Radagast the Charcoal Brown

As weird as it sounds I'll never forget being in a queue in the rain to go into a Doctor Who convention with my dad in the late 90s. We were there for a bit when a taxi pulled up and out jumped Sylvester McCoy, the 7th Doctor. He ran full pelt across the tarmac and vaulted the fence, brushing right past us with a very obvious "I'm late" look on his face.

Just thought I'd share that. Anyway, fast forward to present day.

I will stand up and say that, as much as I can talk about all the faults of the Hobbit films I've got a lot of praise to lay at Peter Jackson's feet as well (especially hearing recently how much pressure the man was under to deliver the films, poor guy). One of the absolute best things was Sylvester McCoy as Radagast the Brown. Although he wasn't technically in the book I really thought his presence added some much-needed humour into those films. Plus I was overjoyed to effectively have a Doctor Who/Lord of the Rings crossover, Sylvester McCoy bridges my two favourite franchises. I also have to mention the rabbit-pulled sleigh, love that.

I gave the Gandalf to my dad for his birthday and I couldn't really not give something similar to my mum so I ventured into the world of charcoal again for her birthday.

Paleozoic alphabet 2

Here is the other bunch of creatures from A to Z, (the others being Mesozoic and Cambrian, Ordovician and Siluruian) the next 26 after the (chronologically) first alphabet. This second batch covers the Devonian, Carboniferous and Permian. A lot of things in and out of the water, with some gigantic insects thrown in. These all together in one print can now be bought in my Etsy shop.

Listed here:

Arthropleura, Batrachiderpeton, Cephalaspis, Dimetrodon, Eusthenopteron, Fleurantia, Gorgonops, Hylonomus, Ianthasaurus, Jiuchengia, Knoxosaurus, Lystrosaurus, Meganeura, Niassodon, Ophiacodon, Placerias, Quasipetalichthys, Rautiania, Stethacanthus, Tiktaalik, Urocordylus, Viatkogorgon, Whatcheeria, Xenacanthus, Yunnanolepis, Zatrachys

Velociraptor Tyrannosaurus Indominus

As with any project on such a scale (I think it's quite a big project) there are always mistakes.The most glaring one of mine was to a whole creature without realizing I had another one planned. I like to have a variety of different creatures (herbivores, carnivores, air/sea/land adapted) and I had Meganeura planned from the beginning. Maybe it's my affection for the old kid's TV series, but I only realized after I did Moschops that he wasn't needed. I'll put him at the bottom...he doesn't really fit with the rest.

Gandalf the charcoal grey

I am a big fan of the Lego video games, I played Lego Lord of the Rings for over a year. There are so many things to unlock which unlock other things. I'm afraid the price tag for most games (for me) demands that I get the most value out of them so I play them for ages. I recently got Lego Hobbit, which has given me a whole other massive world to wander about in. Whenever Lego Gandalf pops up in a cutscene they play his theme from An Unexpected Journey and it sort of got in my head. All of this culminated in this, my first foray into charcoal in years. The quality of it seemed to suit the wise old Istari. There's a bit of Ian Mckellen in there, but he also ended up looking a bit Leonardo Da Vinci...I think it's the hair. You'll also notice the hand change halfway through, my lovely lady posed for me (with a pen taking the place of the pipe...I don't nor do I know anyone that owns a pipe).

"I am Groot!"

Here's something I made for my lovely lady for her birthday. I wasn't totally convinced by the trailers for Guardians of the Galaxy...a talking raccoon and a tree thing..cummon! I didn't see the film in cinemas and my friends practically forced me to watch it Clockwork Orange style. I have to say I was proved totally wrong, it's a great movie. The talking raccoon and the tree thing are the best things in it as well.

He doesn't dance I'm afraid.

Paleozoic alphabet 1

Thought I'd follow up my dinosaur alphabet with some more prehistoric creatures from A to Z. I did 3 time periods (Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous) for the dinosaurs and as luck would have it there are 6 preceding them. Here are the first batch, the earliest. They range from the Cambrian to the Ordovician to the Silurian. A lot of weird fish, trilobites and sand burrowing things.

Listed here

Anomalocaris, Brontoscorpio, Cameroceras, Dolichopterus, Erbenochile, Fuxianhuia, Guiyu oneiros, Hallucigenia, Isotelus, Jamoytius, Kooteninchela, Lituites, Mixopterus, Neoasaphus, Opabinia, Pterygotus, Quadrops, Rhyniella, Sacabambaspsis, Thelodus, Urokodia, Vetustovermis, Wiwaxia, Xidazoon, Yohoia, Zhongjianichthys.
Velociraptor Tyrannosaurus Indominus

"You can't hypnotize me. I'm British!"

I wondered about putting this up, not really happy with it, but it made me think. Is this a repository of everything or just the stuff that I deem as 'successful'?

Anyway, this is a sort of Frank Frazetta inspired At the Earth's Core mashup. It's a book by Edgar Rice Burroughs and a film from the 70s (which the title is a quote from). The pterosaur guys (Mahars) were guys in suits in the film and look nothing like this. Still think the film is great and I have a DVD signed by one of the actors (Caroline Munro). I thought I'd better add a knife in the girl's hand, adds something and makes her look a little less helpless.

 

"Not on the rug...man!"

Here's something I did a while back for Total Film as part of their Films Reframed series over a year ago. We had to do comic-cover versions of R-rated movies.

I first watched The Big Lebowskin in 2003 while staying over at a friend's house during university. I honestly cannot say how many times I've watched it since...one of my all-time favourite films, so many quotable lines. A friend of mine recently got into the movie big time and I also won a bowling game the other day so it seemed like the right time to post this.

Activate Thundercloud Formation!

Another Pacific Rim bit of doodling. This time the Asian one, Crimson Typhoon. Always liked everything about it except the head..looks like a torch or something. It's also got very weird legs and feet, the action figure can barely stand by itself from what I've seen. Not that I could come up with something better.

Tentacular Apocalypse

So Community Centre comes to an end. I had to wrap it up pretty quickly which is why these last two have been long and epic (the second from last or penultimate one being here). Thought I'd solve the mystery of where the guy from Gander Electronics went. Some kinda strange Lovecraftian netherworld with tentacle monsters.

The Macawnivore

Here's a little model I made for my lovely lady for Christmas. For those of you that haven't seen The Croods this is one of the weird animals from it. Only after finishing it did I realise there seems to be a cat theme emerging...