Friday, October 3, 2008

More hands: Batman SNOW 192 page 17 and 794 page 22



These two pages show more of the expressive power of hands.
Dr Fries' tenderness toward his beloved wife is obvious from every gesture, setting up the flower vase in the first frame, gently touching her face in the second, and tugging at his sleeve in the third. Then when the doctor comes in to speak with him, he keeps one hand on his wife's hand while he whirls around to face the doctor.
In the bottom frame she reaches out with her hand after her husband. These gestures are easy to overlook because they seem perfectly natural. But natural doesn't necessarily come naturally.
The page on the right has the police detective reading the riot act to Batman.
Hands, remember, we are concentrating on hands. In the top image, he stands on the top step with his hands still holding on to whatever he was using to climb up to the top of the building where they meet. Batman has his hands sheepishly between his legs.
The powerful middle frame has one hand coming toward us, like Uncle Sam in the famous WW1 recruiting poster, but his other hand is back where it shows us that he is leaning far forward to rail at Batman.
Then he pounds his fist against his hand when he says, "Congratulations. You played me like a chump." Batman in the bottom center holds his two hands over his heart and proclaims his innocence.
All these gestures ring so true that you almost don't notice them. That shows how well Seth took his own advice about getting comfortable with drawing hands.

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