Batman

8"x10" oil painting on a canvas panel
8″x10″ oil painting on a canvas panel

 

March is upon us and at the end of the month Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice is coming to the movie theaters.  This is a film I’m very excited for and I figure this would be a good time to do some art based on the characters that will be in the movie for this month.  Today features the Michael Keaton version of Batman from the 1989 Tim Burton film.  When this movie came out, it was a big deal to me.  At that point I was a huge Marvel Comics fan and had not paid a lot of attention to the Dark Knight.  To be honest, I did not pay much attention to DC’s characters.  Like most kids I knew who the big players were.  I watched the Super Powers cartoon and the Batman tv show.  But that was about it.    This movie was very eye opening for me.

I can still remember reading the movie novelization, playing with the action figures, I had a cool Batman shirt and then going straight to the music store to get the Prince soundtrack right after the movie.

This movie is not perfect but I do still enjoy it.  Michael Keaton’s performance was great.  He played Bruce Wayne perfectly.  His Batman was intense.  I also enjoyed Kim Basinger as Vicki Vale.  But, I’m torn by Jack Nicholson as Joker.  I think the make up they did on him was great and of course his acting was just as good.  I always felt he was a bit too old and he does some pretty lame things, like pulling a 5 foot long hand gun out of his pants to shoot down the Batwing plane with one shot.  Ugh.  The mood of the film itself is perfect for Gotham City.  Tim Burton’s vision of the film is excellent.  And a completely different version of the setting and characters that we were previously used to from the Batman tv show of the 60’s.

The painting itself was something kind of new for me also.  I usually do not paint on a canvas textured surface.  I typically go for a smooth surface to paint on like the paintings I did in January.  And, I haven’t played around with oil paints since I had my last art show.  Technique was also a new thing for me on this painting.  I have been recently studying a new painting instructional book and also watching some dvds about painting.  So, this is a new way of thinking when I paint.

We will have to see how this painting technique pans out for me in the future.

Keaton's Batman Underpainting

Here is the under painting before I started laying on the oil paint.

Next up we shall see who challenges Batman in the new film, Superman.

 

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#batman #batmanvsuperman #dccomics #michaelkeaton #timburton #movieart #fanart #oilpainting #portrait

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As Time Goes By

As Time Goes By

8″x10″ ink and marker drawing

“We’ll always have Paris.”

    This is the last week of the month of love theme, and possibly my last piece for this theme.  The drawing is from a scene from the movie, Casablanca.  It’s a complete classic and made to perfection.  I love everything about it.  It has some great quotes and amazing music.  I named this piece after the song, As Time Goes By, which is a song that has a big impact on the characters in the film.  It’s about the joy and pain that love can bring and the hard choices that you have to make.  And it’s got Nazis ruining everything.  I know people might have problems watching a black and white movie from the 40’s, but to me it’s a must see.

“Kiss me.  Kiss me as if it were the last time.”

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#casablanca #humphreybogart #ingridbergman #classichollywood #goldenageofhollywood #fanart #movieart

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Spider-Man’s Kiss

Spider-Man's Kiss
Spider-Man’s Kiss

Here is a little 5″x7″ gouache painting that I did last night.  I felt like doing a little study of this scene from the first Spider-Man movie for this Month of Love.  It’s been a while since I’ve done a completely gouache paint painting and I figured I would give it a shot.  I also tried to give the under drawing a loose feeling by not using my normal mechanical pencils.

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#spiderman #spider-man #marvel #marvelmovies #love #tobeymaguire #kirstendunst

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Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Bram Stoker's Dracula

I have crossed… oceans of time to find you…

  Here is a portrait of Vlad Dracula and Mina from 1992’s, Bram Stoker’s Dracula.  This movie, I find, is a bit polarizing to to many horror movie fans.  I think the fact that the movie is more romance than horror is probably the big hurdle.  Well, that and Keanu Reeves’ performance.  Bad acting aside I do enjoy this film.  I think it’s visually stunning.  And, I do enjoy the romance between Mina and Dracula.  As a monster movie fan I can’t say this is my favorite version of Dracula.  I will always pick the original Bela Lugossi film as my favorite Dracula flick.  But, the 1992 version is still an enjoyable addition to the Dracula film catalog.

Mina: I want to be what you are, see what you see, love what you love.

Dracula: Mina, to walk with me you must die to your breathing life and be reborn to mine.

Mina: You are my love… and my life, always.

Dracula: Then, I give you life eternal. Everlasting love. The power of the storm. And the beasts of the earth. Walk with me to be my loving wife, forever.

