Updated – Work in progress – fan art dreams realized
Close Up: Center Quadrant
I just thought why wait for this piece of digital vector art to be finished before I share my thoughts behind it.
So duh, I’m a huge fan of cool stuff. I’ve been watching cartoons, and reading comic since I was a little kid in the 70s (and I still am). I first came up with this idea to do an ode to the Scooby-Doo Meets Batman cartoons about ten years ago. I have a canvas in my studio that I started this idea on with oil paint. I got kind of stuck in my head, and left it alone for awhile. Much like you see here I wanted to use the Adam West and Burt Ward version of Batman and Robin in it. I also wanted the Scooby-Doo movie version of the Scooby-Doo characters, but I wanted Scooby to look like a real great dane, and the Mystery Machine to be an actual domestic 60s micro-van like it was modeled after in the cartoon. Now that I’ve gotten comfortable making digital vector comic book art in Adobe Draw, why not come back to this personal project with this new tool?
Why the addition of the characters from Supernatural?
My kids are now 12 and 14 years old. In raising them we were always pretty progressive in what we exposed them to. We did the opposite of shielding them from things not especially kid friendly. We exposed them to what we thought they could handle, and talked about it (a lot). At the dinner table we would give them a couple minutes to yell out loud every ‘bad’ word they knew. They felt free knowing they wouldn’t get into trouble, and in turn we would learn what they knew. Then we would talk about those specific words. We would take away the shame and guilt around them and educate them on the history of them. We gave them context in situations in which they would be commonly used. We would continue to let them yell out anything they wanted to say in a safe nonjudgmental space. They usually ask permission first, and as long as we are not on the phone or in a Zoom meeting they get the nod from us.
So Supernatural was one of the shows we let them watch a little bit earlier than most parents would. It’s rated for mature viewers for language, violence, and gore. My daughter got really obsessed with it, and watch all 15 seasons about three times. It’s pretty gruesome, but seemed to lie on the threshold where it wouldn’t trigger any nightmares or anything. Sometimes the show is darker than what I like to watch, but sometimes the writing and character development would impress the heck out of me. Then along comes an episode. In season 13, episode 16, we come to the episode ScoobyNatural. OMG. In this episode Sam, Dean, and Castiel get transported into a cartoon episode of Scooby-Doo. Dean geeks out in that cartoon dimension (just as I would), and they solve a mystery with the gang while they’re there. All the go-to Scooby-Doo voice cast members are a part of that episode too.
Scooby-Doo Cast
Grey Griffin as Daphne Blake.
Matthew Lillard as Norville "Shaggy" Rogers.
Kate Micucci as Velma Dinkley.
Frank Welker as Fred Jones and Scooby-Doo.
Supernatural Cast
Jared Padalecki as Sam Winchester
Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester
Misha Collins as Castiel
Setting
As for the setting, I always thought the best spooky house for them to all meet and solve a mystery at would be the house from the movie Psycho behind the Bates Motel. Where else? Is there a more iconic spooky house in existence?
The Cars
And the cars… These are some of the most iconic vehicles to exist. Are you kidding me. The Mystery Machine? The Batmobile? Dean Winchester's 1967 Chevrolet Impala known as ‘Baby’? I wanted to be able to showcase them as much as the characters. These cars are characters themselves of course. If I saw the three of these parked next to each other like this… I know my pants would be toast.
Art Layout
I wanted this to look as realistic as possible, but with my visual style voice. I collaged together in Adobe Illustrator every visual reference in way where all the elements could look natural together. Finding photos that were taken from a similar height was key. It was hard to find photos of the cars where the angles worked well with each other. First I looked for ones of the Mystery Machine and Batmobile. Since Supernatural ran from 2005—2021 I knew there would be a surplus of photos to match the others. I have no problem using reference photos. It’s a tool. I can draw anyone under the table without reference photos. I use them when I want to dial things in in a certain way. I was showing my son Elvis my layout at a certain point. He pointed out Dean’s face could have been better. We looked around and found a shot of Jensen Ackles where his expression was more excited and happy. Like he was when his character was geeking out in ScoobyNatural. Really I think with that expression he has ties the whole piece together, and in turn is representing us the fans.
Tools and Technique
After I export the layout from Adobe Illustrator, I bring it in as a layer into Adobe Draw on my iPad. I consolidate most of my line work in just a couple pen layers. I have a layer I call the sketch layer where I sketch out things that aren’t available for reference. That’s where I fill in the gaps of what’s missing or of what I want to change. In my shadow layers I use a black pointed brush and keep the opacity around 50%. Another thing about the shadows. I couldn’t rely too heavily on the shadow information in the reference photos since the light source direction differed. I had to choose where my light source was coming from (upper right), so it’s consistent throughout the piece. Basically I just winged it. So far I have one color fill layer. I intend to do a separate color fill layer for the background, and few top layers with highlights and atmospheric glows.
What do I intend to do with this?
I’m not sure. If you have any viable ideas or suggestions please leave them in the comments below. I’m open to the idea of non fungible tokens, but I haven’t explored learning about that too deeply yet. All the elements from this piece are trademarked. Whatever I do I will make the sharing of this art remains on the legal up-and-up. Selling the art in some legal way really needed to be the after thought. The main thing for me was just to get this out of my system. If I can’t legally reap the benefits of my talents for this piece, I’ll share it for free. I’m sure I’ll do that anyway in some fashion. At the very least I see it making its way among my Free High Resolution Wallpaper File Selection. If you subscribe to my newsletter those all become available to you for free.
Keep reading below. This article has been updated with finished art.
Close Up: Top Left Quadrant
Close Up: Top Right Quadrant
Close Up: Bottom Left Quadrant
Close Up: Bottom Right Quadrant
Full View – Current state of progress
Time Lapse of my work on this so far
Update – May 15, 2021
This project is now complete! Whoohoo! Take a look below at the latest.
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