A Not-Too-Dark Knight - Batman Artcard

This next artcard that I'm spotlighting is of the Caped Crusader, Batman.  Everyone knows Batman.  For this artcard, I wanted to do an homage to the logo for Bruce Timm's Batman: The Animated Series, yet rendered in my own style.  Batman is pretty hardcore, so I wanted to give him stubble to show that sometimes he spends a lot of hours on the job.  At the same time, he's also Bruce Wayne underneath that cowl, so there needs to be an element of "handsomeness" to the face.  Bruce Wayne is supposed to be a charming millionaire playboy.  When I started reading Batman comics in the early 90's, one of my favorites things about many of them, was how they depicted the night sky using colors other than black.  My favorite was this teal green sort of color.  That was where I pulled the inspiration from when it came to coloring the night sky for this piece.

This artcard is available as prints. Please use the "Contact Me" form at the top-left of this page to request one and inquire further about pricing and sizes.

4.25 x 5.5 inches cardstock.

Pencil, ink, Prismacolor pencil, Prismacolor marker.

Batman ©DC Comics 2011

Hello, Bluebird - Supergirl Artcard

This artcard is an all original work and can be purchased for $15 plus shipping ($4.95 USPS Priority Shipping - international shipping will be calculated upon an individual order).  This artcard of Supergirl, Kara Zor-El, was one that I made for the Mid-Ohio Con for 2008.  It has since received a coloring job by hand.  My goal with it was to depict the feeling of the aerial ballet in the Supergirl movie starring Helen Slater.



4.25 x 5.5 inches cardstock.

Pencil, ink, Prismacolor pencil, Prismacolor marker.

Supergirl ©DC Comics 2011

"Here, Kitty, Kitty!" for Wonder Woman Day #4

I'm participating in the Wonder Woman Day IV Charity Auction this year.  The auction benefits these Domestic Violence Shelters and hot-lines:  Raphael House of Portland, Bradley-Angle House, and Portland Women's Crisis Line.  I am very proud to participate in this auction because these are very important causes to me.  Please bid, and bid high!

I wanted to do a picture of Wonder Woman being happy and having fun - something that I don't think happens nearly enough in the comic books.  I also really wanted to draw She-Ra and Catra, as well as Wonder Woman's enemy, Cheetah.  Most pictures I've seen that have Wonder Woman and She-Ra together have them fighting each other.  I really don't care for that, because I believe that Wonder Woman and She-Ra would get along really well and enjoy a tremendous sense of camaraderie, and I wanted to show them being friendly and having fun together.  I also wanted to play on the fact that they both have well-known enemies with a cat theme.

While I take a lot of my cues for Wonder Woman and Cheetah from the way that Terry Dodson depicted them when he drew the Wonder Woman comic book, I also take a couple of Lynda Carter elements that I sneak in here and there with Wonder Woman.  Cheetah also has a few George Perez elements in her design, especially when it comes to her facial markings, which Dodson mostly abandoned.

She-Ra and Catra were really fun to draw.  I'm a big fan of Mattel's Masters of the Universe Classics action figure line.  It's a melding of various canons of their franchises into one cohesive line.  My approach to She-Ra and Catra was along that lines.  I wanted to depict them with the familiarity of the Filmation designs of the cartoon that everyone knows and loves these characters from, but also bring in some of the details that the action figures had, whose designs were very different from the cartoon designs.  The result give detailed and interesting looks that easily stand up well alongside Wonder Woman and Cheetah.

