Cartoon DiD Peril sketch; Pencil & Paper and Photoshop COLOR.

As told by Kyodai-ken:

"After staking out Richman-san's warehouse, it was too easy to gain entry and claim the bank codes in the hidden vault. But that nosy reporter entered before I could finish my reconnaissance. No matter. After pinning her from behind, I could feel her struggles far too weak to pose a threat to me, but I could not take any risks of her escape. A cloth reduced her noises and a hogtie kept her relatively still. I had to suppress a chuckle to see her try to loosen the ropes and reach the knots, but a Ninja knows not to leave a knot within reach of the captive.

The explosives did not take long to arrange, but as I was finishing, another foolish woman entered through the window & tripped my alarm. I could tell by her movements that she must have had some knowledge of the Ninja, and so I moved to defeat her quickly. My hand clapped over her mouth from behind, she quickly succumbed to my powder.

I brought her to the other, and attached the timer to the explosives. The short haired woman woke quickly, but did not offer any resistance as she saw the other and her predicament. I stepped into the light and removed my mask. It would not matter for them to see my face. Soon Wayne-san and these two would all be victims...victims of the Ninja!"

Ok, I figured I would set up the plot for this coloring from the villain's point of view. I hope I did Kyodai justice!

I spent a lot of time on this coloring, and so I will get right down to what I did:

I started with the principals. Kyodai was easy to color in the Bruce Timm style, although I noticed the major flaw with the original sketch - his head was too big and he was too beefed up for a lithe Ninja. I fixed both. I sed white highlights in a couple areas just to try and show some definition on the all-black Ninja outfit.

The hardest part of April was finding a skin tone that I liked...I had references, but none of them really looked like a good shade. I used some shading to show clothing wrinkles where I had not draw them, which surprised me by really looking good! I wanted to do more with shading her boots, but couldn't get it right, so I went with the bare minimum.

Summer's shading was the most detailed of the three. I followed her lines with shading, but also added a few extras to show some clothing wrinkles. I broke with Bruce Timm's depiction of her on the pumps, as they are supposed to be black, but they didn't look good to me and so I used her coat's general shade. I also drew in her shirt underneath her coat right where her wrists are tied, since the rest of her blouse is hidden due to the hogtie position. As with the other two, I did not use any Anime eye techniques to keep the style consistent with Batman The Animated Series. I also used a pattern stamp to give her nylons, another break from her character but one that I am sure none of you will mind

I spent a great deal on the background this time too. The most in trying to come up with the night scene outside. I used a cloud texture to match that, and then messed with the layer blending to get the bat signal looking vibrant, although I wanted it more yellow. I used 3 colors on the crates to give some highlights due to a reference I had. I used more pattern stamping on the window frame, trim, and floor, but stuck with textures for the walls. The rolled up rug was a double gradient, which I think is cool now that I know how to do it.

Ok, enough talk. What say all of you?

- JC