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#love #relationships #valentinesday #darkness #horror #monthoflove #dracula #bramstoker

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Darkness Melts Away

Darkness Melts 9"x6" marker drawing
Darkness Melts
9″x6″ marker drawing

 

A Light Arrives

Time Freezes

My Eyes Can Adjust

Darkness Melts Away

All I Need To See Is You

I wanted to put out another one of these illustrations for a “poem” I wrote for this week.  So I could sneak it in before Valentine’s Day.  This one is about that feeling you get with that early spark of a loving relationship.  Especially when you, or maybe both people, are coming together after being hurt from prior situations.  The right person comes into your life and brings that much needed light to your soul.  Like a lighthouse shines it’s light to break through the dark and the fog.  It’s an amazing moment and also a scary moment to realize that this one person can turn everything around and change your life, when you had almost given up.

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#love #relationships #valentinesday #darkness

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The Painted Ladies

The Painted Ladies 8"x10" ink and acrylic paint on wood
The Painted Ladies
8″x10″ ink and acrylic paint on wood

This painting is one that I did for someone for their birthday.  It’s actually based on a photo that she sent me while on a beach trip.  This area is called the Painted Ladies.  I have never been to or even heard of this beach before she told me about it.  And then she texted me a photo and as soon as I saw it I knew I wanted to paint it for her.  I’ve been holding onto the photo for a little while now, waiting for the right time to do it.  Since she was celebrating a birthday last week, I felt like the time was now.  What also helped inspire me to get it started was that I bought a wood panel a few weeks ago with no plans for it.  I then put it together that I would like to paint this image on it because I thought it could work with the kind of rustic look the wood panel brings.  I even used the natural wood for the non shaded sand areas.  And I tried to leave little spots of the wood throughout the painting to make it look a little rougher.

Doing artwork for someone, who doesn’t know what you are doing it or what the picture is, is a tricky situation.  I went back and forth several times on if I should do it or not.  What if she doesn’t like it, or doesn’t want it?  Is it cheesy to give some one a painting as as a gift.  I struggled with these questions for a while.  But, luckily the looming deadline of a birthday made me bite the bullet and start working.  But, those same questions kept coming back.  When someone sees your art and likes or wants a piece of art is a great feeling.  The idea of blindly giving someone something you did for them and noticing a uninterested or unimpressed reaction worries me.  I finally decided I was best off giving her a heads up that I was going to give her a painting and if she didn’t want it I would understand and and would not be insulted.  Thankfully, she was interested and I delivered the painting to her.

 

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#paintedladies #beach #acrylicpainting #giftofart

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The Princess Bride

11"x16" ink and water color painting on toned paper.
11″x16″ ink and water color painting on toned paper.

“AS YOU WISH”

  Week two of February is upon us and here is my second “love” themed piece for the month.  This is a painting based on the movie, The Princess Bride.  This is one of those cult classic type movies that has a big following.  I must admit that I am new to this movie.  I saw it for the first time only recently, in the last two years.  And after hearing how great this movie is for so long, I was pretty confident that I would be underwhelmed by it.  But, I gave it a shot and I’m glad I did because I did enjoy it.  It’s a nice fantasy movie with interesting characters and a fun story.  Best of all it has Andre The Giant in it.  Since the movie, at it’s heart, is a love story, I figured it would be a fun subject to paint for this month’s theme.

This painting is for sale for $50.00

Check out my Etsy store to purchase it: https://www.etsy.com/listing/267463785/the-princess-bride?ref=shop_home_active_1

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#movieart #fanart #princessbride

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You Keep Me Dry

8"x8" ink and marker
8″x8″ ink and marker

Welcome to the start of February and a month of love.  I wanted to try and celebrate the feeling of love this month with the art I’m creating and posting.  And this subject matter is certainly taking me out of my comfort zone.  I wish I could be the type of artist who can put their heart on their sleeve for everyone to see.  But, unfortunately I do not express myself well.  That’s something I would like to change in the future.  And, I do have plans to start doing soon.  So, this month can kind of be my way of taking baby steps.  I would like to be able to open up and show my feelings to someone.  Try and express how important love is to me.  Things that I probably couldn’t say out loud.

But, love is a double edged sword.  And I’m hoping to keep this month’s work on the positive feelings that love brings.  Those moments where love first appears, makes us laugh or shelters us.  The times where the only things that matter at that exact moment are two people.  Learning about each other.

Today’s drawing is a style that I will be repeating.  A more illustrative style with a few lines of that I wrote that helped inspire the drawing.  It’s a close to a poem as I can get.  I got the idea for doing this after I recently bought a book of poems by Tim Burton, The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy & Other Stories.  By the title you can kind of tell it’s not really a story about the happiness of love, but it helped plant the seed for me.

 

#valentinesday #love #valentine #lovestory #relationship #soulmates

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