30 Days of Redshirts

Day One: Shoved off a cliff.

The inspiration for day one is What Are Little Girls Made Of? with Ruk throwing our red shirt off the cliff into the pointy rocks below.

There is evidence that someone has boldly gone to their death earlier, and if you have a keen eye, there is another cameo from the episode.

Day Two: Transporter accident

Whilst the transporter had its issues in TOS, the primary inspiration here is from Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

The drawing itself was entertaining, and I think I had the image of the T-1000 from Terminator 2 Judgement Day after it exploded in my mind.

Special nod to Galaxy Quest.

Day Three: Vaporised by phaser

The nod for this death comes from the episode The Omega Glory. A common trope of senior officers being evil is also getting a representation here.

I remember making sure the phaser colour was correct with the episode.

Day Four: Rapidly aged

I don't recall if there is a red shirt death in The Deadly Years or was it simply inspiration for a possible death. I think when I was researching the list I went with red shirt deaths first then expanded out to encapsulate deaths in general to make up the number required.

You'll note that whilst I painted this one in traditional media I did add the sickbay text digitally. At the time I wasn't happy about that because I had a thing about sticking to traditional only.

Day Five: Vaporised by a probe

This one comes from the episode The Changling and our good friend, proto-V'Ger, NOMAD.

I chose more of an in the wrong place at the wrong time scenario for this, and I remember studying the mess scenes to get their food dispensers. My proudest detail is the screen-accurate coffee cup!

Day Six: Neck broken

Embarrassingly, I had to jog my memory to which episode this garishly dressed killer came from. I thought I knew, but I still had to check it was Elaan Of Troyius, and of course it was.

I remember how funny I thought the horror of a snapped neck was right next to that outfit. Possibly the darkest one of the set.

Note the foreshadowing of the spray bottle.

Day Seven: Vaporised by super computer

I have seen the episode The Ultimate Computer probably one hundred times and cannot remember if this happened. I know that the M-5 resorted to drawing power directly, and I'm pretty sure it killed someone.

You might ask why I don't simply look it up. I no doubt will, but I'm trying to record this authentically.

I do remember trying to incorporate the pipes and plumbing you see around the ship instead of it just hitting a wall.

Day Eight: Dissolved

The Devil in the Dark is my favourite Star Trek episode, so I did an extra image for this one, which would be a bonus in the print set.

The first image was designed to invoke the original pitch for the Horta, which was to have a chicken on the ground, have the Horta pass over it and the guy inside to replace the chicken with just bones.

I always loved that story, and it's a great example of creativity.

The second one was inspired by early atomic-age horror films and their posters. I think the episode always felt like one of those monster films.

I was also inspired by Man's Life magazines from the 1950s, often depicting a guy fighting off some animal.

Day Nine: Drained of red blood cells

I think the challenge with this one is capturing the creature from the episode Obsession and showing what it is doing.

If I were doing this again, I would approach it differently. It's not that this is wrong or bad; it's just that five years on, I'm a different person. The same could easily be said for a bunch of these.

I do think I managed the whole "vampire" element, though, with it holding him.

Day Ten: Drained of salt

I've drawn Nancy from The Man Trap in this pose several times. In my style, it's the best way to capture both characters.

For this one, though, I liked the idea of her leaning over one of the rocky outcrops, and so the pose works well.

This one could have easily been the hero piece of the set.

Day Eleven: Kleegat

I love the Kleegat from Friday's Child; it was a unique weapon to that planet, along with those costumes!

I also liked the idea that the red shirt in this one is well aware of the joke that out of all of them, he would be the one to get kleegatted.

Early on, I determined that the same guy would be in everyone, and I dubbed him Ensign Todd.

Day Twelve: Lightning

I suspect that when the Enterprise reports back to Starfleet regarding the events of Who Mourns for Adonais? They will use generic labels for things such as struck by lightning, etc.

This amuses me greatly.

There is also a couple of lightning deaths in The Apple.

Day Thirteen: Clubbed

The Apple provides a surprisingly high number of ways to die. The planet is a death trap.

This episode did introduce me to Yeoman Martha Landon, who performs some cool fighting moves. I wish she had become a regular.

Day Fourteen: Exploding rocks

The Apple, again with the death trap planet, also comes with exploding rocks.

I wanted to show the humans freaking out whilst Spock is like "Of course, exploding rocks".

Day Fifteen: Transformed into dehydrated porous cuboctahedron and crushed

The deaths in By Any Other Name are alarming.

I liked the idea of showing one of the cuboctahedrons having just fallen off a table. This meant studying some Starfleet aesthetics and reminding myself how much I enjoy drawing those chairs.

