The Blog of artist David "Draculasaurus" Burson. -
-Doctor Who fan art - Comics - Whatever else seems interesting

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

How to make delicious Alpha Centauri bread.

How to make delicious Alpha Centauri bread.

2 and 3/4 cups flour
1 and 1/2 tablespoons sugar
2 and 1/4 teaspoons dry active yeast
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon butter
food coloring
some oil
some shortening

First turn your oven on to 200 degrees, then get two bowls, one big, and one ceramic. like so-



in the ceramic bowl mix
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon butter
1 and 1/4 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt



Stick the bowl in the oven, but keep an eye on it. you're not cooking it, just melting the butter.

Meanwhile, in the big bowl-
mix
1/4 cup water
2 and 1/4 teaspoons yeast
1/2 teaspoon sugar

when the butter in the ceramic bowl looks melty, it's ready.



when there is a creamy foam on top, in the big bowl, it's ready. Turn oven off, and leave it open to cool down.



When both bowls are ready, mix them together.


Add some food coloring.
I used about 15 drops of green and 3 yellow.



Dump 2 cups of flour right in and start mixing it up.
Once it becomes a single uniform mass like this-



start adding in the remaining flour about 1/4 cup at a time.
stir it and cut it with your spoon, absorbing all the loose flour.
It should start looking like a lot of stringy chunks, like this.



when you've added all the flour, reach in and grab it, and mash it all together.
Knead it for about 5 minutes, until it's an elastic ball.




Wipe out the big bowl and put some oil in, just enough to coat the sides. I use olive oil.
Stick the dough ball in and make sure it gets nice and oily too.
Cover it with a towel, and spray it with a squirt bottle if you have one, if not you can figure something out.
It just need to be a nice humid environment.



Hopefully your oven has cooled off enough by now, it should be about 90 or 100 degrees.
Stick the bowl in the oven and let it rise until it has doubled in size. -about 10 or 15 minutes.



When it has doubled in size get it out and punch it down Hai-Ya!



Get it out on the counter and spread it out. You don't need to use a roller, it doesn't need to be perfect.




Snip some of the dough off to make the arms, eye and skirt. set it aside.



Roll the rest up into a nasty little grub.



Get some vegetable shortening and give your bread pan the business.



Put the grub in the pan, cover it and stick it in the oven.
Let it rise until it's doubled in size again.

Get a roller and flatten out the leftovers.
cut them up into shapes to make Alpha Centauri's arms, eye and skirt.



When the dough has risen again, get it out, give it a squirt of water. Stick the little pieces on.
you might stab/stitch them on with a wet toothpick to help them stay on.



Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Put Alpha in for 15 or 20 minutes



and voila!


Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Pigbin Josh - The Video Game





So I've been making a Pigbin Josh video game,(Yes really) and the first version is out and ready to play!
The backgrounds are still unfinished, and there may be a few minor bugs, but it's pretty much all there.
Sorry, it's for Windows only right now.
-just follow the link and download it. It's a small, simple application file, no need to install anything.

I hope you like it!

Edit- an updated version is now available, with more songs, less bugs and it's better looking too!

-Go to download page-

Monday, February 6, 2012

Me on the TARDIS Tavern podcast


So I recently joined Sean and Steve on the TARDIS Tavern podcast. They took a break from their usual Doctor Who conversationalizing to discuss Farscape instead, and were nice enough to invite me along.
You can have a listen here http://tardistavern.libsyn.com/webpage/episode-60-the-farscape-episode

Monday, January 2, 2012

Panic Moon -January 2012


Oh My Giddy Aunt!
Look at that beautiful fanzine, and with some of my art right on the cover!
Start the new year out right with a good old fashioned ink and paper fanzine. I'm not sure what the current exchange rate is, but £1.20 sounds really, really reasonable.
Available to pre-order at http://panicmoonfanzine.blogspot.com/

