Masks Are Fashion, Masks Are Heroic - Power Girl

This is the 14th entry that I've posted in the series featuring "red carpet" takes on superheroes in costume with masks to promote the pro-social & pro-health practice of mask wearing during a pandemic.

Power Girl is not a household name superhero, but when I tell you about her, you'll feel like you already know her. Power Girl is Kara Zor-L, the "Supergirl" of Earth-2. Remember how Supergirl's rocket arrived later than Superman's by mistake? Well Power Girl's arrived even later, and I guess something didn't go 100% with the suspended animation, because she arrived pretty grown and also *gasp* had ideas of her own. She refused to be defined by Superman, so instead of calling herself Supergirl and wearing his symbol, she called herself Power Girl and left her chest devoid of the S-shield. In her civilian identity as Karen Starr (Yes, a white woman named Karen with short hair - she was created in the 70's. It's not her fault.), she owns her own tech company. As Power Girl, she basically has all of the same powers as Superman. Operating on Earth-2, she was a member of the Justice Society of America (JSA), and was a close friend of the daughter of Batman & Catwoman, the Huntress. Whether on Earth-2 or Earth-1, Power Girl is always a force to be reckoned with.

I really enjoyed working on this design. Originally, I was going to give her a sleevelesss look with a turtle-neck, but I had also been wanting to do a asymmetrical shoulder look for this series, and when I realized that would mimick the line of the rope that her cape is attached to that cuts across her chest on her superhero costume, it seemed like the perfect choice. I also was inspired by the loincloth style skirt that she wore in her appearance as Power Woman in the Kingdom Come series by Mark Waid and Alex Ross. I also really like her haircut, because I think it's sexy and youthful while being much shorter than how I've depicted Power Girl in my artwork in the past. I think it suits her perfectly. The charms on her bracelet also contain some "Easter Eggs," like an Earth-2 Superman symbol, and Aquaman symbol alluding to her Post-Crisis origin as the grand-daughter of ancient Atlantian sorceror, Arion, and a Harley Quinn diamond because Amanda Connor & Jimmy Palmiotti wrote & drew a wonderful Power Girl series and they also have had her interact with Harley Quinn as a friend during their handling of Harley's stories. Also, since working on my Supergirl design and realizing during that work that the color pink is almost NEVER used on DC Heroines, I couldn't pass up the chance to turn what is traditionally red on her costume into a magenta and bring in the pink to a really fun eye makeup look.

Thank you for taking the time to experience this piece.
"Masks Are Fashion, Masks Are Heroic - Power Girl" by Kevenn T. Smith
Pencil, Ink, Photoshop
©2021 Kevenn T. Smith
Power Girl ©DC Comics 

Masks Are Fashion, Masks Are Heroic - Supergirl

This is the 8th entry that I've posted in this series featuring "red carpet" takes on superheroes in costume with masks to promote the pro-social & pro-health practice of mask wearing during a pandemic.

Supergirl is a very well-known superhero. She's Superman's cousin who was sent by her parents to protect baby Superman when he got to Earth, but her spaceship ended up going off course and arrived several years after Superman's own ship did. She awoke from her suspended animation to find that baby Kal-El was no longer a baby, but a full-grown Superman...and now she's kinda living in his shadow as a real refugee on the planet Earth.

There were some specific references that I wanted to hit and elements that I wanted to use in my depiction of Kara Zor-El, Supergirl, for this series. I wanted to emphasize her being younger than characters like Wonder Woman by getting away from the long gowns while still keeping a red carpet element to the look. The dress was inspired by Kryptonian crystals and the dress that singer Lisa Loeb wore in her music video for the song "Most of All." The hair was inspired by a couple of looks Taylor Swift donned in her music video for the song "Look What You Made Me Do." It was very important for me to take inspiration from performers whose music has a stong following with female fans and whose work is very feminine-positive.

