Another Cass Cain costume design from me!

This one is less interesting than the one by someone else I linked to below.  I was thinking along Kirby lines as far as the costume goes, but the drawing itself is pretty shabby.  I tried to work out a few kinks in those "background" images, but I was really freezing up for some reason.  That's Cesar Romero as the Joker to the left, and to the right there's Hayley Kiyoko, a multi-talented entertainer (she sings, she dances, she acts, she does it all!) who I think looks a lot like Damion Scott's original Cass at times.  So I "cast" her as Cass and tend to model my Cass' facial features after hers.

You wanna see a really cool sketch of Cassandra Cain?

No, not one of mine!  Mine aren't cool.  This one is.  Because of the way Tumblr attributes things with all the reblogging and whatnot, I don't know who gets credit for drawing it, but whoever that person is can really draw the heck out of Cass.

It's just a simple sketch with a very organic line.  Gestural, very alive.  Interesting pose, very intense facial expression with a lot of serious personality, good feeling for weight distribution.  Even the hair treatment is nice.  I like the forms making up the body, too.  There's nothing about this sketch I don't like except for the fact I didn't draw it!

Is it by a professional?  A fan?  Is it just from someone's sketchbook, and, if so, is there a place where I can find the artist's finished work?

At least one person thinks Cass is coming back in Batman: Eternal #9 (June 2014)

And I agree.  I agree there's a ghost of a chance there's a smidgen of a slight possibility that it could be a thing that may or may not happen.  I'd be glad.  It would mean I have to buy a Nu-52 DC comic, which is something I stopped doing after Katana #8.

Checking out Eternal artist Guillem March's art on his blog.  Wow, he's been around practically forever, but I'm so out of the DC fan loop, I'd never even heard of this guy.  Damn, I quite like it, though!  I love the line quality and the way he handles dramatic lighting and figure construction.  He knows how to twist bodies, doesn't he?  Lots of energy in the rendering and lots of life.  Little bit of Kaluta, little bit of Kubert, little Buscema, little Wrightson, little Bissette/Totleben.  There's a kind of classic quality to what I'm seeing there, like he could have done a few covers for The Witching Hour back in the 70s.  I love comic book drawings that look like drawings rather than super-slick fashion magazine photos.  This guy definitely needs to draw Cass.

But whether or not he is or already has... that is the question, isn't it?

One of my many Cass Cain costume redesigns...

This one features a helmet with a vampire bat teeth motif for the mouthpiece area.  And a katana because swords are cool.  I doubt she carries it around.  She probably picked it up after beating up someone who uses one.  No clumsy cape.  Cass doesn't need something that would just wrap around her in a fight and inhibit her movement.  No bright yellow belt with giant pouches full of junk she never uses anyway, although I imagine there's a grappling gun thing attached to the back of the more subdued belt she is wearing.  There's a self-portrait of the exhausted, disappointed artist, Cesar Romero Joker, confused Luke Skywalker and a tiny Superman hidden among the faces and figures in the background.  Actually, that's all random stuff done for inking practice.

"BATSUIT" - Batman Music Video feat. BATMAN, Nightwing, Catwoman from "J...

Okay, wow! I have to admit this isn't what I expected when I got a comment asking me to check it out and post it here. I thought it was going to be one of those videos with images from the comics set to some melancholy emo tune (wait, is there another kind of emo tune?). Or a fan film with more enthusiasm than skill in the execution. I'm in favor of both of those things, actually. Instead, it turns out to be a slick music video with some surprisingly well-executed fight choreography to go with the beats, plus some excellent cosplay.

 The catchy song is one of those "come on" songs, which is a traditional theme in pop music. "Let's Do It" by Cole Porter may edit itself by making the "do it" refer to falling in love, but you know what you're supposed to think it means during the lines about birds, bees and educated fleas. These days, we can be more explicit and this song's lyrics make no bones (hee hee) about the singer Jennifer Zhang's passion for Batman's body.

And I'm completely cool with that, as well, although someone appears to disagree with Zhang's spy-flick flirting methods about halfway through. Give it a watch and find out who it is. Here's a spoiler-- it isn't Spoiler.

Kinda Teen Titans...

This morning I was drawing the Hulk, then switched to drawing a line-up for what I think would be a fantastic group of Teen Titans.  It consists of Cassandra Cain (naturally, for this blog), her pal Spoiler (in the hood; I don't know how her costume works yet), the original Wonder Girl before they angsted her up then made her disappear and a very serious Supergirl as their leader.  I think it's fun to draw Supergirl with freckles, by the way.  I'd probably stick Robin, Cyborg and Changeling on the team, too.  Hellboy showed up to ask me to stop being an idiot.

Why did I draw four fingers on his hand of doom?  That really was the act of an idiot!

Today's Black Bat exercise...

I don't have a lot of time for drawing during the week, but I still try to fit some in every single day.  This drawing is based on an image I created a while back.  Every so often I learn something new about art and then revisit previous sketches/roughs and see if I can apply the new knowledge to them.  This was fooling around with a certain line quality, and then I worked on some dramatic under-lit faces and cross-hatching experiments.

You don't even want to know how long it took to ink Cass' costume!

Oh, you do?  About 10 minutes.  It's not that long, really.  It just seemed that way.  And in the end, she still has lumpy, misshapen legs I regret.