The Warm Glow of Nostalgia

Here's a post that's somewhat unrelated to art.  I may do some non-art posts more often.  Why?  Because I think they are fun.

I've been archiving all of my parents' old photographs and slides over the past few weeks when I've had a little spare time.  While going through slides, I discovered a batch of photos that I've never seen before.  The slides were very dark and needed some photoshop work to "pull out" the images to a viewable state.  I was blown away by what I found.  Until now, I've only had memories of this time just before my family moved away from Aberdeen, South Dakota in 1974.  

The bottom two photos show my buddies and myself goofing around in some old costumes.  I was wearing the Ben Cooper Batman costume (you other "old-timers" remember these), Pat Fauth is wearing the Superman costume, my brother Mike is wearing the clown costume.  That's Chris Eslinger tormenting the poor snake.

The photo on top is Pat and I unmasked (I'm on the left wearing the sweet white belt) with little Todd in the middle.  Good times.  Wow, I'm getting old.

...and, yes, Virginia, the grass really was that green and the sky that blue.  Everything was perfect in 1974...or maybe that's just the under exposed slides talkin.'

Batman and Joker Sketch Cards

I set the Wayback Machine to 1989 for these two cards.  They depict Batman and the Joker as they appeared in the Keaton/Nicholson Batman film.  They are kind of meant to go with the Dark Knight Batman and Joker from a week or go or so (Just for you, Bathunter!).

Anyone else remember how great it was to actually be seeing a "serious" take on Batman when this film came out in '89?  Sure, this first film can seem a bit dated here and there when watched today.  However, it was such a thrill to see these characters "living and breathing" up on the screen in such a way that was dark and not campy.   I can hardly believe that the 20th anniversary of this film is already next year in 2009!  I'm definitely getting old.   It couldn't possibly be nineteen years ago that I was sitting in the theater with my buddy Russell Walks feeling like a kid in a candy store waiting for the movie to begin.  I remember driving home after the film with a Keaton scowl on my face pretending I was driving the batmobile.  What a geek!!

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Random Sketch(es) of the Week

This is a page of sketched panels for one of the pages in DC Comics' Batman: Absolution. When my new website goes "live" later this month, there will be a section on the site about the process of working on a large, sequential project like Absolution. It will outline the process of producing art from the initial thumbnail sketches all the way through to the finished pages. There will be many preliminary sketches and drawings like this one to show the process of creating the finished work.

So, consider this a "teaser" of what's coming on the main site.

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Batman: Absolution in Gotham Knight DVD!!

Okay, you'll have to pardon my pathetic excitement over such a minor thing. Let me explain. Being the huge Batman fan that I am, I always make sure to watch the "Behind the Scenes" stuff on any and all of the Batman DVDs that happen to be released. Many of them use quite a bit of comic book art intertwined with industry experts talking about the character. They use A LOT of Batman art in these documentaries. So, naturally, having illustrated a Batman book, I'm always hoping for even the slightest snippet of Absolution to show up somewhere in one of these docs. It never happens. Oh, well. Life goes on.

However, today was different! Thanks to a tip from my pal Guenter in Germany, I finally got to see a tiny bit of Absolution on the new Gotham Knight DVD. It's a quick pan over the image above during the documentary called A Mirror for the Bat: The Evil Denizens of Gotham City.

Christmas came early to the Ashmore studio this year.

Also, as luck would have it, this is one of the pages currently on display at the Toucan Gallery during the month of August. Cool.

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Art Exhibit Opening

The opening night of my art exhibit at the Toucan was an exciting night. Hundreds of people passed through the Toucan Art Gallery during the Billings Artwalk. It was great fun to get to chat with comic book and art fans, alike. You wouldn't know it from the pics but we were pretty swamped with people checking out the Absolution watercolors and all the other fantastic art that was on display at the Toucan. My many "thanks" to all who stopped in to see the work!

The show will be hanging through the end of August. So, if you live in Billings or are in the area be sure to stop by the Toucan.




Batman: The Art of Brian Ashmore
August 1 - August 29, 2008

Toucan Gallery
2505 Montana Ave.
Billings, MT 59101

406-252-0122

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Dark Knight Sketches

Here a couple of sketch cards that I drew for a friend.  They are sketches of Christian Bale as Batman and Heath Ledger as the Joker.  These are drawn on my own personal sketch cards and are the types of sketches that I produce for commissions.

On a side note, I loved the new film.  However, I'm still unsure what to think about the new "Batsuit."  I think that the film series' visual designers should be moving the look of Batman more towards the look of the character in the comics instead of further away.  A fabric based suit could look cool (like Spidey's duds in the new films... he doesn't look silly) and still have the implication that the suit is armored underneath.  I found myself constantly checking my mental images of Batman while Bale was onscreen in the new suit and asking myself, "Does this check?  Do I feel like I'm watching the character I've known for so many years?"  I'm not sure.  I think the new suit is too "faceted," for lack of a better term.  There's too much going on, visually, in areas of the suit that should be streamlined and simple.  I have to admit, though, it has grown on me a bit since seeing the first images of the suit many months ago.  

I think when you are watching a film character that has such an established past, you shouldn't have to keep forcing yourself to accept that character design as the character you expect.  Think about Spiderman, for instance, his design is updated but doesn't completely conflict with what you expect to see as the image of Spiderman.  I think that the "powers that be" behind the look of Batman on film would be well served to keep this in mind.