Detective Comics #31 - Cover Recreation

DETECTIVE COMICS #31

Here's the original by Bob Kane:

And here's my version:

I did this as a (belated) birthday present for a friend of mine, as he is a fan of Batman.  Come to think of it, I send him some drawing/painting that is Batman-related EVERY birthday... I wonder if he is getting sick of them, yet?  Well, if he is, he can just use 'em for starting his fireplace, or to keep himself warm on those cold, winter nights in Ohio.  :-)

For some reason, the blue in the sky kept shooting a little brighter than the finished painting.  I'm gonna blame my camera for that one.  :-)

Here's the process, for those even mildly interested...

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STEP ONE:  Here are the pencils.  This time around, I used a sheet of 140# Arches Cold-Press watercolor paper.  Cold Press paper is a little more rough than I normally use, as I prefer a smoother drawing and painting surface.  But, I bought a few sheets to see if I liked it or not.  I generally like Arches, but I think I will generally stick more often with the Hot Press surface.

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 STEP TWO:  I painted over the pencils in a light wash (darkened here so you can actually see 'em) so I could erase the pencils out.  I usually don't like the pencils showing through if I can help it, and they can blend in with the painting and make the colors a little muddy.

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 STEP THREE:  I did a light wash to start laying in some basic color.

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 STEP FOUR:  More painting...  Starting to work on the forms and modeling a bit more, adding some shading. 

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 STEP FIVE:  Even more watercolor painting...

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 STEP SIX:  This is where I was last week "On the Easel".

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 STEP SEVEN:  Here is the finished painting.  First, I added a little more texture to the grassy areas with a fan brush and some light green and dark green gouache.  I also tried--with moderate success--to fix the graduation of color in the sky.  It is still a little streaky, but every time I would try to fix it, it would still look streaky.  Ah, well, one of the problems with watercolor/gouache, sometimes.  I'll just have to call it good, for now.

I pushed some darks/shadows and went back in with some white gouache to the clouds/fog/mist to break up the edges so they didn't seem so "cut out".  I also had finally gotten around to adding the bats in the air; I'm still "iffy" on that part.  I may either remove a few, or add some more.  I also moved the robed guy's right hand a little bit.  It was really weird, before; now it is just a little weird.

I also decided to leave stars out of the picture, as I think it would have been a little too distracting.

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 Watercolor and gouache on 12" x 16" Arches Cold Press (140#) watercolor paper.

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