Airbrush Art - Batman THE DARK KNIGHT Custom Truck

OK, I know "The Dark Knight" movie is sort of old news, ha ha! But here's an extremely awesome TDK Custom Truck I came across on the web the other night. It's a totally airbrushed Batman Semi-Truck by an Artist named Glenn Andersen who lives in Norway. The entire surface of the truck is painted & it's all very very impressive! It features Batman & The Joker as seen in the film. This truck is crazy-cool!! In fact, it's almost too pretty to drive! For more photos of this vehicle & more of Glenn's other artwork, click HERE!

Michael Kutsche Talks About Designing 'Thor's' Wonderful Eight Legged Horses For the Love of Art

The award-winning artist Michael Kutsche's unique style, bright colors and creative designs have made him a bright star in the concept artist industry and I got an exclusive interview with him about his Nordic inspired designs for Odin on Thor (2011), his favorite tool besides a paintbrush and the most important trait an artist should have.

I first ran into Michael Kutsche's work when his designs for Odin and his horse Slepnir exploded onto the Internet from CG Portfolio.

A self-taught freelance German artist, he started out doing illustrations for video games before becoming one of the character designers for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (2010) before designing memorable characters like Frost Giant King Laufey for Thor.

Q: How did you get the job of illustrating Thor and what did you design?
(Image: Alice in Wonderland Caterpillar concept art)

I was recommended to the producers at Marvel Studios by a friend and colleague whom I've met when working on Alice in Wonderland. I was doing concepts for some of the costumes and I also did some key frame illustrations. My main role though, since I'm a character designer, was designing the look of the frost giants and the frost beast.

Q: Your illustration of Odin riding a horse is amazing. The horse had eight legs though. Was this based on an early design concept that Asgard would be more alien?
(Image: Thor concept art "Sleipnir Rising")
Thanks a lot! The idea of giving Sleipnir eight legs [are] rather true to the original character in Norse mythology as well as the comic version, than anything alien inspired.  

Editor's note: Check out Wikipedia and Marvel's database for the inspiration for these designs.

Q: For those unfamiliar, how would you describe the job of a character designer?

I'm basically the guy that is brought onto the project to invent the look of the 3-D animated characters in either a life action or fully animated film.

The steps involved are reading the script, having a chat with the director to get his input, then doing a lot of research and sketches before finally creating the drawings that you can see in my portfolio. Pretty often I come up with something that is very close to being the final design, sometimes I nail it right away, but there's also situations where I have to do a couple of versions to get the final ok from the director.

Q: You're a self taught artist and have managed to work on major films. What would you say is the key to your success?

I'd say it takes more than one ingredient to get there, at least I couldn't single out one reason. It's something along the lines of passion, patience, perseverance, I would also say my interest in art from a very early age on plays a role in it.

Furthermore I'd say the primary drive is the pure interest in the process of painting, drawing and other techniques to express myself and the mastering of it; I believe one cannot become really good at something if he's only striving for financial or other success without truly loving what he does.

Q: What would you say to someone else starting in the industry?
(Image: Sega game "Viking: Battle for Asgard" Skarin)


If you are aiming to start as a concept artist in this industry you have to be aware that it's not like everyone has been waiting for you to offer your services. The market is rather overcrowded with talented people already waiting in line, hoping to get discovered or introduced by someone who works in the biz.

And even when you break into the industry, you're not necessarily getting the most fun job on the project, simply because the more fun positions are occupied by artists with a higher reputation and/or skill set.

Again, you truly have to love what you do, otherwise, with the pressure of competition and delivering the best work every single day, you are most likely going to hate it in the end.

Q: Do you have a favorite tool?
(Image: "Boxer")


Though I love to paint in oil, it would be too time consuming to use it for these projects. My preferred digital tool is Corel Painter, I love the organic, natural feel of it's brushes.

Q: Your use of color is striking. How important is color in your work?

I use a great deal of time for picking the right colors when painting, sometimes the first thing I think about when approaching a new painting is a combination of colors.

I think the logic of color is hard to grasp, but when used right, the power is immense!

I'm not just talking about the challenge of mimicking the colors of realistic lighting, but how certain deviations from a realistic color scheme can send a message to the viewer's subconscious.

