#until they get their hands on the first session danny had with joker

[lonelysheepling]

Recently read @queenofthequillandink ’s DPxDC crossover fic Unearthed, Reborn

I got inspired to draw character sheets for Danny, Sam, Jason, and Jazz’s vigilante personas. Here’s a link to the author’s drawings of their outfits (these were a vital reference for me when doing this so thank you so much for sharing them Quill) More commentary (like 7+ paragraphs plus 2 images) about this project and the designs below the “keep reading” line.

None of these thoughts I have for each character are in order, but I have a lot of commentary for these since this project was a lot more conceptual than my normal work. I also just like talking about my art/design process. If you ever find yourself wondering at some point why an element from the original design wasn’t included, the answer is that the removal was completely intentional and part of my grandmaster vision for this work and wasn’t because I just forgot about it entirely during the design process.

————————————————————————

Aconite (Sam)

This was the first one I sketched out, I wasn’t even sure at the time if I was going to fully commit to drawing all of them. I thought that Sam was gonna be the hardest since her description was way longer than the others, but then bird boy beat her out. I took a lot of creative liberties with her design, the bag was added bc I couldn’t figure out how to add pockets to the skirt. I was trying to avoid a joker color scheme so I had a lot of ref images that I got by searching like “purple green aesthetic” on Pinterest. The dark purple and dark forest/blueish green won out in the end. I desaturated a lot of my colors for her just to get as far away from the neon Gotham rogue aesthetic. I also added the bdsm harness over the armor to add more punk elements to her design, I know that in real life that would be very uncomfortable to wear over scalemail armor but sometimes we take creative liberties when they look sick as fuck. Also, I didn’t realize until I went to look for a reference for aconite flowers that aconite is wolfsbane! That was neat to learn! Also, the font I used for Aconite is called “zai Art School Calendar 1931”, I’ve used this a few times for other projects, it’s one of my favorite fonts. The ‘zai’ fonts the creator has are all very good.

Shade (Danny)

There wasn't much to add to this page. His outfit is pretty simple (besides the patterning). I wasn’t sure how to pull of an optical illusion pattern but I was reminded how I sometimes get an eyestrain induced headache when looking at someone wearing a patterned shirt with really thin stripes so I just leaned into the idea of a small/detailed hard lined pattern. I originally made 5 separate patterns for him and then turned them into stamp brushes in procreate. I only ended up using three of them, the one on the chest, the one on the legs, and the one on his hand. But, I imagine the patterns fade and shift when he moves, sort of like a lenticular print. I gave him constellation freckles and stylized the hair’s fade into white. The hair was inspired by how time-woods draws Martin Blackwood’s hair (linked: time-woods’s fanart of Martin Blackwood). Also put way too much effort into the teeth on the mask. I just like the chunky teeth design. Oh yeah and the font I used for him is called “Typewriter_Condensed_Demi”

Erinys (Jason)

Repeatedly ran into the issue of not having enough canvas space bc of my fervent need to thoroughly document and plan out how the wings worked. I also reversed the colors for the bodysuit & armor so the under layer was black while the armor plates were red. I only realized afterwards that I may have been inspired by the red centipedes in Rain World (linked: gif of the red centipede, don’t click the link if you’re unsettled/afraid of bugs/insects), artists subconsciously draw inspiration from other artists all the time though so I’m not like upset about it. I stand by it because it looks sick as hell. Also leaned into the magpie theming for the wings. I think the vigilante form was supposed to be reverse magpie coloring? I can’t remember, but I stuck with normal magpie coloring. The anatomy of how the wings connected to the collarbone was inspired by JayEaton’s Magpie Bridge Project. Reference image link. Link to the article the image is from. I didn’t draw the wing armor because I couldn’t figure out how to would work with the wing anatomy and I ran out of canvas space. Finally, the font used for him is “DIN Condensed” this is a default font, I would’ve used something more punk but I needed the text to be legible.

