Views of the Bat

[Batmankm]

Your treatment of the cowl and the face are really quite nice. I can see the paul Pope vibe some one else mentioned. Good stuff. And i agree with the others, just keep drawing dude!!!

KM

[yomark]

Thanks so much for the comments, KM. It really is encouraging to get such from a pro like you. As far as Pope is concerened, I'm really not familiar at all with his work. I'd appreciate a link so I could take a look. As far as keeping drawing, I try really hard to stay with it?my problem is that I seek approval with my artwork, so I set myself up emotinally, and I'm prone to discouragement. So like I say, it always helps to get positive comments, although it's the critiques that have pushed me to do better.

[em...]

I see a huge improvement in these new pieces. My only big crit would be to not overdo the Photoshoppy-ness.

In reference to Paul Pope, here are a couple of links to Batman images of his:

http://luciernago.files.wordpress.com/2 ... -100-1.jpg

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_ut1TT8TBzBw/S ... ar+100.jpg

[yomark]

I see a huge improvement in these new pieces. My only big crit would be to not overdo the Photoshoppy-ness.

I REALLY appreciate that, em, especially coming from you. If you will indulge: I'd be interested in a more specific explanation of what in the peice you mean by Photoshop-ness. I kinda get what you mean, but would like to take advantage of your point-of-view to improve my work. You're probably the critic that has most siginifcantly motivated me to improve over the past few years.

My thought: IF I new how to use, and had some skill in a real painting program, I wouldn't be relying so much on Photoshop filters, effects and techniques.

[yomark]

These were all done late last year, colored up to last month.
Batman copyright © DC Comics


I wasn't going to color this drawing, but got involved in all the highlights and reflected lights, then thought that the Adam West Batman treatment made the most sense for the background (created in Illustrator). I downloaded a bunch of "comic-book" fonts specifically for this, and used one for the "Zowie!" (which I still modified), and I even looked up Bat Fight-Words in Google images for references. According to my research, "Zowie" was never actually one of them.


Here I tried to do an animation-style, little loose and fun. Okay coloring and all, I tried to keep it simple and graphic. Slats and emblem done in Illustrator, then imported.



I was going for a dramatic pose foreshortened or in perspective (whichever applies; I'm still not sure). Some anatomy issues here, but I'm also working out the modified uniform. I like the head/expression, and the emblem. I later worked out a better belt, but I liked this enough to color it.



This is about the third of four attempts at drawing "my" Batman gliding in perspective with his slat-wings.



I really liked how this one came out (the pose, the linework, the details and the drama), but was still struggling with my leg anatomy, which is why I cropped them down in the color comp. If I do say so myself, the coloring on the figure went especially well, and this piece is the one of which I am most proud out of this batch. I did do a cool "gothic" nameplate treatment of "Batman" on this, but didn't like the resulting composition as well (included below).



This is the same as the above including the nameplate-treatment this time. The font is Ironweed, then manipulated and distressed in PhotoShop. Once I put it on top of the background in the composition in the previous version, the lettering got lost, so I tried darkening and re-arranging the composition to fix that. I never liked the result as much, but I still like the lettering-treatment.

[yomark]

I’d recently seen the Warner Bros.’ Animation DVD: “Gotham Knight”, and was inspired to draw Batman striking a dramatic pose. This is my first attempt to “ink” digitally. Done in Photoshop CS1 (yes: CS1! Remember: I'm the guy that still uses dial-up), with a Wacom stylus. I was just going to "ink" this as a practice/first experiment, but liked how it turned out so well that I went ahead and finished it. Below are the four main stages of this peice, from the finished to the original drawing, in descending order.


Batman ©DC Comics


Final Color Version




Intermediate Color Version



Ink version with cel shading




Original Pencil