Batman-uary 2023 - Alien Batman

BATMAN-UARY 2023:
Alien Batman

Just in time for the end of the month--It's BATMAN-UARY!  The year has just started and I'm already running behind.  Sigh...

This is one of the rare times when the story delivers what the cover shows for the most part: Batman and Robin are on an alien world, and in the ensuing few days the atmosphere transforms them into aliens and acquire strange powers (telekinesis).  It's just that simple!  They manage to get back to Earth, but remain aliens until the effects of the atmosphere begin to wear off (don't worry, they get better).  Until that time, they fight one of the greatest of their rogues gallery: The Yellow Sweater Gang...  

Oh, 50's and 60's Batman, don't ever change!

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STEP ONE:  Here are the digital scribbles for the outline of the cover redo.

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STEP TWO:  And here are the digital inks, for what they're worth.  I did cheat and trace the lettering for the logos and such.  I also found a reference picture of some sort of fishing village for the background.

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STEP THREE:  The colors were flatted and then gone over with the airbrush tool.  After it was done, I thought I should add a little texture to the overall drawing and imported a paper texture I got from RetroSupply Co. to overlay the image, giving it a more newsprint feel.  

OK, I also admit I relied a little too much on the Airbrush tool for this one--something I normally don't use all that often (and it shows).

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Done Digitally in Clip Studio Paint.

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Happy New Year! 2023 - Everything Everywhere All At Once

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
 Everything Everywhere All at Once

Hey, hey!  It's the first post of a New Year!  HAPPY 2023!

In this case, it's for one of the best movies of 2022, "Everything Everywhere All at Once".  As I've mentioned many a time in this Blog, I'm a sucker for stories involving a Multiverse and alternate timelines--and this movie has them in spades (and clubs, diamonds, and hearts, as well).  How did this movie do a better job of showing alternate universes than "Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness", directed by Sam Rami, no less?  

It is ferociously silly and absurd, has fun action, and more heart than one would believe possible in a movie featuring a nihilistic "Everything Bagel", hotdog fingers, butt plugs, and so many googly-eyes.

Side story: Googly-eyes are amusing to me--they make just about everything funny.  When the kids were much younger, I found one in a drawer and did an ol' lick-and-stick and put in on my forehead as a mystical third eye.  It was a mildly amusing family joke and for my birthday later that year they glued about 100 googly-eyes on a T-Shirt.  (It was funny, but if you wore it all the eyes rattled as the pupils bounced as you walked so it was a bit too noisy to actually wear.  I do keep it on a shelf with other keepsakes the kids have given me throughout the years.)

So, when Michelle Yeoh placed the googly-eye on her forehead it was a moment of pure joy, like a scene the universe created just for me.  And the great Michelle Yeow fight while wearing the googly-eye... well, perhaps "fight" is the wrong word.  You have to see it to know what I'm talking about.

"Please, be kind.  Especially when we don't know what's going on."

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STEP ONE: Here are the digital pencils, done on a 2,000px x 2,000px canvas in Rebelle 6. 

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STEP TWO:  Here's the first couple passes with various brushes.  Mostly, I was just trying to get a feel for what the new brushes would do.  To be honest, even though I've had Rebelle for a couple years and liked a lot of the effects, I never used it as much as I should.  I should probably do something to change that...

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STEP THREE:  And here's the finished digital painting, done with numerous brushes at various opacities and blending.  Overall, it turned out mostly OK (the face is a bit off and I have to stop myself from going back in again to keep incrementally fixing it). 

I do like a lot of the ways Rebelle mixes color and mimics a lot of the same look and feel of traditional media for the most part.  Of course, there is a slight Uncanny Valley, where it is so close to traditional media at times that it is all the more frustrating when it doesn't quite behave as perfectly as I would want.  But, I guess I have to keep trying to see if I can overcome that with more practice.

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Done digitally in Rebelle 6.

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