Thursday, July 10, 2025

Superman: Adventure of Superman with George Reeves (1952 to 1958)

SUPERMAN:
George Reeves

Now it's the ubiquitous Superman of my childhood.  Every once in a while, it would be syndicated on a local channel and I would get to catch some of the episodes of "Adventures of Superman".  Reeves version of Superman was more square-jawed and avuncular.  As cool as it was to see Superman on the small screen, I was always disappointed he wasn't able to battle the villains from the comic books.  Instead, it was Superman fighting other middle-age men in suits... Granted, they are probably the true bad guys in society, but I wanted to see his fighting Brainiac, Mr. Mxyzptlk, and assorted aliens and monsters.  Granted, I was a dumb kid with no understanding of TV Budgets or Special Effects limitations of the time (as opposed to now when I'm a dumb adult with only a marginal understanding of TV Budgets or Special Effects limitations).

Still, it was from a time when beggars couldn't be choosers when it came to super-hero fare on the ol' television, and I took everything I could get.

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STEP ONE:  Here are the really quick, digital pencils, done on a 2,000px x 3,000px @ 300dpi fine Gesso canvas in Rebelle 7.

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STEP TWO:  Here's the colors done under the pencils, which I duplicated and merged down onto a single layer.  I then duplicated the Layer to preserve it for the "Work in Progress", and started working over the digital pencils/paints.

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STEP THREE:  And here's the finished digital painting, done with lots and lots of back-and-forth and blending.  Mostly, it was done on a single layer, with an occasional added one which was then merged down, as well.

I realized that the nose was a bit short and the shape of the head should have been a bit more square.  It's another example of a 1/4" here and the 1/8" there (that a .6cm to .3cm to those of you who use metric) can make a real difference as to how a picture turns out.  Onward to the next one or two!

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Done digitally in Rebelle 7

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