Q: Where should we look for you next?

I'm currently working on Oz the Great and Powerful, directed by Sam Raimi, which is right up my alley, I'm not only doing the complete character design, but a lot of costume design as well. The next release date of a film that I've worked on is in 2012, it's John Carter of Mars, directed by Andrew Stanton.

Thanks to the artist taking time from his newborn son to answer these questions!

You can read more about Michael Kutsche from his website and look for his work in the hardcover book Thor: The Art of Thor the Movie.

Hallmark BATMAN Keepsake Ornament for 2011 San Diego Comic-Con International

OK, I have not been able to totally confirm these yet but here's a photo of what might be the 4 special Hallmark Keepsake Ornaments for this year's 2011 San Diego Comic-Con International. The event happens July 21st - 24th, 2011. We have Batman "Descending Upon Gotham", IG-88 & Dengar from Star Wars ( Sold as a Set ), and The Comic Book Guy from The Simpsons. Now, this Batman Keepsake Ornament has been released before in 2009 with the Silver-Age "Blue, Gray, & Yellow" colors ( You can see it by clicking HERE! ). It looks like this new one is a color variation, a more Modern Day "Black & Gray" version. For more information about the show please visit Comic-Con.org

Andy's BATMAN and JOKER Custom Artwork

Over at the Bat-Blog's Facebook page we recently met a very talented Graphic Artist named Andy Pemberton. He's a huge Batman Fan & since his Son is too he has even made a few items for his him. The first photo shows a nice pair of Custom-Painted Converse Shoes with images of Batman and The Joker from the "Batman: The Brave and The Bold" TV Show. This pair looks incredible & whoever does marketing for that show should sell these, they're great! But Andy's other shoes he has made are nice too. Check out the ones with Mr. Freeze ( Animated Series ) & Poison Ivy ( Comic Book Cover ) graphics... nice! Then, in the last photo, there's a few items Andy made for his Son. It's a Custom 1966 Batmobile-Inspired Bicycle Ride-On!! He also made him a Bike Safety-Helmet that looks like the Cowl worn by Adam West. Plus, there's a great Messenger Bike Bag with graphics from the animated intro to the classic '66 TV Show... AWESOME!! ( Thanks to Andy for sharing these pics & keep up the good work ).

BATMAN YEAR ONE - Art for DC UNIVERSE Animated Movie DVD

Well, apparently this is what the DVD cover art for the BATMAN: YEAR ONE - DC Universe Animated Movie is going to look like. It's a great image that I think would make an awesome poster. The projected release date for this film is September 27th, 2011. But that could easily change so please be sure to stay tuned to the Bat-Blog for later info.

Humor Video - How To, Batman! - How to Iron a Shirt

In this video installment of "How To, Batman!", the Dark Knight teaches us how to properly iron a shirt. Hey, doesn't Alfred usually do that for him? Ha Ha!

BatDave Visits the 2011 BIG APPLE COMIC CON in New York City

OK, We're a little jealous! The Bat-Blog has a friend who lives in New Jersey & every time a huge "Geek Event" happens in NYC he's there. His name is BatDave & here are some photos he shared from the recent BIG APPLE COMIC CON last week. First off, he got to meet "Batman", live & in person ( Check out the photographic proof, ha ). Then, he got to meet two total BATMAN Comic Book Legends, Jerry Robinson and Neal Adams. Of course Mr. Robinson was there to promote his new book, "JERRY ROBINSON: AMBASSADOR OF COMICS", a great read ( For The Bat-Blog Book Review, Click HERE! ). Then, BatDave got Mr. Adams to sign a recent copy of his "Batman Odyssey" comic book. Overall it seems like a great adventure! Oh yeah, he saw this beautiful Asian Girl outside & it looks like she's a Batman Fan... Heck Yeah! ( Thanks, as always, to BatDave for sharing his wonderful photos ).

