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tranimation-art — Rorschach in Gotham: Intro
Published: 2008-11-27 13:24:32 +0000 UTC; Views: 17284; Favourites: 328; Downloads: 14
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"You are part of the night, just like me. We're not afraid of the dark — we come alive in it — we're thrilled by it..."I have severe night terrors and, as a result, I have very few dreams (and nightmares) that I will actually remember when I awake the next day. My dreams always have this strange film-like quality. And I had the weirdest dream last night and woke up on the wrong side of the bed, with a terrible back pain and stomach craps, and yet, like most of my intense dreams, it will nag and eat away at me until I draw them out! The product was Rorschach in Gotham. It's a working title, but it really says it all.
Taking place during the passing of Keene Act to illegalise costumed crime-fighting, Nite Owl II has been missing for three days. The Crimebusters (...uh, Watchmen) have broken up and carried on a lacklustre search for their comrade, so Rorschach takes his own line of investigation to find his only true friend and the clues lead him to Gotham City, perhaps with a little help from a costumed cat burglar. (This is a conceptual plot and it's subject to change.)
For those who don't know, I'm a huge Batman fan and Watchmen fan. I may do a short comic on this, a short story, or a full-on fiction; or it could be a collection of vignettes of him fighting Gotham Rogues' Gallery — or Batman himself. I really haven't decided yet. Nonetheless, I certainly love how this drawing came, so I'm going to fix the proportions (majorly!), draw some word balloons (maybe!), sketch in a background (gasp!), clean it up, and colour it — and we'll see how it goes from there. (I'm trying to do this by incorporating the 90s Batman: The Animated Series "dark noir" style, but I don't think I'm succeeding at all. It still looks too much like my own overtly cartoony style.)
Medium - HB and 2B mechanical pencil.
Rorschach in Gotham © Diane N. Tran.
Rorschach and Catwoman © DC Comics.
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Comments: 423
Thanks! I'm glad you liked it! I'd love to hear you opinion on the fic teaser in "Cause Here Comes Trouble" piece: [link]
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You do an amazingly brilliant cartoon style of drawing. It's seriously mind blowing. ^.^
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I'm glad you like it! I really appreciate it! Lately, I'm trying to escape my cartoony style. I've always envied comic book artists, like Adam Hudges and Alex Ross who have these ultra-realistic styles, and I've been trying emulate that, but all I get is my own cartoony style and it's been getting me rather frustration.
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Ohh! I see, I see what you mean! And true, it's always been fascinating to me how comic books can address such high levels of ultra-realism, and with you being the fantastic artist that you, I know you'll reach that one day tooo! ^.^ I just am in NO way a good drawer. I make my own dog's tail stops wagging when I show him pictures of my stick figures...I think the closest to something-that-resembles-an-okay-drawing is..:
[link]
So I've learned to appreciate all kinds of artists for their unique styles and amazing penmanship...but it completely surpasses and blows my simple mind! <3
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To become a better artist, all I can say is to look at life. Don't just look at photographs and draw those. Go out and observe people and animals in life and draw from it and learn from it. Eventually, you will take your knowledge and use it with your imagination. All it takes is practice.
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Awwww, wow, that means so much to me. Hehe, thank you! Thank you! *huggles back* And I shall! Who knows! Maybe someday I'll have something unique to show you in a time where you aren't so busy! ^.^
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You're welcome. You can really do anywhere and draw from life. Go to the busiest part of a mall and draw people. Go to a zoo and draw animals. Don't just draw them once or twice. Take a blank sheet of paper and go thumbnail gestures. You have three to five second until they move. And if they stand still for a long while, do that, too.
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Wow, ya know, I never really thought about that!~ THANKS! Will do!
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Life surrounds us, my friend.
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Very good, I love this one as much as the other
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Thanks! So thrilled that you like the Rorschach in Gotham series so much! It was a silly idea in my head that suddenly...TOOK OFF!
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I have to see the Watchmen film, I havn't even read the commics sad to say even though Ive heard great things about it
Your welcome
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I recommend the comic, also the Motion Comic if you can get your hands on it. I hope you get to watch the Ultimate Cut of Watchmen, as it's a far greater improvement from the theatrical cut.
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Pretty nice pic. It does kind-of look like B: TAS. Nice work.
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I tried. I failed. Oh, well...
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I didn't think you failed.
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Thanks! Glad you like it!
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Has anyone offered to color this yet? Mind if I take a crack at it?
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Nope, no offering! And I'd love to see you take a crack at it actually! I would definitely love to see it in colour! By the way, you're awesome!
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Flattery will get you everywhere. Bit buzzed at the moment but I'll try and knock it out the park.
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Did another drawing of her here: [link]
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very nice man! Everyone loves an artist who crosses Batman and Watchmen. If Rorschach hadn't died, Alan Moore should've TOTALLY done a Rorschach/Gotham crossover comicbook.
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Well, Rorschach in Gotham actually takes place in 1977, after the Keene Act has been passed. Between the years of 1977 to 1985 (during the events of the book/film), we don't know what Rorschach did other than the fact that he was still in costume and still fighting for justice, so it would be interesting to see him visit Gotham some time in those missing years. And if Gotham, with the amount of masks they have, the Keene Act would be the hottest subject. Batman would never hand up the cape and cowl and I had the crippling of Barbara Gordon happen just before the Keene Act, I figured anti-vigilante riots would still be going on strong and increasing in violence, which would be another reason why Rorschach would find it necessary to go to Gotham. Also, the FBI is on his tail after he killed that multiple rapist and dropped the body at the door of NY Police Department (and, of course, the paedophile). The pressure might set off that he needed to escape for a while, too. As you probably know, each villain represents Batman in some manner. Alan Moore described Rorschach has "Batman without one rule" and to have him pitted against Gotham's finest villains, they, in turn, would represent him in a similar way. Rorschach in Gotham, at its heart, is "character study." With each story and each character he meets, another layer of his personality and psyche is peeled and revealed something new about him.
