Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Batman Black and White statue!!!!!



Since DC Direct has already solicited the statue they did based on my designs for Batman, I figured it would be cool to show a bit of work I did to help the sculptor get the details right. When the amazing folks at DC Direct got a hold of me for this they already had a pose in mind, based on the first Gotham Knights cover I did. I asked to make some minor modifications to costume in order to represent what I'm doing with the costume now, specifically with the graphic novel I'm currently working on. They were kind enough to oblige so I started a few detailed drawings to give them a clearer vision. The idea was that the drawings would also show just how the costume was assembled, starting with the body suit and moving on to the cape, cowl and accessories.
My ideas for the armor and overall texture of the costume are pretty specific, and I was really pleasantly surprised by just how accurate the ridiculoulsly talented sculptor, Jean St. Jean, was to my drawings, right down to the seams of the kevlar!!! Of course some of the little particulars had to be ignored due to the size of the final figure. For example, I usually portray Batman's cape as being made of a cracked leather or something similar to mimick the texture of a bat wing. At just over six inches, that type of detail just starts to look dirty. In the end, though, the COOLEST aspect of working on this was learning what works and doesn't work in three dimensions. As sculpturally as I like to think while drawing, nothing compares to seeing the thing in the flesh (or modeling clay as it may be). It definitely pointed me towards studying more sculpture in general. Come on....Bernini!!!! Does it get any better?

14 comments:

  1. This is so so SO AWESOME!!! I freaked when I found out that they were making a statue of your version of BATMAN... -jasn

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  2. Good lord, it's been forever! I'm happy you finally started a blog, it's hard to keep track of you. Your artwork is awesome, as always!

    Jeannie
    Bakersfield

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  3. Are there any pictures of the statue in progress yet? Would love to see those!
    Also love your artwork and ideas! Brilliant!

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  4. I do have some photos of the statue in progress, but since it's not my work I would hesitate to post them. Let me see what I can do though...

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  5. Awesome! i dicover your work in " superman man of steel" and i tried to follow all of your work, one of the things you can publish in the blog is haow you work, tutorials, sketches, influences and many stuff, cheers

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  6. Hello from the first man who did the wiki about you. I looked into your blog and liked your writing,I really enjoyed your artworks. Thanks for your blog.

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  7. Lee!
    This blog rocks!
    this b/w statue is awesome!
    hope all is well!

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  8. A few weeks back I e-mailed Splash Page Art to see if you had a site someplace I was missing. So glad you've started this blog. You've been one of my favorite artists for a while now, and it's great to see some behind-the-scenes art and commentary!

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  9. Any chance we can see a full Batman sketch from you? ;) Glad to see you having a blog btw! =) Love all youve done with DC universe!

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  10. Jean St Jean has posted pictures of it on Myspace http://myspace.com/jean_st_jean; good work lee!

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  12. Oh wow! That's an incredible amount of detail and such an a accurate translation of the drawing. This is probably going to be the first statue I'm too tempted to pass up.

    Now if only there was a statue based off your Joker.

    What Batman Graphic Novel are you currently working on? Is it the dream project you mentioned near the end of this interview? *crosses fingers*

    http://www.batman-on-film.com/leebermejointerview.html

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  13. Thanks for the comments folks!! Drazar, got a Batman/Joker drawing coming. It's an original piece I did for Gabriele Del'Otto. Look for it in a couple weeks. C.R., looks like your wish is coming true :)

    I can say no more at the moment.....

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  14. Ah man, that's HUGE!

    Congrats. I CAN NOT wait.

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