THE JOKER - Custom Truck Paint Job

Here's a random photo I found on the Internet where the main function of the pic was to dramatize the use of car wax! In fact, this photo was taken right after a fresh coat of NXT Tech Wax was applied. Yeah, the photo was about selling Meguiar's Auto Wax products, ha! But for us Batman Fans this pic is all about THE JOKER!! Oh man, this paint job is just completely amazing! Of course the Joker's face looks great, but I really love the "black toxic smoke" effect too.

BANE Batman Wallpaper - Artwork Inspired By THE DARK KNIGHT RISES Movie

Here's a very cool BANE Batman Wallpaper submitted by our friend Sean Hartter who was inspired by the recent photo of Tom Hardy as BANE in the next Batman film, THE DARK KNIGHT RISES! ( Thanks Sean! )

Meet JOE KUBERT at Dewey's Comic City in Madison, NJ

If you live near Madison, New Jersey then here's your chance to meet a Comic Book Legend, Joe Kubert! He's mostly known for working on the Sgt. Rock comics but he has also done a ton of work with Batman ( Just a few covers shown here ). In fact, they made one of the "Batman: Black and White" Statues in his honor. Next week he will be at a comic book store called "Dewey's Comic City" on June 4th, 2011 between 1:00 to 3:00pm. If you go then please be sure to tell him that, "The Bat-Blog said Howdy!". For more info, click HERE!

New Book - THE BOY WHO LOVED BATMAN By Michael Uslan

THE BOY WHO LOVED BATMAN, The True Story of How a Comics-Obsessed Kid Conquered Hollywood to Bring the Dark Knight to the Silver Screen. This is the new memoir written by Michael Uslan that will be coming out later ( No exact release date has been issued yet. But please stay tuned to the Bat-Blog because, "we're on it!" ). Now, some of you might think, "Hey, I recognize that name". Well, Michael Uslan has been the Movie Producer of all the BATMAN Movies. Yes, this is the guy responsible for bringing the Dark Knight to the big screen! In this new biography he shares the story of growing-up in the 1950's & totally being obsessed with comic books, especially Batman ones. He also shares his 10 year fight to get Batman to film. It sounds like a great story! Once we get more information we'll keep ya updated.



Important Side-Note:

A friend on Facebook just told me the release date will be around August 8th ( Thanks Torsten )

New XBOX MAGAZINE Features BATMAN ARKHAM CITY Cover

This July, please be sure to keep an eye out in the Book Stores for the new XBOX MAGAZINE with the BATMAN: ARKHAM ASYLUM Cover. Of course the main story will be the release of the new video game, the graphics look awesome!

Major ART SHOW - TIM BURTON at Los Angeles County Museum of Art

The Los Angeles County Museum of Art will present Tim Burton, a major retrospective exploring the full range of Tim Burton's creative work, both as a director of live-action and animated films, and as an artist, illustrator, photographer, and writer. Showcased here are just a few of the "Batman Items" that will be present. We got an original Batman Cowl from a Batman Movie, plus some Costume Design Drawings of both the Penguin & Catwoman from "Batman Returns" and one of The Joker ( Jack Nicholson ) from 1989's BATMAN. Plus, you know there will be much much more! Wow! It looks like a great show!



It will be on view at LACMA from May 29th ( This Sunday! ) through October 31st, 2011, the exhibition brings together over 700 drawings, paintings, photographs, moving-image works, storyboards, puppets, concept artworks, maquettes, costumes, and cinematic ephemera, including art from a number of unrealized and little-known personal projects. Many of these objects come from the artist's own archive, as well as from studio archives and private collections of Burton's collaborators.



Also, IMPORTANT BOOK SIGNING NOTICE:


Tim Burton will be available at the LAC Museum on SATURDAY, May 28th to personally sign the exhibition catalog book. He'll be there for only 2 hours, between 12:00 & 2:00. For more information, click HERE!

Scorching Hot Emma Frost and Groovy Cool Hellfire Club in New 'X-Men: First Class' Concept Art

Marvel and 20th Century Fox released some concept art from the new X-Men prequel X-Men: First Class (2011) and has mind-blowing costume designs for the sexy Emma Frost, shots of the interior and exterior of the Sabastian Shaw's (Kevin Bacon) Hellfire Club and the Kremlin War Room and a revealing picture of Angel's fly wings.

