It's that time of the year again... When I submit my entry for the San Diego Comic-Con International Souvenir Book. This year, I decided to go with THREE submissions. That was a first. I might have done more, but these 3 took more than enough time to do. There were too many good themes to choose form this year. I knew the 75th Anniversary of Batman was gonna be one of them. But the 30th Anniversary of the Ninja Turtles, and the 20th Anniversary of Hellboy came as a surprise.
This is the 4th consecutive year, I've submitted for the book. I had previously submitted for the 2013, 2012, and 2011 books, and each year I got published. This is the first year that I didn't slap the "Anniversary Year" on the image. Previous years I had "50 Years" or what not... this year, I just went with a stand-alone image. This was 2-fold. One, in past years, it felt... forced, and it was awkward sometimes to put years on the image. Also, I keep convincing myself that one of these days, the fine folks at SDCC will give me an Artist Alley table. As I haven't heard from them yet, and it's getting too close to the actual event for me to produce some "original" work, I figured I'd just save these, and run them off as "prints" to sell at the Con. At least then I'd have 'something' to sell. We shall see...
Another thing of interest, this was the first time I allowed myself to make some rather drastic changes between what I had drawn on paper, and what eventually came out in Photoshop. Almost all the art was tweaked a little (some cases a LOT) in Photoshop. Fixing proportion issues, or some cropping, and just various things. The most drastic of changes, was what I did in the Batman piece. Once I had finally settled on my design, I drew it out. I knew I wanted the murder in Crime Alley depicted, cuz that's when Batman is actually "born". So I drew the murder, and took it into Photoshop. I got as far as placing my "flat" colors when I realized... I did not like Martha Wayne AT ALL in the original drawing. I kept trying to convince myself that it wouldn't matter as Batman was the focus of the image... but Martha Wayne just kept bugging me. So I bit the bullet, and decided... I'd completely redraw her, insert her in via Photoshop, re-ink, and then color as if she'd been there the whole time. It was the first time I'd ever make such a drastic change between the paper and the digital. But, in the end, it was the right decision.
Here is the before and after of Martha Wayne. Seriously, what the hell was I thinking with that first image? I mean, SERIOUSLY! I'm glad I convinced myself to take another stab at her.
Now, I sit back and wait to see how many (if any) of this years submissions make the cut... c'mon July!!!
UPDATE: Only the Turtles made the cut. Bummer, because I REALLY LOVED the Batman. Ah well, I can sell it as prints. Maybe.
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