Posts Tagged ‘dark knight’

Superman has super powers. Batman has a cool suit. Superman has heat vision. Batman has a cool car. What Batman lacks in power, he makes up with money. Well, I call it as I see it.

College Humor has a great 2 part animated short about the two superheros… and… huh? OH ALRIGHT! One superhero and a guy in a bat suit. Below is part 1. Hey Batman! Spare change?

Batman! My favorite hero in the DC universe! No special powers, just well honed skills, and lotsa cool toys! He’s the everyman hero, so to speak. A real strip down guy!

So, I decided to make this portrait as simple as possible.

After the hours spent on Superman, I knew that the most demanding part of this picture would be the Bat Symbol. I had done test strips of the ‘S’ shield, but not so with the bat. I was going at this one without practice. Also, there are a number of Bat symbols that have been used. The only one for my money is the Yellow symbol with the black Bat!

Drawing from the style of Bruce Timm, I started with a black background. Timm’s art in The Animated Series was all done on black first, to give the grim dark look it deserved. This seemed a good start, and proved to be a very helpful tool.

I began with the eyes! Then, the reflection of the cowl. From there, It just began to take shape. As the great sculptors, I found the picture inside the dark blank slate.

The symbol, which I said was done with no practice, was next. It proved to be easier than I thought, but did not happen the way I planned it to.

Speaking of which, the rain was an afterthought. I was making the cityscape, and felt that it wasn’t enough for him to be in the dark. This was a challenge, however, as it was almost impossible to add the rain over what I had already created. I had to improvise. The results are not as good as I would have liked, but they do make it more dreary.

I hoped this portrait would look and feel like the Bruce Timm version. In the end, it resembled a cross between that, and the comics.

One of the things I have been most happy with in all my portraits is that the style is far removed from the sample artwork I start with. The Dark Knight had no sample art, save for the symbol. It was pure creation, and the results were great!