IGN had a quote from January Jones, who plays telepathic mutant Emma Frost, on her character design:

No actual woman looks like that. She's very blessed, shall we say.

So coming straight from Mad Men, literally the day before, there was no way I could get physically cut like that. Also, for a woman to get that physically cut and not lose the curvy areas was a bit of a challenge for me, so I just did some weight training and body sculpting. I had a lot of fun with that, too.

All the stunt training and the physical aspects of the role that I didn't know I'd be doing were a lot of fun. Because her powers are very strong on both the mental and physical sides, so it was a lot of fun for me to go to different places than I've had to do as an actor before.

She also talked about the groovy mod designs of the Hellfire Club's pad.

...I can say that it doesn't feel like a period movie. There's obviously historical aspects in the storytelling and some of the props and stuff, but I think it feels very modern. It does take place in 1962.

One of the things that's brought in from that time, the Hellfire Club aspect especially, is that it's pretty -- I dunno, the Bunnies and the Playboy clubs. It's really cool. You'd think Sinatra was there. The sets are really cool and the vibe of the whole thing is really neat.

There's also a image of the design for the Kremlin war room which plays a big part of the Cuban missle crisis storyline.

Here are some concept design for the mutant Angel Salvatore (Zoë Kravitz) who hides her mutation of insect wings as a body tattoo.


No indication of who the concept artists are, of course. Very frustrating frankly.

IMDb lists Nick Ainsworth, James Carson, Kim Frederiksen, Paul Anthony McGill, Matthew Savage, Hayley Easton Street and Tom Whitehouse as concept artists for the film.

X-Men First Class stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Rose Byrne, January Jones, and Kevin Bacon and will be released June 3 in the US.

Official plot synopsis: "X-Men: First Class charts the epic beginning of the X-Men saga, and reveals a secret history of famous global events. Before mutants had revealed themselves to the world, and before Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr took the names Professor X and Magneto, they were two young men discovering their powers for the first time. Not archenemies, they were instead at first the closest of friends, working together with other Mutants (some familiar, some new), to stop Armageddon. In the process, a grave rift between them opened, which began the eternal war between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor X’s X-Men."

Update: Pretty sure the Hellfire club artwork comes from Jamie Rama.

Does this concept art make you want to join the Hellfire Club?

Via Movieweb

Photo - BATMAN Birthday Cake - Vintage 1970's MEGO TOY Doll

Here's a wonderful photo sent in to us by our friend Yuji. He had a BATMAN Birthday Cake with a graphic of his favorite Vintage Toy, a 1970's Batman MEGO Doll... I mean, Action Figure! This cake looks goooood & it's making me hungry, ha! Plus, I totally love Mego Toys so this is great stuff! ( Thanks Yuji for sharing your pic ).

Video - Everything I Need to Know I Learned From Batman

This BATMAN Fan-Made Humor Video combines a few clips from different animated versions of the Dark Knight & teaches us all some important lessons for life.

BATMAN ARKHAM CITY NEWS - Penguin Officially Confirmed on PSM3 Video Game Magazine Cover

More information for the BATMAN: ARKHAM CITY Video Game is finally coming out. The PENGUIN has been officially announced as a Villain for the series. This is no surprise really when you consider that in one of the earliest teaser trailers they showed the ICEBERG LOUNGE building. But hey, I love this character, so that's cool! Here's a graphic of him on the cover of the recent UK Edition of PSM3 Magazine. Batman: Arkham City will launch in North America on October 18th, in Europe on October 21st and in Australia on October 19th.

Craig Shoji Talks About Creating the Breath-Taking World of 'Thor'

I have another exclusive interview with concept artist Craig Shoji, and he talks about "geeking out" with Marvel, working with producer Bo Welch designing the world of Asgard and bringing Jack Kirby's comic book designs to life.

You've seen a lot of Craig Shoji's work without knowing it. A freelance artist living in California, he blew us away on The Golden Compass (2007), Avatar (2009) , Alice in Wonderland (2010). Now he's done it again with breath-taking visuals of Asgard for Thor (2011).

