Build a 'bot! (or how I stepped back in time)

Hard at work on Batman as I am, delightful as that is, it was a great pleasure recently to be asked to produce the above for an up-coming event by the name of DAR 2011, an "SF modeling show" to be held at the Gateway Hotel, Nottingham, UK from Fri 30th of April to Sun 1st of May.

The image will be a full page ad inviting folk to take part in a "Build a 'bot" competition.

Now, Batman takes all my time. Seriously, it's the most demanding job I've ever had, but once in a while it's good for me to put my Bat-pencil down for a moment and look up to see what else is going on in the world. As a child I used to love building plastic model kits. This turned into what is now regarded as quite an artform, namely custom models. I used to get all the bits left over from the kits, often including spare wings, cock-pits, guns and such and make my own little space craft. (the bases of some of the British Airfix kits were ideal to use as fuselage for these imagined sky vehicles in most cases)

When Eric invited me to produce this ad for him I couldn't say no. I managed to fit it in to my Bat-schedule by mostly working on it at night, so my Bat-conscience is fairly unblemished!

So...what you're looking at above is my working process, from initial "pop" idea to the finished piece. Some of you keen eyed folk out there may spot, amongst the first batch of sketches, the pose/robot I should have gone for! Typically I'm an artist who is never satisfied with anything I do!

Back to the Batcave...!