The January 2012 issue of Panic Moon is now available for pre-order. It will include new perspectives on The Keys of Marinus, The Macra Terror, The War Games, Colony in Space, Invasion of the Dinosaurs, Dragonfire and the McGann film; reviews of The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe, the recently recovered ‘missing’ episodes, the last series of The Sarah Jane Adventures and the latest from Big Finish; plus behind the scenes on Death to the Daleks, thoughts on console design, a look at the reprinted Target novelisations and some silly bits and other stuff. All beautifully illustrated, as ever.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

BANDRIL & TOMTIT


Twin full colour fanzines BANDRIL & TOMTIT are now available to order!
Featuring some art by me!
http://www.bandril.blogspot.com/


BANDRIL Issue 1 (28 A4 Colour pages) features a brand new exclusive comic strip "Top of the Ponds" written and illustrated by David Carey, a review of Torchwood: Miracle Day, a review of Series 6 of Doctor Who, a "true-life" story called Looking for a chicken dinner, The Keys of Marinus comic strip by Paul Hanley, A look at the story of Regeneration, Love at first sight and Do you remember the first time? and all your latest communication in our Letterbox and much much less...

TOMTIT Issue 1 (24 A4 Colour pages) has an exclusive Ben Chatham story written by the legendary Sparacus called The Ghosts of Peversham Station, "All your planet are belong to us" is a story presented in the classic Doctor Who Annual format by Paul Hanley, an interview of UFO investigator Nick Pope by Richard Thomas, Are the right episode lost? looking at the still missing 108 episodes of classic Doctor Who, A Love Letter to Character Options, TARDIS TV and much much less...

Both Issues will ship with a mystery FREE gift.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Celestial Toyroom 400

The latest cover of The Doctor Who Appreciation Society's long running fanzine, Celestial Toyroom is out.
I'm very proud to have been asked to do the cover for their landmark 400th issue.

In case you were wondering, no there's not an app for that. It's a hand cut three color stencil and acrylic paint.
If you've been thinking about joining the DWAS, there's no time like the present. Their website is here.

CT issue 400 is now at the printers. Contents include:

Nicholas Courtney RememberedLinkReview - Claws of Axos
Interview - Nicholas Courtney
Review - Inferno
Matrix Lava Lamp - The Web of Fear
Matrix Lava Lamp - Battlefield
Review - Mawdryn Undead
Monstrous Motives - The Brigade Leader
Colin Baker Welcomed. Previously unpublished Press Call Photograph from 1983
Full colour cover

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Alien civilizations in modern Doctor Who

Seeing alien cultures and civilizations is one of my favorite things about science fiction.
Doctor Who is a show about a man who has all of space and time at his finger tips. It's a show that's full of alien cultures, isn't it?
Let's take a look at the revived series and see.

End of the World - Off to a great start here! Even though Cassandra is "human" and is behind it all, the space station is alien run. We see alien customs, living quarters, hierarchy. It's also a veritable parade of alien races.

The Parting of the Ways - Here we see a Dalek who has set himself up as an Emperor and a God.
This barely counts as an alien culture, it's more of a standard invasion with a dash of megalomaniacal flavor, but it's still worth mentioning.


New Earth - Some great looking alien cat ladies, but living in a human culture. It's still New York, even if it's new new new. Not an alien civilization.

Smith and Jones - We don't see a full blown alien culture here, but we do get some nice implications of culture. The Judoon are representatives of an alien culture, going about their business. Not an alien civilization, but in the same spirit.

Gridlock - Cat people again, but assimilated into human culture, not a civilization.

Utopia - A full blown alien culture on the planet Malcassairo! Unfortunately they're long dead except for Chantho. It's a shame because Chantho looked great and had interesting mannerisms.

The Stolen Earth - The Shadow Proclamation isn't really a culture, but it's sort of part of a culture. There's not a lot of information here, The Doctor stops by, figures out some plot points and leaves.

Voyage of the Damned - I guess technically, they're all aliens from the planet Sto, but almost none of their culture is on display here. Their ship, clothes and food are all based on Earth culture.
Even Bannakaffalatta is wearing a tuxedo.