Q: How did you decide to become a concept illustrator versus other types of art?
It took a long time to even figure out what a concept illustrator was! When I was at UCLA I thought it was either graphic design for web, print or video, or new media (a la John Maeda and the MIT Media Lab). It wasn't until I took some foundation classes at Pasadena City College that I learned about Product Design and Entertainment Design. I began my Art Center education studying Industrial Design but soon realized that I enjoyed drawing fantastical things and realizing worlds that could only exist on a screen, than worrying too much about manufacturing and tolerances.

Q: What's your background as an artist?
(Image: Craig circa 1983)
I've always enjoyed drawing as a kid, but I was more a tinkerer than a painter. I liked to take things apart to see how they worked then attempt to put them back together again.

I got a degree in design at the University of California - Los Angeles, but it was a very general education and not too trade-oriented. So I continued my education in Pasadena at the Community College there as well as the private Art Center. It was here that I learned about entertainment arts and was able to network and refine my craft to do what I'm doing today.

Q: What was it like working on "Thor?"
(Image: Thor exterior Odin's Asgard tower)
It was both daunting and fun at the same time. There was a large team when I first came on (maybe 4 or 5 illustrators) but the production got pushed about 5 months and everyone but myself was let go. So for a long time it was just me and Bo Welch (the production designer) working on Odin's tower and Asgard which was a lot of early responsibility.

As I settled into my role and began resolving a lot of the design details, the production started ramping up again and I was joined by some more amazing talent. This is always great as an illustrator cause you have people that you're bouncing ideas off of and constantly being inspired by.

So it was a breath of fresh air to have a handful of creative people to share an office with again.

The whole department was incredibly fun to work and hang out with, so I really enjoyed my time there. It was also nice geeking out with the Marvel execs as they came by because I feel like we've all grown up with the same love for comics. And it was effortless to get excited about how these worlds we've come to know and love would be realized in the film.



Q: Do you work with traditional mediums or do you favor digital art?
(Image: Alice in Wonderland Courtyard sketches)
I love pen sketching on paper. I'm a big fan of ball point pens, brush pens, hitec-c pens, etc! The list goes on and on! A lot of my early ideas are established in a sketchbook as a doodle or preliminary sketch. Then I'll either redraw it on the computer, or build it out in 3d and paint in photoshop on top of it.

The digital medium has allowed for so much more flexibility as well as photorealism in such a timely fashion that the analog can't compete. In a film production setting, it's crucial to get the best result in the least amount of time, so unfortunately it's no longer practical to work solely in analog.

In my free time I like to pry myself away from the computer and pick up some gouache paints and illustration board. It's much more rewarding when you have to look, think, then place down the brush stroke, than scribble scribble, ctrl-z, ctrl-z, scribble, cut, paste, scribble, unsharp mask. :)


Q: While everything you have done has its own rewards is there one project that you're particularly proud of?
(Image: Thor Asgard courtyard painting)
I'm actually very proud of my work on THOR over any of my other past films. I feel like it gave myself (and the other artists) an opportunity to translate the original intent of Jack Kirby's Asgard in an updated fashion that was still tasteful and respectful. It seemed everyone had a take on what that vision was, all the way through post production, and it was great to see it evolve until the end result on screen. I'm proud knowing that I was part of the creation of that world, and that it was well received by the fans.




Q: Who influences your artistic style the most?
(Image: Avatar Pandora fruit)
I'm creatively influenced by so many people and so many things, but as far as style... I'm probably more influenced by the world around me.

I love photography, and trying to best understand light and how it bounces, reflects, absorbs, and blankets everything around us. I also love looking at master matte painting works and seeing how those guys resolved 'photoreal' illusions with a few brush strokes. Al Whitlock, Michael Pangrazio, Syd Dutton as well as my contemporaries: Robert Stromberg, Dylan Cole, Steve Messing, Yannick Dusso, Brian Flora, Yusei Uesugi...

There are a lot of people out there that I admire whom truly inspire me. Being lucky enough to have worked with, learned from and befriended is the icing on the cake.

You can check out more of his incredible work on Alice and other designs at pensketch.com. Also, follow him on twitter (pensketch) for updates.

Thanks for the interview Craig!

To read some of my other interviews with artists check out the full list here.

What do you think of Craig Shoji's work?