The entirety of my winter break consisted of me playing the Arkham Batman series on XBox during my free time. I’ve always enjoyed watching superhero movies, Batman being no exception with the Christopher Nolan trilogy, the recent The Batman film featuring Robert Pattinson, and the DC animated universe movies. I’ve seen gameplay, commentary, and reviews for the Arkham series which convinced me to get the trilogy for Christmas.
It is no surprise that I was eager to do some Batman-related fanart, one specifically for the character Jason Todd. Everyone knows Batman’s sidekick Robin; Jason Todd was the second to take the mantle of Boy Wonder after Richard Grayson, who went solo and became Nightwing. Jason is infamously known for his horrific death at the hands of Batman’s archnemesis the Joker, deriving from a comic fan poll that determined his fate. Depending on the continuity, Jason rises from the dead and becomes the anti-hero Red Hood, who has no hesitation to kill criminals in comparison to Batman. The animated film Under the Red Hood was one of my first introductions to Jason Todd, a film reflecting Batman’s character, moral code and the consequences that stem from it; the Arkham series also play around with that notion.
There was a close-up shot in Under the Red Hood where Jason’s expression is shown after realizing his impending death, one of utter defeat. That moment served as the basis for the piece I made, since I wanted to portray tragedy in human expression. I first approached the piece as a self-portrait, mainly adhering to precise facial proportions and semi-realism. The sketching process took a while, the facial structure and proportion undergoing revisions until I was satisfied with one that stuck; the symmetry tool was my best friend during this part of the process. The line art was simple enough, selecting a thin brush that was soft and did not have a strong opacity, mainly there to outline certain features for the painting process.
Since I was aiming for semi-realism, Jason’s skin color could not be flat, rather have certain color variations in certain areas how normal skin does. I took a page from when I had to paint a self-portrait in my painting class in the Fall semester, since some parts of my face were pinker than others, and how purple the skin underneath my eyes are. The hair wasn’t as detailed, but I made it a bit more interesting with a streak of white; in some iterations, Jason has partial white hair more so to symbolize his rebirth as a new person. The scars on his face allude to the torture he underwent, specifically the J branded on him that stand for the Joker himself.
What I wanted to convey with this piece was Jason awakening from the dead, reminiscing about what had happened that led to his tragic end. His expression is one of sadness, maybe from how he was taken from his mentor and father figure, or perhaps how he has been easily replaced by a new Robin (Tim Drake). Jason is known for path of vengeance after his revival, but I wanted to catch the moments before his vendetta, a youth who had his life taken from him.