Planet of the Ood - Here's an alien culture, sort of. Tragically subjugated by humans, but we do get a hint of what they might be like, sitting in a circle and psychically singing to their chief brain. Their culture is pretty boring, but we do see something of it.

Planet of the Dead - Here we have the lush and vibrant planet San Helios, with a fully developed advanced culture, except, oops, we just missed them. Every tiny scrap of their civilization got eaten before the episode starts. We do see some fly-headed Tritovores, but we don't really learn anything about their culture except what they like to eat.

The End of Time - We see the Ood again in this one. The Doctor remarks about how advanced they've become, and is then ushered into a cave. (Maybe he was just being polite.)
We do get to see some of their architecture though.

Yes, Timelords count as an alien civilization I suppose. We see some of their fantastical architecture and costumes. We also learn that they utilize some sort of clairvoyant seer, and we see their government in action. We don't really get to explore their culture or learn much about them that we didn't already know, but it still counts.

The Time of Angels - Here we see the planet Alfalva Metraxis, home to an advanced race with two heads. Unfortunately they're all dead and we don't find out much about them except that some of them wanted to marry themselves, and that they bury their dead in a labyrinth.

The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood - Well, Silurians aren't really aliens and we don't really get to see their culture, but we do learn a few things about them. Their society is split by caste system, there's a warrior class and a scientific class, but the balance of their culture doesn't make an appearance. Cool underground city though.

The Pandorica Opens - Here we see a full blown alien bar. Star Wars cantina style. Sadly it lasts only a minute and is gone, but no one is long dead or asleep. What a tease.

A Good Man Goes to War - We don't learn a lot about the Headless Monks, but they seems to have their own thing going on. I'm not sure if it's a culture or not, but they have rituals and some kind of system of belief. Either way we hardly learn anything about them.

The Girl Who Waited - Apalapucia is an intergalactic vacation destination, home to an advanced culture. Presumably they're humanoid, based on the robots they created. That's about all we see of them. Just an empty hospital facility and some borrowed art.

The Wedding of River Song - High stakes live chess with an alien! This sounds very interesting, but that's all we know about it. It's just a brief glimpse of a culture.


Well, that's about it. Not nearly as many as one might think.

It almost seems that we saw more fully developed cultures in the supposedly earthbound Pertwee era. Peladon, Metebelis III, Inter Minor, The Draconian Empire, The Silurians (if we're counting them).

I'd love to see some more in series seven, but I guess it's a trade off, fleshed out companions or cultures. Hopefully they can strike a balance that will work for everyone.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

The Impossible Assassin



watercolor
click image for a 1024x768 desktop wallpaper, or click here for a 1600x900 version.
-also, just for fun here's a 640x960 iphone wallpaper crop.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

from the ministry...

I'm sure everyone has secretly been wanting a Mr. Chinn Desktop wallpaper.
well the wait is over!


Charcoal on paper
click on image for a 16x9 wallpaper version, or click here for an old fashioned 1024x768 version

Featured in the Doctor Who fanzine The Terrible Zodin #12 -available for free download at http://doctorwhottz.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Space 1889 & Beyond



Untreed Reads Publishing is releasing a series of eBooks based on Frank Chadwick's legendary 1988 steampunk role playing game, Space: 1889.
The first book in the series, Journey to the Heart of Luna by Andy Frankham-Allen, is available now.
You can find out all about it at the Space 1889 & Beyond Facebook page. -or follow Andy Frankham-Allen on Twitter.
Take a peek at the first two covers. Art by yours truly, cover design work by Steve Upham, original HMS Sovereign design by Andrew Orton.

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

Panic Moon fanzine: July 2011 issue out now

Panic Moon fanzine: July 2011 issue out now: "July’s issue of Panic Moon is published today. It’s been produced in a slightly smaller batch that previous issues, so order early to avoid..."

Friday, May 27, 2011

Jo leaves the nest

Conte pastel pencils on black card stock
The heart breaking scene from The Green Death.
I couldn't decide how to crop this one, so here's two 1600x900 wallpapers.
click on images to see full sized