Xylok Crystal

NaArMaMo 2008, Day 24: Xylok Crystal

Doctor Who fan art featuring the Xylok Crystal as seen in the Sarah Jane Adventures story The Lost Boy. The crystal is the mind of the computer Mr Smith, which was seen in the Doctor Who series 4 finale The Stolen Earth/Journey's End. This may seem like a bit of a stretch, but there's not an awful lot of things starting with X in New Who...

This is my twenty-fourth piece for this year's (Inter)National Art Making Month, in which you create a new piece of art every day in August.

This was drawn on a tablet PC using the airbrush tool only. Total time spent was about 3 and a half hours, 1 hour of which was the original sketch layer, now removed.

I had planned to do my art today in the early afternoon but my linux server was cracked by an ssh worm and I ended up spending most of the day in a bit of a panic as a result. By the time I'd sorted that out and had dinner, it was time to go out to see a film, already arranged with a friend. I ended up starting this at half past midnight, by which time I was extremely tired.

I finished after 4pm, and I fully realise that this isn't up to my usual standard. I was expecting this to be a quick one, but it turns out that it's really bloody difficult to draw coloured crystal. I ended up banging my head against this for considerably longer than I spent on some much better pieces.

With hindsight, I wish I'd chosen to work from one of the actual darker and less colourful screencaps, rather than this publicity image. Or I should have taken the easy way out and drawn Mr Smith (even though I think that prop isn't very interesting or photogenic from any angle).

I suppose that's the benefit of starting early, if your first idea doesn't work out, you can switch to something else...

Oh well, as always, it's the spirit of NaArMaMo to post everything, even the weaker art.

Disclaimer: I do not own Sarah Jane Adventures, Doctor Who, Mr Smith , this is solely fan art, I do not claim any ownership of the characters or show.