That also lead to another major design aspect that I felt was very important to use: the color pink. It is very bizarre to me the way that the character of Supergirl has been curated for decades, of being a character that should ideally appeal to girls, but seems to be terribly frightened of scaring its boy audience away by leaning to hard on the "girl" half of her name. Supergirl has sported many different looks throughout the years, and to me, there seems to be a very conscious bias in the tones of red used in costume designs for her. The blue can run the gamut from light to dark, but the reds seem to be forbidden from ever being too light to be misconstrued as pink. (In fact in the weeks of anticipating writing about this, I could only come up with two superheroines in the DC Universe who had pink in their costumes - Crush, daughter of Lobo and a member of the Teen Titans, has a punk design and her pants are maybe magenta, sometime a dark hot pink; and the character Looker from the 1980's Batman and the Outsiders comic, who I think was eventually turned into a vmpire creature of the night, so no more "girly" pink for her either.) It is bizarre to have so many teenage heronies in their universe and for there to be what comes across as an absoulte fear of using pink in their designs at all. As if a color could keep them from being tough or strong. So yes, my Supergirl incorporates pink into her costume, maybe more of a dusty rose, but certainly not "red." She wears "ballet" slippers inspired from her 1970's costume design, and just because she's wearing pink doesn't mean that she's isn't Kryptonian strong. I hope to see these false definitions of strength challenged in the near future in actual canonical depictions of this character. It's one thing that I strive to do in my work.

Thank you for taking a look! 
"Masks Are Fashion, Masks Are Heroic - Supergirl" by Kevenn T. Smith
Pencil, Ink, Photoshop
©2021 Kevenn T. Smith
Supergirl ©DC Comics 

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

Art For Mid-Ohio-Con Part 2

Here are more of the artcards that I will be selling at Mid-Ohio-Con this weekend, along with prints of some of the work in my Illustration Gallery:

Superman:


Wonder Woman:

Donna Troy as Wonder Girl:

Supergirl (I wanted to capture the feeling of the aerial ballet in the Supergirl movie starring Helen Slater.):

Green Lantern:

Batgirl:

Nightwing:

Flamebird (based on International Supermodel and D-Listed.com's Hot Slut of the Year 2007, Phoebe Price):

DC Comics Heroines 2007

I thought the best way to get the ball rolling here on my portfolio was to write about one of my favorite pieces I did.

The goal of this piece was to portray my favorite versions of my favorite DC Comics Heroines, including the costume details and artist depictions of them. I also wanted to try to depict as many characters as I could in a way that was iconic to the character; to try to communicate something about who that character was.

Some of the artist whose styles I worked to emulate for these characters were: Terry Dodson, Amanda Conner, Nicola Scott, Adam Hughes, Ed Benes, Joe Bennet, Joe Staton, Dale Eaglesham, Brian Bolland, Tony Daniel, Pete Woods, Mike McKone, Michael Turner, Jamal Igle, George Perez, Kevin Maguire, Chris Batista, Phil Jimenez, J.G. Jones, Al Barrionuevo, Daniel Acuna, Matthew Clark, Todd Nauck, Tom Grummet, Bill Willingham, Adriana Melo, and Jesus Saiz.

What follows is a numbered version of the piece, and below that is the key to the names of the numbered characters:

 

01. Jade; 02. Raven; 03. Isis; 04. Supergirl (Kara Zor-El);
 05. Supergirl (Linda Danvers); 06. Aquagirl; 07. Ravager;
 08. Batgirl (Barbara Gordon); 09. Speedy; 10. Misfit; 11. Black Canary;
 12. Oracle; 13. Huntress; 14. Big Barda; 15. Lady Blackhawk; 16. Thorn;
 17. Manhunter; 18. Gypsy; 19. The Question (Renee Montoya);
 20. Batwoman; 21. Batgirl (Cassandra Caine); 22. Queen Hippolyta;
 23. Flamebird; 24. Starfire; 25. Power Girl; 26. Sasha Bourdeaux;
 27. Catwoman (Holly Robinson); 28. Catwoman (Selina Kyle); 29. Spoiler;
 30. Bumblebee; 31. Ice; 32. Miss Martian; 33. Wonder Girl;
 34. Earth-2 Wonder Woman; 35. Wonder Woman; 36. Miss America;
 37. Donna Troy; 38. Fury I; 39. Artemis; 40. Vixen; 41. Firehawk;
 42. Hawkgirl; 43. Cyclone; 44. Stargirl; 45. Liberty Belle;
 46. Earth-2 Huntress (Helena Wayne); 47. Phantom Lady; 48. Red Bee;
 49. Empress; 50. Dr. Light II; 51. Skyrocket; 52. Mera; 53. Katana;
 54. Mary Marvel; 55. Crimson Fox; 56. Nightshade; 57. Thunder;
 58. Fire; 59. Natasha Irons; 60. Madame Xanadu; 61. Zatanna;
 62. Enchantress; 63. Grace

 ©DC Comics 2011

DC Heroines 2007 ©Kevenn T. Smith 2011
16" x 20"
Pencil, Ink, Prismacolor Pencil, Tempera, Photoshop

 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.