Purrrr-Fect Eartha by Kevenn T. Smith
This piece has been living in my head for a while now, demanding to be made. Eartha Kitt, as a performer, thrills me. I think our world is a suckier place since she passed away in 2008. She is my second favorite live-action Catwoman. (I have to cop to Michelle Pfeifer's psychologically driven performance in Batman Returns as my favorite.) However, I think Eartha's Catwoman is the most fun and slinky Catwoman of all. When Julie Newmar (whom I also loved) bowed out of the 60's Batman series in its third season, casting Eartha Kitt was a no-brainer. Look at her album covers from the fifties and sixties - she already WAS Catwoman. Eartha Kitt was a global citizen years before the rest of us started to get onboard. She spoke four languages and sang in seven.
She was the kind of celebrity that is becoming extinct - one with a truly individual voice, the likes of Bea Arthur, Phyllis Diller, Grace Jones, and Carol Channing. Nowadays, vocal sounds are so homogenized. There's rarely any character and distinction in a lot of the voices I hear in mainstream singers and celebrities. I feel like everyone is too busy trying to be "hot" to be distinctive. You can't tell me Eartha Kitt's voice wasn't hot.
This piece is after Eartha's 1957 cover of Norsk Dameblad magazine. I chose red and leopard print for the background colors because Catwoman's lair in the Batman series had red drapery and a leopard print upholstered chair. This illustration is available at my RedBubble.com store.
Eartha Kitt as Catwoman by Kevenn T. Smith
Pencil, ink, Photoshop
©Kevenn T. Smith 2012
Catwoman ©DC Entertainment 2012
Dark Knight Daughter: The Huntress by Kevenn T. Smith
In the late 70's and early 80's, the character of The Huntress that appeared in DC Comics was Helena Wayne, the daughter of Batman and Catwoman on the alternate Earth known as Earth-2. She was a member of the Justice Society and also had her own series of back-up stories in the Wonder Woman comic book. DC Comics has just announced that the Earth-2 Huntress character will be appearing in a title called "World's Finest," alongside her best friend, Power Girl, also an Earth-2 character.
I thought I'd take the opportunity to dust off this old piece and give it a touch-up. I was never quiet 100% happy with the way it looked before. It was one of the first times I had tried to color digitally - with the background - while integrating it with hand colored aspects - The Huntress herself. I didn't feel like the two "meshed" together as well as I'd like. Now, after going back, I'm a lot happier with the final outcome.
This illustration is available as 8 by 12 inch prints on regular photo paper $20 + $8 shipping; or on metallic photo paper (which I highly recommend, because the quality is vastly superior!)for $25 + $8 shipping. Please use the "Contact Me" form at the top-left of this page to request one and inquire further about pricing and sizes.
Pencil, ink, Prismacolor color pencil, and Photoshop
Huntress ©DC Comics 2012
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
Earth-2 Huntress: Helena Wayne
This is a commission that I did for my friend and writer, J.H. Moffat who runs the online urban fiction magazine, Drops of Crimson. This piece is of the Earth-2 Huntress, Helena Wayne. Earth-2 was a parallel earth where Batman and Catwoman had their career in the 1940's and ended up marrying and having a daughter, Helena. Catwoman was eventually killed, and Batman died, and Helena carried on their legacy as the Huntress.
The newer version of 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.
Pencils, Ink, Prismacolor Color Pencils, Photoshop, and Adobe Illustrator.
©Kevenn T. Smith 2011
Earth-2 Huntress ©DC Comics 2011
