone important to him, intimate, potentially his wife, about the diary of her past/ his future, his sonic screwdriver she possess and out of desperation whispers his real name in his ear. Taking the Doctor's place, River sacrifices her life to save the people in the Library, preserving the Doctor's future and her past, but in turn the Doctor was able to "save" her and all her memories onto the Library's computer database.        

So we know the end, but the story is not finished yet. There are many off screen adventures River must have had with the Doctor such as Jim the Fish, Picnic at Asgard and the many night parties he had with her when Amy and Rory were asleep in the TARDIS all of which can't really be pin pointed where and when with much certainty. And of course there's still the rest of series 7 and beyond! Her character can really stick around forever given that time travel is so "wibbly wobbly".

That's it for now.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Work in progression

Hello there! I meant to leave a word a few days earlier, but, when I was here I didn't know what I wanted to type about. I wasn't feeling particularly great about finishing my last exam either. So let's not go there.

I really didn't have any topic in mind today too. I think I'm going through the motions of having a vast amount of free time ahead of me and not quite sure what to fill it with. It'll soon pass... I hope. It's strange, the immense of motivation I possessed to do little projects when I was suppose to be studying. Where's all that motivation gone now? It just goes to show how desperate I am when it comes to distracting myself from revision.

Anywhose. I knew if I didn't post something, this dry spell could last a long time. So what better to show you I haven't abandoned everything and I'm not dead, by gifting you a sneak preview of my next portrait drawing. Can you guess who it is? Probably not, cos it's not very good. It hasn't turned out as well as I was hoping it would. When I first did the eyes, I realised the reference image was more challenging than I initially thought it would be. I have not spent so much time on drawing eyes before. Sketching out the proportions, shading it in, erasing, re-rending, re-rending, re-rendering. I really should have chosen the other prospective image; I had three picked out. Well... four, but the fourth one was just this image but without teeth bearing. I did contemplate giving up on this one and starting, in my mind, the potentially easier image, but, I felt pretty determined to keep going with this drawing and see what comes of it. Who knows, maybe it won't turn out so bad. I must say, the hair looks promising, depsite the fact that it is a pain in the backside; I will try very hard to take my time with it. But all the same, CURSE YOU HAIR!

wip ms

T'ill next time!