Pandemic Of The Cybermen

Last year during March Of The Robots I designed a Cyberman in Droey's Draws style. Well this year inspired me to create a new design which I would take more seriously. I hope you like it!

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I created designs for 4 ranks of Cybermen. Firstly is the Cyberscout (commonly labelled Stealth Cyberman) and unlike the variant seen on screen, this one is painted in a very dark brown. . Black is a colour that is more capable of standing out in nature so with the dark brown colour, it allows the Cyberscout to blend in better with the brick tunnels. I imagine Cyberscouts would have different colour schemes based on their working environment but with only the dark sewers to go on; I designed this one to suit that environment. Other variants may be deemed necessary. You'll also notice that the Cyberscout has a dimmed light and less vibrant gloves.

The standard Cyberman and the Cyberleader are identical, save for the application of colours. The Cyberleader has a mostly black helmet, much like the original Cyberleader but not to the extent of having the face covered in black, which does not make for an appealing Cyberman design. Inspired by the Cybermen seen in The Flood, but probably not something that would be done on a physical prop, I also painted the shoulders black which I think gives it a little more originality.

The Controller has two variants on here. One is the original Controller from the classic era of Doctor Who. This Cyberman was distinct for their lack of handlebars. The gun was removed from the arm and the gloves painted orange to match the cranium. I appreciate this design as I'm sure a lot of Doctor Who fans would as callbacks are generally appreciated. But the design that I think best works with this collection is the one seen on the far right.

This Controller hosts a new head design which I will explain later. The handlebars go down instead of up and the tube shaped cranium hosts a visible brain much like the modern Controller design. As a callback to the original Controller the liquid holding the brain is orange but unlike my other design, this Controller has black gloves. They also adopt the black shoulders of the Cyberleader.

So what makes these designs so special? At the start of this post I claimed that this year had inspired me to design these Cybermen. This is because I have dubbed them the 'Pandemic Cybermen'. This year we have suffered from a plague that has greatly impacted our lives but the reality (for Doctor Who) is that this can be a source of inspiration for an encounter with the Cybermen. Their prime objective overcomes the might of any virus we might catch so a story where the 2020 pandemic is intervened by Cybermen or even another pandemic entirely is something that could bring back their fear factor.

While in some parts the Cybermen have their traditional features, I have drawn elements from Bio-hazard Suits where possible. This is most noticeable in the Controller's head but is subtlety applied to all of the heads, as well as a shape of what appears to be a face-mask. I was almost tempted to remove the mouth entirely for a genuine face-mask appearance; perhaps a mask attachment could have been exclusive to the Cyberscouts? The guns on the arms are based on the top of Hand Sanitizer containers, but I can't imagine these ones being pressed down every time a shot it taken!

Lastly my favourite feature is the gloves; I am sick of Cybermen that look entirely robotic and will always pick the traditional style of gloves if I can. I've gone right back to my potential favorite designs from the 60's, the Moonbase Cybermen. My reason is that for this design's aesthetic, two fingers would be easier to achieve than four. The idea is that a layer of semitransparent latex (or substitute material) would be the glove itself, cloured as seen on the designs. Beneath that wold be another layer with the texture of sanitizer fluid, looking like a liquid is being pumped through the Cyberman's body. If possible this could be played with in post production to look like the liquid is actually flowing, but that might be a bit of stretch.

I can't see this being the sort of direction that the BBC would take with the Cyberman, which is a shame because it would be a sorely missed opportunity. Maybe one day a 'Pandemic of the Cybermen' direction will be taken and maybe they'll look something like this; only time will tell.

Illustrations of the Trains

 Today I thought I'd show a small series of illustrations I've done that are recreations from Thomas and Friends, a franchise that by now you'll know played a huge role in my life. They were all done using Crayola pens and Tombow brush pens marked on toned sketchbook paper. Initially I had done a drawing of the original characters (Thomas, Edward, Gordon and Henry) based on their appearances back in 1984 so the following illustrations are taken from the following seasons up until the end of the 90's.

Daisy

The latter 10 episodes of the second season are my favourites and possibly the first episodes I had ever seen (my first episode was either The Deputation or Thomas and Gordon). Now I could have had a blast with any of those 10 episodes, but I chose Daisy as for two things - it's lack of any main characters I had recently drawn and the presence of Daisy who until recently was a sorely underrated character. This first shot of Daisy, Percy and Toby is beautiful and allowed me to play with perspective a little. While the paper allowed me to capture a very Season 2 tone, the perspective could have been better as Toby is too narrow. But this fault allowed me to make a decision for my next piece.

