Once upon a time, there was a
young woman who had a goal of drawing a super hero. She imagined and planned
her execution and worked towards her objective. Nevertheless, this hero was
stubborn and didn’t seem to want to be drawn. But with a little elbow grease,
the girl whipped her hero into shape and got it done.
 |
| rough sketch ©2014 B. Lewis |
I’d set out to draw Batman one
morning and I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I did a little research and
came up with a sketch of Batman perched on a gargoyle and in my mind, this was
going to be badass. I did a small sketch, much smaller than the sketches I’d
done for some of the previous digital paintings I’d recently completed, and as
I think about it, I probably did it because I didn’t know what the heck I was
doing. No problem though, I was in the zone. I scanned in that sketch and went
to work. The gargoyle I drew wasn’t exactly how I’d envisioned it but I figured
I’d work it out later.
The first thing I did was begin to
work on batman and because this image was to be zoomed out somewhat, I didn’t
worry so much about making him too terribly detailed. I was going more for
atmosphere. Batman – DONE. Next I moved on to that gargoyle and as I began to
take a closer look at my sketch, something was kind of off. I fumbled along and
ended up turning my “Wicked Witch” looking gargoyle into something that looked
more like a wolf than a gargoyle but hey, I was the creator, I could do what I
wanted. So I worked and reworked that gar-wolf until finally I decided to
change the game plan.
I move my Batman, same pose, to
the ground and zoomed in on him. This meant that I had to detail him and make
him look good. Batman – DONE (again). Next I had to decide on the background,
and if you guys don’t know already, backgrounds is where I really struggle and
since this was no longer the gargoyle, skyscraper scene, I had to do something
different. I slept on this one. In a flash, it came to me, ‘Let’s put Batman in a dark alley’. Done!
Now the final touches and I’m home free. I’d added a moon with the Batman
symbol and some tiny bats and went to sign and save and that’s when it
happened: CRASH, my computer stopped functioning and my file now looked like
static on a cable-less television.
 |
| computer crash - this is what was left of my file |
To say I was deflated would be an
understatement but strangely, it didn’t upset me, it was so unbelievable that
it had an air of comedy about it because surely, these things only happen on
T.V.
 |
| Final Image ©2014 B. Lewis |
A few hours after discovering my
file had crashed, I decided to go head on and try again. Luckily, I still had
my Batman and gar-wolf, which saves me on having to draw him all over again
plus I knew how I wanted the background and how to achieve it so this was going
to be much easier and faster than the first time. Batman – DONE, again, and
this time, background - DONE, again. Now
for the tiny bat details, save and……. CRASH, again. I couldn’t believe it. This
time instead of a static file, I got a black screen. I had only two days before
I needed to have this thing done for the Comic Expo.
 |
| Version I took to the Comic Expo ©2014 |
|
I pondered on giving up and not
worrying about it. I even thought about inking it, but deep down, I didn’t want
to do any of that. So for one final push, I decided to give it a go. If it
crashed this time, then I’d charge it to the game and say I tried my best.
For the third and final time, I
detailed Batman, completed his background, added my details and all was right
with my world because it saved. I printed it out once as I’d painted it and a
second time for color correction; I’d finally conquered the Bat.
The feeling of pride and
satisfaction was indescribable and from this experience, I’d learned so much.
Each time I painted Batman’s details, he looked better than the previous time.
Now the final product that I presented at the expo is an abbreviated version of
the final product I’d created that night, but it looks amazing to me. They both
do really.
I had to summon my inner C.T.
Fletcher (
visit
his
YouTube page, he’s awesome) and get the job done.
