Some of you might remember that last year I began a series of empty-costume bust illustrations. First I drew the TV-show inspired Reverse Flash, and then I drew a Yvonne Craig-based Batgirl. Up next was meant to be the Raven, from the classic DC Comics New Titans series, but that’s where I hit a snag.

For illustrations like this, I use photo reference to get details and decide where to put shadows and such… but I couldn’t find a good likeness of a real-life Raven costume. So, I used an illustration as reference for my empty-costume drawing. Unfortunately, I actually did too good of a job of mimicking the original George Perez drawing. So much so that even adding the “after George Perez” still left me feeling a little dirty.

I didn’t want anyone to think I was just hacking and tracing a George Perez drawing and trying to pass it off on my own… even though it actually was my own drawing, just a really good aping of Mr Perez. So, I shelved the drawing for a time, but it also put me off the continuation of that empty-costume series.

I’m doing some housecleaning of my artwork from last year, things that didn’t get posted for one reason or another… and I finally decided to just post it with all of the above caveats and let it go. I think I did a good job, just perhaps too good of a job, but I don’t want to hold myself back from doing anything similar in the future. So, without further adieu… likely the last in my empty-costume bust series… Raven:

Please let me know what you think, and remember, if you’d like an original commission by me or would like to hire me as an Illustrator, please use the Contact page and let me know as much as you can about your request.