The background is inspired by the Whispering Woods background paintings that were featured in the She-Ra: Princess of Power cartoon.  They are lush, flamboyant and magical looking.  As I was planning out the background, I thought it would be fun to have Lookie in it.  Lookie was always hiding in the background of the cartoons, and at the end of the episodes, he would reveal his hiding place and explain the episode's moral.  Once I decided that Lookie was going to be in it, I wanted to balance the picture, and tried to think of a character in Wonder Woman's lore that could serve as an analogue to Lookie.  The two franchises are pretty rife with analogues:  Ares/Hordak, Circe/Shadow Weaver, Giganta/Scorpia, Steve Trevor/Bow, Nemesis/Sea Hawk.  When it came down to it, I settled on the whimsical and fun Wonder Tot, who is Wonder Woman as a small child in the Silver Age comic book stories.  Wonder Tot often had "impossible adventures" right alongside Wonder Woman as an adult and Wonder Woman as a teenager (Wonder Girl), and I thought that the magical nature of the Whispering Woods, and the fact that She-Ra's planet of Etheria was likely in another dimension, would provide a narrative that would allow Wonder Tot.

This illustration is available as prints. Please use the "Contact Me" form at the top-left of this page to request one and inquire further about pricing and sizes.

Here, Kitty, Kitty!
8.5″ x 11″ on Bristol Board
Pencils, Inks and Prismacolor Color Pencils

Wonder Woman, Cheetah and Wonder Tot ©DC Comics 2010

She-Ra, Catra and Lookie ©Mattel 2010

Marla Bea Benefit Comic Book Auction: Wonder Woman & Power Girl

This piece was penciled by Ray Caspio, and I was the inker and colorist.  We made this piece for the Marla Bea Benefit Comic Book Auction that begins on Monday, October 12, 2009.  All proceeds from the auction will benefit the Holden Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Iowa Hospital and Clinics.  I lost a very good and dear friend several years ago to breast cancer, so this is a cause that I feel very strongly about and is very close to me.  I was very happy and proud to be able to participate in this auction, and I hope that our piece will raise a lot of money to contribute in the fight against breast cancer.  Please consider bidding in the auction to support this worthy cause.

Wonder Woman & Power Girl for Marla Bea Benefit8.75″ x 12″ on Bristol Board
Ray Caspio:  Pencils
Kevenn T. Smith:  Inks, Prismacolor Color Pencils, and Prismacolor Markers

Wonder Woman and Power Girl ©DC Comics 2011

Singular Sensation: The Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman

This Singular Sensation entry spotlights the illustration of the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman that I did for the header for this site.  These are two of my favorite Oz characters to do, and I especially enjoy drawing them together and showing the tremendous bond that these two characters have for one another.  In most of Baum's books, they both have castles in the Winkie country to the West that are very close to one another.

For the Scarecrow, I do go back to Baum's text with details like one eye being bigger than the other.  However, I'm also greatly influenced by the depictions that John R. Neill and Michael Herring did of him as well.  I wanted to convey a sense of him being a little off balance, like Ray Bolger was in the MGM musical.

Nick Chopper, the Tin Woodman, presents a special challenge when looking at how Neill and Herring depicted him.  Their renditions, quite frankly, defy the laws of physics.  They draw the Tin Woodman with nearly two dimensional limbs that are hinged basically with pins onto the sides of his torso.  This leaves him incapable of a wide range of movement, but didn't stop them from somehow depicting him holding his ax with two hands.  I wanted to base my version a little more in reality, so there was no real way that he would be able to reach across his own body to point toward the Scarecrow if his arm was simply pinned at the shoulder to his torso.  For me, the solution was to basically treat him like he was a human-sized action figure and give him ball joints that not only hinged, but swiveled and allowed for rotation.

Neill and Herring depicted him basically wearing a suit of tin with the collar, the side pockets, and the buttons down his torso, so I did as well.  They'd also draw him wearing spats on his feet, a bow tie around his neck, and a flower "pinned" on.  One thing that I added that's usually forgotten, is when the Tin Woodman gets his heart from the Wizard of Oz in the first book, he is patched up on his chest, and a gold star is placed over where his heart is.  This gold star is usually omitted by many artists, but I like to add it, because I think it's a nice detail that adds more character and visual interest to him.



Pencils, Ink, Prismacolor Color Pencils,  and Photoshop.
©Kevenn T. Smith 2011

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