Insight (Jazz)

I did Jazz after I’d already finished the initial trio, so I had to switch to a new canvas for her bc I’d hit the layer limit multiple times on the previous one. I really do love doing that spiked under-eyelash thing with characters. Don’t know when that started. Anyway, I added the shoulder pads to her outfit to help break up the empty space. The golden eyes were a nice accent color since her design is very overwhelmingly green. Honestly the braid hairstyle and gold eyes really do obscure her identity, multiple times when drawing her I was worried that she didn’t really resemble Jazz enough. There wasn’t a drawing from the author for her so I only had the text description to go off of. I just realized that she sort of reminds me of a forest ranger and I don’t know what to do with that realization. I copy/pasted my drawing of her eyes when gold and recolored them to match her normal eye color. There were two layers for that, a hue shift and a hard light layer to emphasize the shadows.

Here’s what it looks like without the hue shift: 

It looks really cool and I’m 100% that color combo in another drawing down the line. Oh yeah and the font used for this sheet was “Euphemia UCAS”. It comes with Apple’s operating system, I use it as a neutral default text most of the time bc it’s nicer than helvetica but not overly fancy like Times New Roman—and why am I talking about fonts. ——————————————————————— Anyway, this project was very fun to work on. The alt text for this was its own endeavor, hope the folks using screen-readers don’t mind 4-5 paragraphs of description text. Also, I cannot remember for the life of me if Dani got a costume description, but if she does I’ll make sure to update this image set with a sheet for her. And to the author, QueenOfTheQuill, if you’re reading this message that I’ve left at the very bottom of this post below a read more line, thank you for the fic. It’s very good and I’m glad I caught it during my slow decent into DPxDC brainrot. I love the interactions between Jason and Tim, it’s nice seeing a revived Jason that’s not bogged down by pit rage. They definitely seem like they could’ve been good friends if not for the unfortunate circumstances that led them to meet in canon. Also, I’m sure Jazz will love interacting with Batman and Nightwing. So much psychological & childhood trauma to unpack with them. Feel free to use/share these images if you so desire and thanks again for your work.

[thebucketpail]

When You Accidentally Kill a Clown pt. 5

Pt.1 Prev

Pt.5 (tws; mention of unhealthy eating habits,)

Danny let out a long sigh as he stood up, cursing whatever gods decided to mess with his life. He had just gotten comfortable too! He was in the zone, productive, then this.

“Terry, if you two so much as touch my bed I will kill you.” His roomate, Terry, had just come in loud and boisterous as always, rambling about how Danny had to leave for the night, again. Ancients what was with this guy.

“Yeah, yeah dude I got it, don't touch your shit. Now could you please hurry? She’ll be here in like 2 minutes,” Terry said as Danny, grumpily, shoved books in his backpack.

“You,” Danny pointed at a finger at him, “Have a problem.”

“Uh huh, now move. Come on vamanos,” he replied, ushering Danny through the door.

“And you owe me,”

“Mhhm,” and the door shut in his face. Great. Now he has to find somewhere to stay for the night, preferably without getting mugged. It had been almost two weeks since his terrible awful horrible day featuring the Joker, Red Hood, and a very hangry seagull, and nothing too out of the ordinary had happened. Well, aside from the fact that Danny was being stalked by an ex-crime lord turned vigilante.

Some would say he’s being paranoid and that would probably be fair, Danny had nothing to go off of save for an unsettling feeling of being watched, and the occasional hum of a muffled core. But it was so clearly the hooded man who had taken him for burgers not two weeks ago. It didn’t really matter that much, he just had to keep a lid on his ghostliness is all, but being watched like that was still unsettling.

Regardless, Danny hoisted his bag further onto his shoulder and headed down the hall, he’d probably find a coffee shop or library or something to study in. Classes had only been in session for about a week and a half but the ghost was already swamped with homework. Well that’s what he gets for dumping all his required classes into the first semester.

A brightly colored blur moved in his peripheral vision as he entered a quaint shop. Danny had found this place roughly ten days ago while hunting for some decent espresso. The coffee shop stayed open until eleven at night, one might figure how that would attract coffee addicted insomniacs, as such, Danny had visited this shop every evening usually around 8. So it was a bit of a surprise to see him settling into a nook at 4 in the afternoon. Once Danny was thoroughly satisfied with his setup, he went to order.

