Bat-Tuesday
Boy, this is half-assed, but it mostly got the stuff I wanted to get in it, so I'm posting it anyway. Also, I'm so tired that working on it any more is going to make it worse instead of better, and I'm not missing any deadlines over piddly little considerations like quality.
Anyway, I chose to draw Batman today because of a conversation in Seebelow and Ludickid's ljabout Batman that started in depth, and proceded from there to contentious and even a little divisive. But Batman's a character like that: he's so thoroughly embedded in our culture that everyone has an opinion of some kind about him, and some of them are pretty passionate.
Anyway, this version of Batman is based on the idea that he's essentially weaponized every part of himself as much as possible while still maintaining the masquerade of life as a millionaire playboy. Batman may have a deathwish, but he's in severe denial or at least defiance of it. He wants to make the world safe. Ironically, since he sees threats everywhere as a result of his childhood trauma, and because of his iron will and obsessive personality he cannot help but try to fight these omnipresent threats into extinction, he becomes a kind of fighting machine. This redesigned costume reflects a 'realistic' approach that someone might take to achieve that goal. Although I didn't want to reject the most important signifiers of batmanhood (ears, chest emblem, scalloped cape, cowl, utility belt) I did want to portray them as plausibly as I could. There's no skintight spandex armor, instead there's kevlar body armor worn under a loose black boilersuit to combine mobility and protection. The cowl is an armored, shock-absorbing helmet with a chinstrap holding it in place. The utility belt doesn't have pockets that will take precious seconds to open and extract the contents, but breakaway mini-canisters. The boots become high ribbed 'legbreaker' shin-guards. The cape, although totally impractical is the one thing I kept in pretty much the same form as traditional. Batman without his cape isn't batman anymore. The silhouette is THE most important thing.
Anyway, it's rough and ugly and unfinished, but it's about as realistic as a Batman can be, at least as a piece of concept art.
I'll probably do a much more polished and indepth version of this for the wildcard friday or color saturday postings.
Boy, this is half-assed, but it mostly got the stuff I wanted to get in it, so I'm posting it anyway. Also, I'm so tired that working on it any more is going to make it worse instead of better, and I'm not missing any deadlines over piddly little considerations like quality.
Anyway, I chose to draw Batman today because of a conversation in Seebelow and Ludickid's ljabout Batman that started in depth, and proceded from there to contentious and even a little divisive. But Batman's a character like that: he's so thoroughly embedded in our culture that everyone has an opinion of some kind about him, and some of them are pretty passionate.
Anyway, this version of Batman is based on the idea that he's essentially weaponized every part of himself as much as possible while still maintaining the masquerade of life as a millionaire playboy. Batman may have a deathwish, but he's in severe denial or at least defiance of it. He wants to make the world safe. Ironically, since he sees threats everywhere as a result of his childhood trauma, and because of his iron will and obsessive personality he cannot help but try to fight these omnipresent threats into extinction, he becomes a kind of fighting machine. This redesigned costume reflects a 'realistic' approach that someone might take to achieve that goal. Although I didn't want to reject the most important signifiers of batmanhood (ears, chest emblem, scalloped cape, cowl, utility belt) I did want to portray them as plausibly as I could. There's no skintight spandex armor, instead there's kevlar body armor worn under a loose black boilersuit to combine mobility and protection. The cowl is an armored, shock-absorbing helmet with a chinstrap holding it in place. The utility belt doesn't have pockets that will take precious seconds to open and extract the contents, but breakaway mini-canisters. The boots become high ribbed 'legbreaker' shin-guards. The cape, although totally impractical is the one thing I kept in pretty much the same form as traditional. Batman without his cape isn't batman anymore. The silhouette is THE most important thing.
Anyway, it's rough and ugly and unfinished, but it's about as realistic as a Batman can be, at least as a piece of concept art.
I'll probably do a much more polished and indepth version of this for the wildcard friday or color saturday postings.
posted by Austin at 5:07 AM
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