Batman Sketch Challenge – Day One – Batman

Common sense has abandoned me yet again, and I know I am going to regret this in a couple of days….  But I’m starting yet another sketch challenge.  Fortunately this time I plan to do a fun one: the cast of Batman.

This is one I have been meaning to do for a while, I have been putting it off for a long time.  The main reason (that is the excuse I’ve been using) was that I was trying to find an angle.  What I mean by that is that I have been wanting to make sure there was more to this sketch challenge than simple fanart.  When I do projects like this I enjoy the organic process where an idea leads to a new approach to the concept, which then leads to more ideas, ideas which quickly snowball to the point that by the time you have ‘finished’ your art is considerably different from what you originally envisioned and has become very much your own thing.

I find the best way to make this work is to go in with a planned approach.  Two examples would be my nursery rhymes set in the Regency/Georgian time frame (or as close as I could come to it without doing any research) and my fairy tale challenge from last year which was based around the same period, but with a Film Noir aesthetic.

I was tempted to do ‘original Batman’ and since Batman starts in 1939 he is almost film noir by default.  If 1939 is ‘Year One’ I assumed that ‘present-day Batman’ would be around 1948.  However, I caught myself overthinking the timeline.  Since the point of this exercise is to be spontaneous with a turnaround occurring under an hour, that was a big no-no.

Currently, my idea is to do a sort of modern version of the pulp world that the original Batman takes place in.  That means using things a lot of writers desperately try to keep and rationalize no matter how obsolete modern culture and technology have made them. (stuff like spandex and such).  To me, this suggests more of a masked subculture that is not exclusive to either vigilantes or criminals.  The other thing that occurs to me is that Batman needs more of a support crew than just Alfred.

For the first day, I am going to start with the man himself, and then take my usual random, pull names out of the magic Tupperware, approach.  Ironically Batman himself interests me the least of this project.  Like most of these comic settings, conflict is the glue that holds everything else together.  One thing that appeals to me in the notes I have made for this project is that while this setting will have a lot more shades of grey than usual, that is not how this Batman will see it…  This should lead to conflict.

Anyway, I hope everyone enjoys the ride for the next thirty days or more, this should be fun.

Some quick notes on this sketch itself,  I’ve managed to get around the spandex thing and need to redesign Batman by having him in shadows. I’m keeping the yellow on black icon partially as a “house signal” but mostly from Frank Miller’s “I wear a target on my chest because I can’t armor my head” thing.