Unwanted Valentines: The Joker from "The Dark Knight" (2008)

Unwanted Valentines: 

The Joker from "The Dark Knight" (2008)

This time around, it is an Unwanted Valentine from "The Dark Knight" (2008).

I will admit I really wasn't sure what to think of the first production stills that were released showing Heath Ledger's version of the Joker.  I was a little apprehensive at first, but when I saw it in the theaters, it was a great performance.  (And, no, I don't buy all the nonsense about how Heath Ledger got in too deep with the darkness of the character and that's why he died.  Nah, that sounds like bubblegum, pop-psych B.S.)

Anyway, his version of the Joker really blew the other versions out of the water.  I thought the high-watermark was Jack Nicholson's version, but he seemed goofy and cartoonish next to Ledger's version.  Normally, I find dark, angsty comics/movies rather boring (I got my fill of those in the 90's, after all).  But, in this case, it really worked, firing on all cylinders--A scary, nihilistic terrorist who has absolutely nothing to lose and wants to watch the world burn.

"Let's put a smile on that face!"  Yikes!

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STEP ONE:  Here are the digital pencils, done on a 1,500px x 2,100px at 300dpi.  I used a blue-line layer in Clip Studio Paint to quickly scribble the image.

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STEP TWO:  The digital inks were also done in Clip Studio Paint over top the digital pencils.

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STEP THREE:  I finally got around to figuring out how to do the same lettering effects in Clip Studio Paint as I do in Photoshop, with the wide stroke/outline around the red letters.  I also used various brushes to color the image.  Then the canvas was re-sized to 200dpi (which dropped the size down to 1,000px x 1,400px) and saved each layer as a separate .jpg. 

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Done digitally in Clip Studio Paint

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