I declare this day Batman Candy Wednesday! Well, OK, every day ought to be Batman day…

I am perpetually in a DC Comics frame of mind it seems. When I first saw the prompt word, this just somehow meandered into my mind. I can never get enough of Bruce in a half-dressed state in the comics or indeed any medium, and this is how I see him preparing to slip into his Batman persona—as some kind of fiendish and terrifying demon.

It’s been a while since I drew the male figure (makes me want to take up life drawing class again, heh), so I had to refer to those nifty diagrams of the human form in my drawing manuals. I also have little idea on how to draw scar tissue… Heh. Think I was more interested in using different brushes than making accurate textures.

This week’s Illustration Friday topic is grounded.

I spent about 2.5 hours working on this, which I consider very slow. And this despite working very roughly. Originally I had a sketch of Batman holding up traffic lights, one red light and one green light (go figure, Kryptonite!) which would then “ground” Superman. But in the end, I wasn’t too motivated to finish the idea, so I did something simpler with Supergirl instead! :)

First time I’ve ever drawn Kara. I had to model myself to get the reference—I rather like the Wonder Woman-inspired pose.  Also, I pretend the New 52 costume doesn’t exist. Do you like my lame Photoshopped light rays?

Again this was done entirely on Corel Painter 12, but with some colour adjustment in Photoshop. I’m practicing with the oil brushes; I really want to do more blending and glazing techniques. You can see I’ve just begun to experiment there.

You may also have noticed I’ve tweaked a few things with the current layout.

Welcome to 2012! Kickstarting the year I am proposing that I do Illustration Friday every week for the whole of 2012. It’s been a while since I last participated. You can check the tag and see just how long ago it’s been!

So that’s 52 illustrations in one year. Surely that’s not difficult (!).

This week’s topic is highlight.

If it isn’t clear enough, I’ve been on a particularly obsessive Alexandre Desplat bent lately, so I thought I would expand on what films I have already seen that feature Desplat as the music composer. His filmography has grown dramatically over the last five years, and I know there is much I’ve yet to discover of his range and creative process.

I have taken on an ambitious task of so watching nine films composed by Desplat that cover the gamut of genres in no particular order, and I will concurrently review the soundtracks along with the movie. It’s a chance to appreciate, enjoy and critique the broad scope of Desplat’s skill and niche. The reviews will be bite-sized but detailed – I am consciously trying to cut down on my word count as a test of discipline (!).

In an inadvertently ominous fashion, the day before Steve Jobs died, I stumbled on Todd Sampson’s Twitter feed, which had a link to Jobs’ unveiling his iconic “1984″ advertisement for the Macintosh computer. In it he was eloquent and passionate about his work. The pride written on his face during the applause was stunning. I thought, now here is a guy who probably deserves to look so smug. But that was me thinking in retrospect. This wasn’t even Jobs at his peak of success, but rather at a prelude of even greater things to come. If he only knew just decades later that his face would be synonymous with the world’s leading innovators in design and technology, indeed all facets of everyday living and popular culture.