Time For Trouble

My first exposure to Season 3 was the early narration VHS for Trust Thomas and other stories. I adored these episodes and at the time, I only had my VHS tapes to get any exposure to Thomas so these episodes felt completely alien to anything else I had ever seen from Thomas and Friends, even to other Season 3 episodes I saw which had been released after the redub. I think if I were to try a Season 3 inspired illustration again, it would definitely be one from this nostalgic VHS if I could ever bring myself to chose.

Luckily I didn't have to, as my goal was to improve my take on Toby, so getting the chance to illustrate James as well I chose Time For Trouble; but tweaked things slightly from the filmed shot. Instead of pulling into the big station, they arrive at the works station as stated in the narration and the books. This means the inclusion of a Skarloey railway engine was necessary and I chose Sir Handel who sadly didn't get as much screen-time as his colleagues after his debut season.

You Can't Win

Of course this one was going to feature the small engines! The fourth season is well known for spending over half a season focused on it's narrow gauge railways while Thomas and his friends took the backseat. Because he only ever appears in the fourth season, I chose to focus on Duke and took this screenshot from You Can't Win; also his final moments with anything above a cameo role. I got to draw some people and modified Duke's coupling to suit his real life prototype which did not have just a coupling hook.

Cranky Bugs

"We're sure to be safe in this shed!" This episode is the start of a bold new direction in Thomas' new history, where the show would become exclusive to original content and no longer be dependent on written material. Even though Duck is the only engine I'd be introducing to this collection, I felt I was ready to draw a line of engines together and it didn't turn out too bad. 

As Droey Drawson my focus has to be on my characters the word built around them, so it's unlikely that I'll be making a big collection out of these. If anything I might do more for myself sparingly but it is nice to be able to share these with an audience.

John On Skates

 Here's a short story about the time when Droey and Co went out ice skating!

Droey and his friends had taken the train into Ki where a new ice rink had recently opened. Droey was not keen on skating himself and had agreed to take pictures.

John on the other hand jumped in, so to speak, and was skating like a professional. Everyone was very impressed!

"How does he do it so well?" asked Ida. Anne, who had decided to take a break, joined Droey to watch everyone else.

"I suppose it makes sense, given John's always on his wheelies."

"That's true, Anne. But he'll need to be more careful." Droey was right. Despite his talent, John was being rather reckless.

He sped past Albiona, nearly knocking her over. If it wasn't for Gary she wold have fallen, and that got him into trouble with Lexi! John skated up to Ida and took her by the hand.

"Come on, Ida. Let's go for a spin!" he insisted. Before Ida could make a decision they were off! John made sure Ida was safe as they skated in unison, but again John wasn't aware of his own surroundings and tore some of Agrius' cape while he get getting up after a humiliating fall! He was not pleased at all!

I wonder if John learnt to take more care. What do you think would have happened next? Be sure to let me know in the comments!

Browsing For Evil Garments

Agrius has gone clothes shopping, but he wants to find something that looks evil!

There's a shop in town called 'Clover Irving' where Tenvad and her best friend Will work.

Monty's birthday is coming up and Agrius, being the brilliant uncle that he is, wants to get Monty a new garment as a present. As you probably know, Agrius is a villain and loves to be seen as the greatest villain of all time. Because of this, Agrius Moth has his hopes that one day Monty will grow up to be more like him, so Agrius envisions a most evil looking attire that he could gift to Monty.

Agrius came to Clover Irving, which is popular for it's prices, then started searing for garments that met his needs. He started rummaging through the men's clothing and was disappointed to realise that maybe not everyone dresses like a villain. In fact, Agrius might be the only one! With clothes being designed to look casual rather than evil, Agrius was having a hard time finding an evil attire.

Tenvad was just placing down a neat pile of shirts when Agrius turned up at the rack close by to toss clothes aside while he continued browsing! With four arms to Agrius' name, that's a lot of clothes being thrown around! Tenvad was cross and Will, who was watching from the checkout, was shocked.

Agrius found one garment and was considering it's purchase. It had a fluffy collar and was black all over. The idea of Monty wearing this and looking evil in it was very believable. Agrius was about to declare his search victorious when Tenvad approached to give him a reprimanding! Agrius retaliated and as a result Tenvad had Agrius sent out of the shop for anti-social behaviour! Agrius was furious and being the villain he is, ran out of the shop with the now stolen jacket.

Oddly enough, the shop got more publicity after Agrius' stunt so the loss of the jacket was made up for by the increase in sales! When Agrius found out he was even more furious for having done something accidentally heroic!