Painting Poorly: Batman: Gotham City Chronicles - Robin, Tim Drake

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by Monolith Edition

The Fortunate Son...

For many of us who grew up reading comic books in the 90’s, Tim Drake is the definitive Robin, and I mean, why not?!?  He was prominent in the comics since his debut in ‘89, including being the first character to have his own solo comic under the name Robin, and an amalgamation of him and Jason Todd was featured heavily on the Batman Animated Series after Dick Grayson became Nightwing in the fourth season.  But I like Tim for a different reason. 

Sure, everyone pretty much knows Dick’s “Orphan Via Circus Accident” story and some of us even know Jason’s “Street Rat Turned Sidekick” origin, but Tim, oh boy, Tim was the only one who decided, “You know what? I want to be Robin.” And guess what? HE DID IT. 

Timothy Jackson Drake is the epitome of what a person can do if they just put their mind to it, and dedicate themselves fully, which is why I think he’s the MOST like Batman out of all the Robins, and also why most storylines in the future depict Tim inheriting the cape and cowl once Bruce is out of the picture... but I digress...

Today we’re painting ROBIN!

This Robin presents a few challenges to us in the form of strong, bold blocks of color, so we’ll be working slowly and diligently with this one. 

1. Gameplan, Prep, and Prime

We’re keeping things traditional here:

Tim's original costume is SO iconic.  This was the template for all future Robin costumes, including Dick's costume in Batman The Animated Series and Batman Forever, so, who am I to mess with perfection?

I've assembled the following paints to help with me recreate this look:

Vallejo

Basic Skin Tone, Red, and Park Green Flat

Citadel

Wild Rider Red and Caliban Green

Ceramcoat

Black and White

Handmade Modern (Target Brand)

Goldenrod

Any dark green and light red could be used to substitute the Citadel colors, do don't feel you have to use the exact ones I've listed above.

I've also primed my figure with some Army Painter matt white spray on primer.  Make sure you get good coverage with the primer on the underside of the cape.  Once that's all dry, we're ready to paint!

2. Basecoats

Quick reminder that unless I specifially say otherwise, all of our paints should be thinned with equal parts water.

The first thing we're going to start off with is the goldenrod.  I like this stronger yellow tone, though you can use traditional yellow if you like.  Yellow is a difficult color to get even, and hard to cover anything up, so we start off with yellow to make sure we get the yellow details before covering up with a stronger color.

Paint the underside of the cape, the "R" insignia on the chest, along with the utility belt.  You'll notice in the art for Robin, he actually has some yellow trim along the gorget around this neck.  Paint this portion yellow, too, and we'll simply cover up the rest with black later on.  Don't be afraid to use multiple coats either, as we want an even layer of paint.

Next, we're going to take our red and paint the tunic.  Nothing too fancy here, just an even coat around his torso, but be careful not to become me.  I forgot that his sleeves are actually green, and I didn't remember until MUCH later, so FORGIVE ME, but the pictures are going to have some red sleeves for a bit...

After that, take your caliban green and paint the legs, gloves, and SLEEVES.  Be careful to avoid the bare arms between the sleeves and gloves, as the basic flesh tone we'll be using for skin doesn't cover up the dark green that well.

The skin is what we'll be painting next with our basic skin tone.  Just paint the face and exposed arms.  Don't worry about not painting the mask, just go for it.  We'll repaint it the right color later on.

Next you'll take one drop of black, one drop of white, and equal parts water, to create this dark grey almost black color to paint the outside of the cape, Tim's hair, and his boots.

In the front, make sure to paint the gorget around Tim's neck, but be sure not to cover up the yellow trim at the top.

You'll also want to take your finest detail brush and paint the background of the "R" insignia on his chest.  Just focus on one section at a time, and make sure to reshape your brush to a fine tip as you need.

After that, you can use your goldenrod and your detail brush yet again to paint the yellow clips on the front of the tunic.  Just a little touch of yellow should do it, don't try to make them perfect squares.

This is also the time when you could get some of the park green flat and paint the mask, once again with your detail brush.  Just go slowly, and try dabbing the color on instead of full on brush strokes.

This next part is completely optional.  I actually used my park green flat and added some highlights to the legs, knees, sleeves, and gloves PRIOR to shading the figure, focusing on painting the folds in the clothing or the top of the muscles that would catch sunlight from above.

