Cover Replica: Batman - Harley Quinn #1

Harley Quinn #1

Here's the original "Batman - Harley Quinn #1" cover by Alex Ross.

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And here is here's the cover replica for my pal (and Superman's), Jim, from Jimmy Jams Comics and Games in Winona, MN and La Crosse, WI.

It's been a while since I did one of these replicas... or, is it more accurate to call it a forgery?  Well, I guess I can kinda-sorta justify it as one of those "Master Reproductions", except with Alex Ross cover painting in this case rather than a Da Vinci or Michelangelo.  I also cheated a little bit and enlarged the figures of the painting and left off the logo (I still **HATE** lettering).

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STEP ONE:  I cut a 20" x 30" piece of hardboard, and then glued a 22" x 30" sheet of Stonehenge (#140) paper using acrylic medium, and trimmed the excess paper after it dried.  I then used a mixture of gesso and acrylic medium to paint over top of the Stonehenge paper to prep it for painting.  When that was prepped, I drew a 1" x 1" grid and set to penciling the cover image.  For the pencils, I used a blue lead .07 mechanical pencil to keep the lead from smearing too much.

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STEP TWO:  Here's the first pass with the acrylic paints.  I decided to go more with slightly more colorful version of Harley Quinn, rather than just black/gray and red.

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STEP THREE:  And here is the finished piece--after another 2-to-50 more passes.  I will admit it is a little bit weird and tricky trying to mimic a watercolor/gouache painting with acrylics.  As usual, my camera didn't do the best job; since the painting is so large it is a bit difficult to get the lighting to be uniform from top-to-bottom without sacrificing detailed shading.  In this case, I did the best to split the difference.  Oh, well...

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This was done with acrylic paint on 20" x 30" gessoed Stonehenge paper glued to hardboard.

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Shameless Self-Promotion: They Live Tattoo

"They Live" Tattoo

And here is the original image...

As a joking shout-out to a friend, Joel, I did up a caricature of of him as an alien from "They Live".  Then Joel no doubt had some sort of break with reality and decided it would be a good idea to have that image tattooed on his leg.  It was the end of 2019 when he did it, so who can blame him, I guess?  And, believe it or don't, it isn't the first time I've had someone put my art on their body as a tattoo.

I am always conflicted when it comes to something like this...  On the one hand (or leg, in this case), it **IS** really cool to have one's art represented as part of a "Permanent Collection", if you will.  On the other hand (er, leg), it is a mostly permanent part of someone's body, so having my art be a part of that seems like a terrible idea--bordering on irresponsible!  Then again, Joel has said he is a fan of my work, so his decision-making ability is already sketchy at best, so what did we all expect?  Tsk, tsk!

Seriously, it is an honor to have someone consider my art as a tattoo.  I will also admit it is somewhat strange and baffling (as well as a boost to the ol' ego) that someone would like my art enough to get it permanently placed on their own body.  So, that's kinda weird and surreal to think about, too.

In closing, if anyone else has a tattoo, or has used my art someplace, lemme know.  I'm enough of an egomaniac to want to see it--and maybe even show it off on my meager Blog!  :-)

THANKS for the pic, Joel!

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Happy New Year 2020!

Happy New Year!

Hey, my first posting of the new year!  And it's on New Year's Day and everything!

OK, this is probably cliche at this point.  But, I figured what better, nerdier way to ring in the New Year (and new decade for that matter) than having Old Man Time and Baby New Year replaced with old man Yoda and, well, Baby Yoda?

Of course, it is also tempting to just have Yoda's eyes bugged even more than usual on the "Maury Povich" show next to Yaddle, with the exclamation "You **ARE** the father!"  But, I'm sure that's also been done a million times already.

I just want to take a few moments to say THANK YOU to everyone who has stopped by to gawk at my meager drawings and dabblings, and a few brave souls who even chosen to follow my Blog, and/or even comment on some postings.  It is so greatly appreciated!

Here's to hoping the year 2020 doesn't just look good in hindsight!  After all, they say hindsight is 20/20, so who knows?  Best wishes to all!

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STEP ONE:  Here are the digital pencils, done in Clip Studio Paint on a 1,500px x 1,800px canvas at 300dpi.  For both of these, when finished, I Single-Layer Export as a .jpg and reduced it to 1,000px x 1,200px.and 200dpi.

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STEP TWO:  And here is the digital painting that was also done in Clip Studio Paint.  This time around, I thought I'd try to keep it digitally painted, rather than just doing the digital pen-and-ink and then coloring it as I normally seem to do.  I dunno.  The results are... mixed.  Try, try again, I guess.

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Done digitally in Clip Studio Paint.

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