A Colourful Effort at Timekeeping

Well, I did warn you (kind of) in the last post.  Although I am a couple of days early...

Timekeeping

 

We know our Starfleet crews get themselves into all sorts of temporal scrapes, but how do they (and other galactic citizens) tell the time wherever they are?  Apart from stardates, the odd PADD/viewscreen display, Sisko's Saltah'na clock, and a couple of "antique" 20th century watches, what do contemporary timepieces look like in the Star Trek time periods?  Especially those from worlds other than Earth?  After all, not everywhere has a 24 hour day...

 Timekeeping was a theme I suggested back in March 2023, and it finally got the votes it needed last month to become this month's Fan Art Challenge.

 I can't remember what my original thoughts/ideas for this theme were, so I came up with something new: a poster for the Star Trek: Lower Decks first season episode "Temporal Edict".

 

 I began by looking at time travel film posters.  Many of them feature someone or someones in front of a circular background somethingorother - usually a clock face or something similar.  One of them in particular caught my eye: The Adam Project.  I liked the layout - and Ryan Reynolds! - so decided to use it as the basis for my poster.

 Then I went to Cygnus-X1 to find reference screencaps for  my idea.  While I found suitable character shots, there was only one in the sequence that showed the passing of time (in which the camera passes through the hole in the red, circular timer, then through a ticking clock face to a chaotic USS Cerritos), so I had to watch the episode and take a few screenshots myself.  It was then that I noticed that the clock face had 16 hour markers rather than 12.  Peculiar.

 

ST: Lower Decks characters: Brad Boimler, D'Vana Tendi, Sam Rutherford, Beckett Mariner & Commander Jack Ransom, and Captain Carol Freeman.

Sketching, inking and colouring in!

 I got a bit carried away with the colouring in and forgot to leave room for the Cerritos in the top left (a similar position to where the time-travel jet - or whatever it is - in The Adam Project poster).  I considered drawing then cutting-out a separate one to physically paste in place, but that felt like too much work.  Besides, I thought I'd place a quote from the episode there, instead.

 Anyway, I finished the colouring on Sunday, then made a few tweaks today and set about taking some photos of the poster.  About a billion photos later, I finally had one in which the lighting - while not brilliant - would do, and made some touch ups in MSPaint.  Oh, and added the lettering which finished the poster.  Two weeks early!  Yay, me!

. . .

 Oh, and here's my hastily slapped together entry for last month's A Prophecy Foretold art challenge

 I had some scraps of red card which I used to make these Betazoid tarot cards (Betazoids are a highly enlightened people, so I'm pretty sure they have a tarot equivalent).  The one I'm holding is the House Daughter (equivalent to the Empress in Human tarot's major arcana - but it could equally be the Tower), the other two are the Ace of Chalices (Cups) and Three of Rings (Coins or Pentacles).

 I'm not going to explain any more as I need to go and slump in front of the telly for a bit, so I'll leave you with this quote from the formidable Lwaxana Troi which may help:

"I am Lwaxana Troi, daughter of the Fifth House, holder of the Sacred Chalice of Rixx, heir to the Holy Rings of Betazed. Who are you?"