El Caballero Oscuro

After a TON of different poses and figure studies, I got ready to bang out the final "El Batman" drawing. I'd measured out a composition with some other elements in it, and was kinda half-heartedly working on it but kept gravitating back to another sketch, which slowly became the final piece here. So much for a measured, linear process...

Those other elements are still crawling around in my head though; one way or another they'll have to come out.

I just watched "The Dark Knight" for the 47th time, and one of Batman's final lines just popped into my head; fits really well with my last blog about why people love Batman: "I'm whatever Gotham needs me to be." Which is rad both in and out of context. Cause that's his appeal too; you can pick your own flavor of Batman, from all his crazy incarnations. You can mix a suicide shake of three or four different versions, and play around with what would and wouldn't work in each one. He really is whatever you need him to be.

Now go see the new movie. It's pretty good.

El Guanisimo/How I learned to stop worrying if it's been done before and Love the Bat

Early warm-up sketch for another show at Art du Vin. So glad these things are so well supported and attended!

I was talking to Garry about the show as he was writing up a press release-style blurb to put in the paper, and he'd decided to keep it short and sweet, but I think what we talked about deserves to be said. And since this is my blog, I will now subject you to why I think a Batman-themed art show fits so well with who and what Batman is.

Batman's been around the block in almost every form of media known to Modern Science, and no matter how serious or how garishly impractical he is portrayed, we love him for it.
From his first appearance in 1939 with a cast of one-gag throwaway villains (who somehow managed to stick around through an avalanche of different adaptations, spinoffs and retellings), to Christopher Nolan's jaw-droppingly gritty action trilogy, this dude has appeal in any and all contexts.

Batman is fun. Batman is a badass. Batman is amusingly and hopelessly principled. Batman is James Bond mixed with Inspector Gadget mixed with Dick Tracey mixed with James T. Kirk. There is something in this character for everyone, be it a leather fetish or a love of cool gadgets or a desire to watch an uncompromising pillar of will beat the crap out of a guy in a purple blazer, you get it all.


BATMAN.



Though there are countless different portrayals of Batman, and everyone has their favorite (some of mine being The Killing Joke and The Dark Knight Returns), this is the one I will always consider my introduction.
Right here.