Man of Steel!

Yeah, I know. I have ranted several times on my feelings for the latest Superman movie as well as his "costume". But to fair, I do think that Henry Cavil is a good choice for the role. And it's not like I didn't give the movie a chance. I have actually watched it about 4-5 times really hoping that it would grow on me! So when I was tooling around with textures and brushes, I turned to his version of Superman. I think this came out better than I ever expected considering it is all digital. I hope to do another "test" like this again in the near future. And yes, I did avoid drawing his non-red shorts on purpose!

Enjoy!

The Batusi!

So the Batman TV show from the 1960's is finally on DVD and people are once again embracing the campy version of the caped crusader. Maybe people needed a bit of relief from all the dark and gloomy superheroes that are just about everywhere these days. I have to admit that I am included. I grew up watching the re-runs of Batman like many kids my age, but I was also thrilled when the camp was abandoned and Tim Burton's Batman was thrust among us. I still love that movie as well but over time I have come back around the enjoying Adam West and company.

So one of the most iconic moments of that show is when Batman engages us all with a dance. You know the one.

Enjoy!

The Hobbit!

So The Hobbit trilogy is now all done as well. My family all went to see it on New Year's Day as it was sort of a tradition that my wife and I accidentally started way back with the first Lord of the Rings movie! We loved it but to be fair, I have always preferred the story of The Hobbit to Lord of the Rings anyway. I like Bilbo! There! I said it! Well, it of course inspired me some to work on some Hobbit things but alas, I had a full plate already. But there is always time for "productive procrastination"!! I remembered the Bilbo experiment from December 2013 ( you can see it here. )and thought to just re-work that a bit as it should go fairly quickly and I liked the piece enough to have it warrant a second go! It deserved it in fact!! So that is what I did!

Enjoy!

Merry Christmas 2014

I hope you all have  a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

And if interested, here are some of the sketches and mock ups leading up to this year's card.

"I'm Batman!"

I recently got Michael Keaton's Batman movies on DVD. I had them on VHS years ago but never seemed to get the upgrade. A friend of mine had duplicates and I was able to snag them. As I had not been feeling well, I was spending lots of nights on the couch as to not infect or disturb my wife as she slept. I finally watched both movies as well as all the bonus features and then stared in total disbelief that the first movie came out way back in 1989!! Seems like yesterday. I remember the excitement of it all in those pre-internet days. The magazine articles, the newspaper clippings. I even saved most of them as I did for Superman:The Movie. It was finally Batman's turn. I went out on my lunch break from my job at the bank and bought movie tickets on the day that it opened. We ordered pizza and screened the 1960's movie as a large group of my friends ate before heading back out to the theatre. It was a great night.

So recently Michael Keaton was asked his thoughts on the comments made by Christian Bale about being envious now of Ben Affleck being the new Batman. Keaton quickly responded that he never felt that way about other being cast after him in the role and boldly stated "I'm Batman!". Classic!

So with all this Batman on my brain, I naturally turn to my sketchbook and have been doodling the Caped Crusader but mostly sticking to the classic comic version, Adam West, and of course Michael Keaton's. I drew this in car line waiting to pick up my son from school and finished it during his violin lesson.

So naturally, I got bored one late night and decided to scan this in and see what I could quickly do in Photoshop with it. I got this.

Enjoy!

Meanwhile.....!

It seems that I am not alone in thinking that the "dark and gritty" version needs to be the only one out there. The love-hate relationship with the Adam West version seems to be back in the "love" mode once again and it could not come at a better time with the (finally!) release of the '66 series on disc! I know I am going to have to wait on that one as it's a hefty price. Maybe I can pick up a used one in a few months or a year. Heck, I waited this long.

So with a bit of free time I wanted to take a small break from all my other artistic commitments and just do a simple sketch and I thought it was high time for another Batman.

Enjoy!

Supernatural

The most requests I ever get since I started doing conventions has been for the long running TV show, Supernatural. I have always known about the show but mostly because my wife and I were huge fans of Gilmore Girls and of course, Dean from Gilmore Girls became Sam on Supernatural. Why didn't we watch it? I really don't know. Maybe because I have a fear of demonic things and my wife is terrified of vampires. But the show just kept going!! And people kept asking me about drawing the Winchester brothers. So finally, we relented and decided to check it out as most of the series is available on Netflix. We love it!! Granted, as of this writing we are only on season two so far but I don't think we will be stopping at any point and hope to catch up. Granted, I am still a wuss and won't watch it right before I head off to bed! Have to follow an episode with a comedy. House rules!

So I finally sat down and committed myself to doing a Supernatural piece and it was a lot of fun. I tried to keep it vague with the icons and such so it is not tied to any one storyline or season. Other than that, I just wanted to do the show justice. I have already posted about the process over on Facebook but I did just find the original thumbnails for the piece in my sketchbook and scanned them in to share with you all here for the first time. They were really tiny so I had to blow them up a bit. I hope you all like it.

Enjoy!

Sketchbook thumbnails!
 

Finished Pencil Drawing!

 

 

 

The Final!