Release Me If You Want To Live

Oil Pastels

Based on the painful scene in the episode "Dalek" when the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston), while chained up and being scanned torturously by Van Statten, tells the foolish collector of alien life to let him go so that he can save them from the Dalek that threatens to destroy the base.

This is my third-ever portrait, but my first formal one in which I could take my time, and my first color portrait. I'd never worked with the face this closely before, and this was my first time working with Rembrant's triangle. I enjoyed working on this piece, exploring the many beautiful fascets and details of the face, picking up details I had never noticed before. Working on the Doctor's face for such a long time was like wordlessly getting to know him without ever actually meeting him. The Ninth Doctor was and still is my favorite Doctor, but I really felt like I personally bonded with him after having drawn this.

It literally took me all the courage I had to draw in the shadow in over his eye as I feared I would ruin the beautiful job I'd done on the eye, but it was the most liberating thing to have it done. I've not been so thrilled to have conquered such a daunting piece of art since my gemstone drawing.

Done in roughly 10-12 hours.

See the compare and contrast to the actual reference shot here: [link]