A Batman For All Seasons
polycounter lvl 18
Hi everyone, been a while.
Since I'm working as a level designer now, aside from the odd piece of concept art I do for work, it's been harder to satisfy the artistic itch. Correspondingly, I decided I'd kill two birds with one stone: the desire to get back to traditional painting, see where it takes me, and tackle a character whom I've always loved but never seemed to be able to render in any satisfactory way: Batman.
So I've started a little series of acrylic paintings, a project I call "A Batman For All Seasons." Partly inspired by Mignola's legendary, Elseworld-inspiring work on Gotham By Gaslight, I'm going to try and do some a lot of very different historic/cultural takes on ol' Bats and see how he holds up. In my mind his visual design is so iconic that he can survive most any transmutation and still be pretty recognizable; but part of what I'm trying to do here is stretch to see just how far that iconic essence will carry across boundaries.
first up: Batman 1944
and a detail:
11x14", acrylic on canvas board. Was a surprising bitch to scan and color correct, this is about 95% faithful to how the piece actually looks.
Open to comments, crits, and especially any ideas you might have for an unusual take on ze Batman. I'm thinking of doing a feudal Japanese Batman, or other such unusual cultural/historical setup.
Since I'm working as a level designer now, aside from the odd piece of concept art I do for work, it's been harder to satisfy the artistic itch. Correspondingly, I decided I'd kill two birds with one stone: the desire to get back to traditional painting, see where it takes me, and tackle a character whom I've always loved but never seemed to be able to render in any satisfactory way: Batman.
So I've started a little series of acrylic paintings, a project I call "A Batman For All Seasons." Partly inspired by Mignola's legendary, Elseworld-inspiring work on Gotham By Gaslight, I'm going to try and do some a lot of very different historic/cultural takes on ol' Bats and see how he holds up. In my mind his visual design is so iconic that he can survive most any transmutation and still be pretty recognizable; but part of what I'm trying to do here is stretch to see just how far that iconic essence will carry across boundaries.
first up: Batman 1944
and a detail:
11x14", acrylic on canvas board. Was a surprising bitch to scan and color correct, this is about 95% faithful to how the piece actually looks.
Open to comments, crits, and especially any ideas you might have for an unusual take on ze Batman. I'm thinking of doing a feudal Japanese Batman, or other such unusual cultural/historical setup.
Replies
good to see some non-digital art!
if you're up for doing something in the same time period, ss officer batman might look good.
Would we be able to recognize batman the caveman? ^^
uh. . . that should be 'sweet' . . .
i kinda feel like the red is a too much, it really feels like it flattens it out.
Stylistically its jarring, and I guess with the subject matter being batman wearing green is pretty jarring... so i guess it works
As for other takes... Well, by Gaslight was Bat's in 1880's London against Jack the Ripper, so how about Bat's in 1960's London, up against the Kray's. or 1880's Western America, up aganst a gunslinger (obviously you don't need to see who he's "against", but it might help the attitude of the piece). Just my tuppeny bit.
looks badass. i'm voting for a Dane batman. Let him go viking!
This thread can't die yet!