If you choose to do this, this will help with the gradient between the darker basetone of the caliban green and the bright park green flat, however, if you skip this portion, there will just be more distinct breaks between shaded and highlighted sections.

3. Shading

We are going to be using a lot of different washes today...

Okay, let's unpack all this: Light Tone, Green Tone, Red Tone, Flesh Wash, and Dark Tone, all by The Army Painter.

Start off with the flesh wash on the face and arms.  Don't worry too much about getting it on the mask, it won't color it in a strange way.  Don't let it go on too thick, either.  Just a nice, thin layer should be more than enough to provide depth.

Next, take your light tone and apply it to the underside of the cape, the belt, and the "R" insignia.  Again, a thin layer should be just fine, and avoid the temptation to move it around too much on the cape.  Just trust the wash to do what it needs to do, and we'll make sure we address any weird sections during the highlights phase.

Then use your red tone and apply it to the tunic.  Feel free to apply the red tone to the yellow clips on the tunic as well, but try your best to avoid getting any on the green sleeves or yellow utility belt.

After that, take your green tone and apply it to all the green sections, the sleeves, legs, gloves, and the mask.  In general, try to avoid getting the green tone onto the red tunic, but if you do, dry off your brush and soak up the errant wash to minimize the damage.

For the mask specifically, be careful not to apply too much wash as it could run into the skin, and create an absolute mess.

The last shade we'll be applying will be dark tone over the cape, hair, and boots.  When it dries, it will have a very faint shade compared to it's original base tone, so don't expect too dramatic of a difference.

Once that's all done drying it's time for highlights!

5. Highlights and Finishing Touches

The first highlight we'll be painting will be the skin.  Using your basic flesh tone, paint the chin, nose, forehead that's not covered by the mask, cheekbones, jawbones, and sternocleidomastoid muscles, AKA the ones in the neck (my 11th grade anatomy teacher, Ms. Sumpter would be so proud of me).

Remember when we highlight, we're trying to lighten up the light portions of the paint job, while keeping the portions of the paint job that have been darkened by the wash as dark as possible.

For the arms, you'll want to do what I like to call a "Top Down" highlight, and look at the figure from a bird's eye view and simply highlight what you can see, in this case, the elbow and forearm muscle, while remembering to avoid the recesses that were darkened by the wash.

Next, we'll take our goldenrod and apply a small highlight to the sides of the cape, painting the most outside portions of the right and left sides as those would be the only sections exposed to light to catch a highlight.

You can also highlight the very center of the utility belt at this time (the circle) and repaint the yellow clips on the tunic and the "R" in order to bring them back up to a bright yellow.

Now, we can take our park green flat, and paint those highlights over the green portions.  Focus on the top of the thighs and the front of the knees, but pretty much anywhere a muscle bulges, or the fabric folds out, put a little highlight there.

For the sleeves and gloves, you can apply top down highlights, painting the individual rectangles on the sleeves and gloves, along with highlighting the knuckles, and thumb/index and middle fingers.

You can also highlight the mask by highlighting the bottom half of the mask, to give the illusion that the cheekbones are helping to catch the light.

After the legs and sleeves are done, we'll use some wild rider red to highlight the tunic.  Again, anywhere that *ahem* bulges outward will need a highlight, so the ribs, each fold in the tunic, and the bottom of the pectoral muscles, and even his crotch.

Here's an idea of how you could highlight the back of the figure.  Notice the highlighted tush and few bolts of park green flat that helps give the figure that stark comic book art look.

The last highlight we're going to do will be adding another drop of white paint to our 50/50 black/white paint mix and highlighting the hair and cape.  For the cape, simply hold from a bird's eye view, like shown above, and paint the shoulders of the cape, and each fold in the fabric that billows upward.

For the hair, try to pick out as many locks of hair as possible to highlight with this color as it will help add depth to any black areas.

You can also use this color to add some highlights to the back of the boots around the calfs and heels and on the toes of the boots in the front.

For the base, I'm going to be using the same sponge paint technique that I described in my Red Hood tutorial, spraying the figure with some matt finish, and super gluing on some ballast as described in my Nightwing tutorial.

5. Prepare for Young Justice!

That's it, Gothamites!  I hope you guys have enjoyed this edition of Painting Poorly.  Of course, this, along with all of my Batman: Gotham City Chronicles tutorials can be found on my blog.

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Stay tuned...  Same Bat-Time...  Same Bat-Blog!

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