Day Sixteen: Impaled by plant thorns

This was the last entry from The Apple. I got a lot of mileage out of Gamma Trianguli VI. Hopefully, the observant will notice the three other deathly elements: the clubbing, the explosive rock and the scorch mark from the lightning.

Day Seventeen: Impaled by giant spear.

The giants from The Galileo Seven are an absolute joy to draw!

I will completely admit to revelling in the idea of someone being on the end of one of those incredibly huge prop spears and the giants not really sure what they've got.

Day Eighteen: Poisoned by Mugato

So, this is the point in the project where someone tells me on social media that the Mugato bites Kirk in A Private Little War, not a red shirt, which, of course, I'm aware of.

The reality is that there aren't as many diverse red-shirt deaths in TOS, and it's fun to play with the potential deaths.

Note the Mahko root that looks disturbingly like poo.

Day Nineteen: Vaporised by Gorn

This one, inspired by Arena, was a real joy to do. I love painting the Gorn, but for this one, I also had to design a gun/weapon, having never seen one.

I added spikes because they'd use them as clubs in close contact.

Also, I spent a bit of time getting a feel for the architecture of the Cestus III Outpost to get a good vibe of the location.

Day Twenty: Stabbed

I don't care for the episode Wolf in the Fold, not just because it dates so poorly but also because of the whole Jack the Ripper bit, Scotty stabbing women, and everyone is cool with it at the end. I don't know; it's a bit of a messy one.

That said, I spent a lot of time working out what to capture from the set to establish it.

Day Twenty-One: Poisoned milk

I leaned into the alternative universe with Ensign Todd taking the hit for other characters.

The lesson from The Conscience of the King is that you should not just walk in and drink someone else's milk.

Whenever I can paint in cube food, I 100% take the opportunity as I love it.

Day Twenty-Two: Ejected in Ion Pod

This entry gets corrected the most by casual followers. Court Martial gave me a seemingly stupid way for someone to die, and I took it.

So, I had to create the pod design based purely on the impression given by the burnt-out hole in the hull (try saying that over and over).

I also gave Janice Rand a tiny cameo.

Day Twenty-Three: Crushed by a boulder

How could I not feature my favourite proto-giant shuttlecraft-hating aliens from The Galileo Seven a second time?!?!?!

I could not help but make it an over-the-top blood bath!!!

Day Twenty-Four: Sympathetic Magic

Hey Lee, do you want to draw a Star Trek cat?

Duh, of course, I do.

Sylvia from Catspaw killed a gold shirt in the episode, but I like to think an unseen scene had someone treating her like a cat, and like a cat with the powers to kill, she did it.

Day Twenty-Five: Exposed to phaser coolant

Again, I very much enjoy the idea of the forgotten Ensign. In the scene from Balance of Terror, where Spock rescues the two crewmen from the phaser control room, I think it's funny that Ensign Todd was left.

This was a fun one to paint the coolant gas as well.

Day Twenty-Six: Galactic Barrier

I attempted to capture or explain the uniforms in Where No Man Has Gone Before, as well as the mention that some people on board didn't survive crossing the great barrier.

What was also fun was exploring the idea of a quartermaster.

The story is that Uhura and Todd went down to get their new uniforms as the Enterprise crossed over.

Day Twenty-Seven: Strangled

Had Todd survived the crossing in Where No Man Has Gone Before, then I'm sure he would have hung out with Lee Kelso and gotten in the way when Gary was picturing strangling Lee.

Again, there is a lot of set study to get the feel right for this one.

Day Twenty-Eight: Hyper-acceleration

In the episode Wink of an Eye, if you get accelerated but then get injured in the slightest way, you die very quickly.

Finding a way to capture that was a challenge so I also focused on the background setting to establish the inspiration for it and hint to the episode.

Day Twenty-Nine: Computer defence mechanism

I liked the premise of That Which Survives, especially the sequences where they work out the problem and keep each other's defences at bay.

It conjures up the fear and dread of slow-moving zombies and how their persistence wears you down. You can dodge them for a while, but eventually, you make a false move and are done for.

The costumes in Trek are always a lot of fun to draw and paint.

Day 30: Beamed into space

So, I don't think anyone got beamed into space in TOS. However, considering all the transporter problems, I can't imagine it didn't happen.

I think the inspiration for this one may have also come from the film Star Trek (2019) when someone gets sucked out into space. I probably should have made this the vacuum of space instead.

It felt like a good place to finish it.

I do have a limited number of print sets available to buy. I would warn, though, that the postage on them outside of Australia is pretty crazy. However, you should consider the exchange rate because it's all Australian $. I only send them with tracking now after a few pieces disappeared in transit.