I thought maybe I'd start showing how Seth used his tips (that I just posted) in his work. I will try to find some pages where he did what he said he now knew about.This gorgeous page from Batman SNOW I think illustrates a couple of things.
Tip 2: Know your horizon. I won't keep mentioning that tip after this once, because Seth used perspective so well that it has been often commented on, and we need not belabor that point, though it is constantly a pleasure to see it in action. But in this page, as in pretty much all of his pages, the horizon is in a different place in each frame. The top frame is a quiet, almost dreamy view of the city from atop a building, except for the excited police detective gesticulating heatedly to Batman.
Tip 6: Use key objects to simplify your storytelling. I think that on this page the key is the contrast between the humans and the buildings. There are only two people here; Seth often put extras in his scenes, but any other people in this page would have detracted from the loneliness of the buildings and the discussion between these two. Batman standing still in his flowing cape and the detective with his wide gesturing arm movements are very striking, but especially so against the urban perspective of the top shot, and the view from below of the right center shot.
2 comments:
Incredible page.
Another nice Seth touch is the way he made Batman’s cape touch the ground as if it had tentacles. I’m not terribly knowledgeable about Batman, but I believe no other artist has done it like this.
Yesterday I order the perspective book, along with an anatomy book and also an Akira book by Katsuhiro Otomo, whom Seth has mentioned as being influential.
A bit o’ Santa Clause to myself...
Seth thought quite a lot about Batman's cape before he started drawing it. He wanted his Batman to be individualistic compared with others, and there were a lot of areas that were untouchable, but this was one thing he could play with. It was just the fabric: most artists drew the cape made out of felt or something rather heavy. Seth's is made from yards and yards of parachute silk or something like that, so it flows around him and hangs on the ground tentacle-like, as you point out.
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