Ultrapaul

The classic Batgirl’s portrayl always seem to come off as girly and lame despite her being a hero. A kind of second-rate Nancy Drew, if you will. Take this theme song for instance. It made more sense to give her an urban commando outfit with the kicks and escrima sticks like the ones Nightwing carries.

Julie Newmar is the Catwoman I always remember. I went light on the accessories because she’s not a gadgety character. They are heavy on the blacks which I don’t normally do but am starting to like.

It always bothers me that artists typically draw Batman and Superman with the same physique. I know there’s the metaphor in their relationship but considering who they are I imagine them looking very different. Batman is a slick and athletic billionaire. Superman is a big alien farm boy who gets his power from solar radiation so I made him more bulky and organic. The farm boots and the semitic hair give him a little more awkwardness that I think the character should have. I ‘m also addicted to the Liquid Ink tool in Painter. There’s some great inky and brushy effects that I used here.

I made an exercise for myself where I would try to redesign existing characters, giving each one a different style. Drawing old characters is an interesting challenge; all the superficial elements are already there so it forces you to think more abstractly. I started with Batman, of course. I love that the DC characters are so graphic, almost like they’re logos themselves. I made this one pointy and angular but a bit rubbery and goofy at the same time. It ended up more Timm-ish than I had intended but I think it’s a hard thing to avoid when unless you go more realistic.

They said I was crazy to work on this show but I can certainly say this was much more enjoyable that what I had been doing. On the plus side, when making a toy commercial for a non-existent product, really, the only victim is the client rather than society at large. However, the game is apparently now slated for an early 2008 release even though 2007 was declared to be the Year of Chaotic.

In case you were wondering, everything was drawn in Photoshop (the houses were drawn with the path tool) because it was easier to manage all the layers than in Sketchbook.

One day I came in to work, sat down and thought to myself, “I am making on a toy commercial for Disney (Jetix). Am I making the world a worse place to live?” Whatever the case, I did have the opportunity to squeeze out a few cool layouts.

Saitns be praised. I finally stopped futzing with the template and got it to a state that I’m relatively happy with so now I can do something about content.