Please check out the rest of RiG folder in my gallery as well. I'd love to hear any opinions, comments, and critiques.
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I'm uber jealous of your style!
I looove it... Rorschach is adorable, and Catwoman came out divine!
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Don't be jealous. When I look at this, all I see is the flaws now. Oye! (You're always your own worst critic.) 
Thanks! Glad you like them! Out of all the characters in the Bat-verse, Catwoman made the most sense. They both came from broken families, with abusive parents, born in poverty at the worst possible area in the city, were unloved and neglected, eventually orphaned and thrown into an institute, and ended up on the streets and forced to survived by their wits. They embody both crime-fighter and criminal, patrolling the East End districts of their respectful cities. They are both morally ambiguous, stubborn, independent, emotionally hurt, but they have good, well-meaning hearts, living by their own life code and not by the one society enforces — Rorschach, in his relentlessly brutal vindication of justice, and Catwoman in principled defiance against it. They are a kind of "kindred spirits". They from two different worlds and yet they exist in the same one — two halves of worldly discontent. They....just made sense.
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Totally. I'm completely self-deprecating!
Yeah, their lives and beliefs completely parallel each others (and yet completely clash, at the same time!)
I never knew much about Catwoman; what an eye-opener!
They were MADE for each other. Makes me wanna be Catwoman now! I have a well-meaning heart... I could me morally ambiguous (maybe)...
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Her backstory is actually very intriguing. It's a lot better than her Golder/Silver Age origins were she was an airline stewardess who bumped her head and became a cat burglar, LAME! I like the gritter, darker origins she has today, post-Crisis. And what's great about these characters is that you can related to her and to Rorschach. They play off each other, whether they agree or disagree on something. It make slife more interesting.
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Yeah, that backstory seems more like PSA warning against the dangers of standing while the plane is in motion.
Oh, I totally related to Rorschach. If I were to be a masked vigilante, that's who I'd be. Uncompromising, with my own set of morals and rules (that teetered the line of hypocritical.) I'd always fight for justice and never ever give up. Keene Act, my rear-end!
And I'd wear a super cool fedora...
I'm intrigued, I'll have to read up more on Catwoman. I never knew how interesting she could be!
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It is. It's funny that way. She's a fascinating character: [link]
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Girl's got history!
I'm gonna read that!
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Most of the time these Marvel cross-overs I see around here make me want to slap someone, but in this case, I want to 
If you ever type out this idea in any detail as far as the story you mentioned in your Artist's Comments, PLEASE let me know. I'd love to read it.
I write many fanfictions myself (though I don't post them here) and Batman is my favorite, so if you ever get bored and would like to write a collab, hit me up!
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Well, technically, this is DC. Watchmen and Batman are both DC, not Marvel. I haven't actually read any Marvel crossovers on DevArt because, in my opinion, DC shall be supreme, brwahahahahaha! 
Anyway, thank you, thank you so much for your high praise. I really do appreciate your kind words and your support. It really means a lot, particularly since read my comments below and I don't think many people do that.
If you go to my "Rorschach in Gotham" folder in my gallery, you'll see more pieces and I'm working on two new pieces -- a coloured piece and a full-on story. I've wrote the beginning and the end and I just have to fill up the middle. And I'm working on a FAQ, to explain all the things I've discussed on my comments. It's coming up soon as it's ready.
A collaboration? Sounds fascinating! What did you have in mind?
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*slaps self* Sorry about the Marvel typo - I totally knew they were DC, but apparently my fingers took on a mind of their own at the moment, haha.
No worries, I'm a nerd myself so I won't tell. 
To be honest, I wasn't sure just what I had in mind, haha. I love Batman - he's one of my all-time favorites and though I don't draw well, writing is definitely my forte. You mentioned you were writing so I kinda tossed that in at the end, heehee.
Have there been any particular story-lines you've been wanting to try that might take two people?
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No worries. I do that, too. More than I should.
Character development and story ideas are my forte. The writing process gets to me because I'm very Dickensian and I have a habit of never letting go a paragraph, staring at it for hours. Another is dialogue. I can make a witty, memorable line or a nice monologue; making whole conversation to get to that point, oye! I'm better at silence, where there's no dialogue but action.
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i know what you mean with the character development thing -i often get carried away with it myself XD i have to say though that i actually have fun with both plot and dialogue and the ironis to be found in both lol. Just me though. Though now thanks to that post of yours i've gotten a pretty good idea for a storyline
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Excellent! Love to hear it!
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Simply marvelous. I was thinking crossover like a month ago, but I'm not a very patient artist when it comes to learning about the styles and such.
I think you did a great job on this, and I shall go find the rest of your Rorschach in Gotham works.
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Thank you so much! I'm glad you like this! I hope you like the rest of my Rorschach in Gotham gallery as well.
I'm a patient artist myself, although not a patient writer.
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I think this looks really awesome! 
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Thank you! I was trying to escape my cartoony style for the more realistic one from the 90s animated series, as I love the series so and still watch it to this die, and I think kinda failed. Whoopsie.
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Once you find a style that works for you, go with it.
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That's what I want do here. I searching for a style that works, which is why the Rorschach in Gotham shifts styles because I'm still trying to find it.
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Profound! I adore the smaller details, like the gun in Rorsharch's hand.
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Thanks! I wish I spend more time on it though to get the proportions right, but there's always next time. If you like this, I hope you like the rest of Rorschach in Gotham series; I'm currently working on another one.
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Well, then I shall!
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[link]
apparently, the video game will have one second sequel: And Twilight lady will make an appearance
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