“Hey Danny!” Anne greeted from behind the counter, she was busy tying an apron around her waist but gave a small wave anyway, giving a slight nod, “Aren’t you here a bit early? You're usually my closing customer, not my opening,” she joked.

“Yeah, well my roommate kind of kicked me out,so here I am,” They said, smiling as they gestured to themself and the shop at large.

“You want your usual?” she asked, hand poised over the tablet at the register. Their usual was 8 shots of espresso with, what sam called, ‘an ungodly amount of sweet cream and chocolate.’

But at 4 o’clock Danny figured they’d get an early dinner/late lunch instead.

“Actually I’ll have a hot chocolate, dark, with extra cream,” they said grinning, “Oh and add some caramel.”

Anne raised one eyebrow, a small smile tugged at the corner of her mouth as she held back a small chuckle, “Anything else? Food maybe? You look like you haven’t eaten,” and, well, maybe that was true, when was the last time they’d eaten? 6 am maybe? They had a bagel.

“Uuuuuummmmm,” Danny’s eyes scanned the board on the wall behind Anne, “Surprise me? Something with chocolate,” They said. Anne smirked.

“You got it, give me one moment,” Danny moved to the side as she began work on their order. The shop was quiet, save for the loud whirring of the various machines behind the bar. There were a few patrons scattered around, engrossed in their own devices. Which made it all the more noticable, to Danny apparently as no one else seemed to bat an eye, when a scruffy, black haired teenager dressed in red and black stumbled in.

Red Robin’s eyes swept the small shop for a moment before he started moving toward the counter.

“Hey RR, I’ll be with you in a moment,” Anne called from her place at the espresso machine. Danny just stared, mouth probably hanging wide open. Why was Red Robin at their favorite coffee place? And why was everyone here so chill with it?

Danny was pulled from their wondering when Anne deposited their hot chocolate and some coffee cake next to them. They took the food but didn’t move from their place. Seriously? Danny knew plenty of superheroes/ vigilantes (Okay maybe only like two but that's semantics) They should be acting cool about this. But it was just so strange. Maybe this is how Amity Parkers felt whenever they had to watch Phantom have a screaming match with a faulty vending machine, or Red Huntress and Phantom sharing a burger whilst covered head to toe in ectoplasm.

“Your regular five o’clock death wish?” Anne asked, already typing the order into the register, not even looking up when Red Robin nodded. Ancients, did that kid look tired. It was hard to tell with the mask, but he couldn’t have been more than 17. No 17 year old had the right to have such a weary look to their eyes at only 5 in the afternoon. Danny should know, they had sported the same look at his age.

And wasn’t that a thought.

Anne handed off the DeathWish to RR who immediately took a very long drink. Danny was surprised the kid hadn’t chugged it all in one go. He thanked Anne, paid and disappeared out the door, curling himself around the coffee all the while, like it was a precious artifact or something.

“Was that Red Robin?”

“Mhhhm,” Anne replied, “He comes in here before patrol every once in a while. Treats coffee like a lifeline. He’s addicted if you ask me. Once, he ordered three Death Wishes in one sitting. I asked if he was sharing and he just stared at me with dead eyes.”

“oh. Well that’s… something.” Danny said, moving back to his study nook. And Danny thought they were obsessed with coffee. But three death wishes? Three??? At once????? This city's vigilantes were all batshit insane. They'd have to talk to Lady Gotham about her taste in knights.

“You’re telling me,” She snorted. As Danny returned to his English homework. God why did it have to be English homework. Well at least he had chocolate.

About two hours later, Danny almost spit out their coffee when Red Robin came back for more.

------------

Notes; Ahhhhhhh, just a little blrb. I was gonna do more but then I didn't feel like it, so have this little encounter while I think of ways to work civilian Jason into Danny’s life.

And If you think I’m projecting my chocolate addiction onto Danny than you are absolutely right.

I Love Comments! I love reblogs! I read them all and they fuel my willpower to write more!

Uuuh dont know what else to say sooo… *Throws glitter and scampers away*

Pt.6