Doctor Who: The Usual Suspects, 2011 version

Chuffed as hell to own this courtesy of my good friend Joe. A recreation of a 1999 original by top Who artist Lee Sullivan.

Lee says:

"This piece has taken on a life of its own. It's based on the poster for the film of the same name which is in turn based upon the line spoken by Claude Rains in Casablanca: 'Round up the usual suspects.' Originally created to illustrate an article for DWM, only the first seven Doctors featured. I added others including Peter Cushing, Rowan Atkinson and the Richart E Grant Scream of the Shalka versions gradually for its new owner until I ran out of background, at which point I cut and stripped out the figures and pasted them into a new, longer background. For real, not digitally!

In 2011 the London Cartoon Museum had their exhibition celebrating Who in comics and they asked me if they could use it as a centerpiece blow-up minus all the non-canon Doctors, but keeping Peter Cushing, as his version appeared comics too (one of which I did for DWM). I looked at the scans I'd got and realised I'd have to do so much retouching because of the splicing, it would be easier to redraw the whole thing and digitally colour it (and correct some of the heights of the Doctors, along the way). Unfortunately, the only art board I had available to me at the time I absolutely had to start it was A3 in size, which meant it was a very exacting job - the likenesses of the faces are only about 15mm high. I worked with a magnifying glass, and it was a relief when I finally got it into Photoshop and could start working digitally.

It was enlarged to around three metres in length, and made a very nice image for the exhibition; people (myself included) posed by it for photos. It has subsequently been used as a very large banner at another event.

Minus Peter Cushing, the image is being used as an A3-ish poster for a Who 50th anniversary box set of artworks, along with another piece of mine.

Regenerating once again, the latest incarnation features both Peter Capaldi and John Hurt, with completely revised heights and costumes."

www.leesullivanart.co.uk

Ink on thin paper

Page: A3
Image: 41 cms x 20.5 cma