Meet Batman's Furry Sidekicks: the Bat Dogs!

Batman is a DC Comics character that was created in the late 1930s by artist Bob Kane and writer Bill Finger. Batman is also referred to as 'The Caped Crusader' and 'The Dark Knight'. Although Batman has many human companions, he doesn't have any pets. If Batman ever did decide to keep pets, what would his dogs look like?

Bat Dogs in The 'Bark' Night
Combining their excellent sense of smell, loyalty and dog breath with the flying and hearing powers of bats, bat dogs make excellent slobbering sidekicks. Using their bark as sonar, bat dogs can follow their nemesis (usually Cat Woman) through busy streets, either on the ground or from the air. Dogs make excellent superhero sidekicks, as they are very loyal and are generally of a good height to bite baddies in the bum.

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Bat Dogs Defeat Kitty Criminals

Batdogs have one nemesis, the cat. before becoming bat dogs, many ordinary dogs were often outsmarted by these hissing creatures that could climb out of reach. But now, endowed with the powers of bat flight, batdogs can follow their feline enemies no matter how high they climb.

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Batdogs make a Halloween Appearance

Not all Batdogs wear their uniforms year-round. Some only don their costumes at Halloween, using the festivities and dress up traditions of Halloween to disguise their true natures as Bat Dogs. This way, they can hide in plain sight and still show allegiance to Batman and Robin.

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Jesse Smith creates Cartoon Graffiti Tattoos

Jesse Smith creates Cartoon Graffiti Tattoos

This article has been improved upon and moved to RattaTattoo, Art-Sci's sister site. Click this link to see the newer, better version: http://rattatattoo.com/jesse-smith-creates-cartoon-graffiti-tattoos/

Real People who Look Like Cartoon Characters

Cartoon character designers generally start designing a character based on a single personality attribute that the character will portray throughout the animation. For example, if the character has a dorky personality, the character designer will try to portray this by creating a dorky-looking character. For villains and heroes, the character designer will give the character's physical appearance the appropriate attributes. 

Sometimes character designers need inspiration, and so they'll look around and observe people, finding facial shapes and physical characteristics that incorporate the essence of the character they are creating. These attributes of real people find their way not only into the character design, but into the animation, personifying the characters and making it easy for audiences to empathize with them.

People who Look Like Pixar Characters
Pixar animations are known for having lovable, believable characters, and now people are discovering that Pixar artists have a knack for creating characters that resemble living people. These people have taken pictures of themselves with their look-alike characters and posted the pictures online.

Above: Carl Fredricksen, a Pixar character from the movie "Up" is shown on the left, and on the right, a real live old guy who looks just like his animated counterpart. [source]

Above: This Asian kid looks identical to the cartoon character Russell from Pixar's lovable animated movie "Up". The only difference is the color of the kid's boy scout scarf. [source]

Above: On the left is the character Linguini from the Pixar animated film "Ratatouille". The real guy on the right looks just like his cartoon doppelganger, right down to the sweet-hearted smile. [source]

Beavis and Butthead in Real Life

Beavis and Butthead are two cartoon characters that were created by Mike Judge in 1992. The characters found a home on MTV, which popularized the duo. Within weeks, Beavis and Butthead had found their way into the hearts and homes of millions of people. Their dorky laughs and dumbass catch phrases could be heard in school and college campuses across the world.

The characters are essentially caricatures of two below-average American teenagers who constantly get themselves into trouble with teachers, law keepers, criminals and pretty much every person they come across. The characters are so highly stylized that it's almost impossible to visualize them as real human beings, but here they are, in the flesh:

Above: One of Beavis's signature character attributes is the size of his head. Although Chris Kemp's nostrils could use some stretching, he totally looks like Beavis in many other ways. [source]

Above: Zach from "Little People, Big World" looks just like the cartoon character Butthead. [source]

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Sam Spratt has PAINTED ALL THE MEMES!

Sam Spratt's website describes his work as having "sprattitude". This fine arts graduate combines classical training with current ideas, many of which stem from online media and internet memes. 

PAINT ALL THE MEMES!
Spratt's collection of paintings entitled Illustrated Internet is based on what he calls the visual vernacular of the internet. These paintings are based on popular internet media characters found in rage comics. Most of these characters are used online in their original form; simple black and white sketches of an expressive cartoon face. Spratt has fleshed out these characters by giving them a 3-dimensional existence.

Above: "Paint all the memes!" based on "X all the Y". This character has been used as a template for expressing a fanatical point of view. Notable variations are "Clean all the things!" and "Eat all the brains!" [source]

Above: The rage comics fffuuu face. The painting of the meme character is complete with flying spittle and red eyes. [source]

Above: An expressive painting of the meme Forever Alone. [source]

Paintings of Memes

Although there are thousands of fan art works of internet memes, Spratt's paintings are original in that he has removed the characters from their ordinarily 2-dimensional state and given them a fleshy substance. Although each of the faces still stands alone, bereft of a body, the characters are complete.

Sam Spratt's art style uses a combination of messy brushwork and careful lighting to create the overall effect of a character suspended in endless space.

Above: Trollface in 3D. The troll face rage comics character is used to express delight or humor at someone else's misfortune, and is often used in forums, comics and .gif animations. [source] See more trollface fan art works. 

Above: LOL face. Rumor has it that the original lolface appeared in Garfield Christmas 1987. [source]

Above: Me Gusta. The rage comics character is used to express a sickening enjoyment of disturbing media. [source]

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Fan Art Character Hybrids

Fan art works are artists' renditions of their favorite celebrities or media characters. The aim of fan art is to show what it is about their idol that they appreciate, such as beauty, strength or humor. Fan art combinations merge two subjects to form an entirely new character. The tricky part is to express what it is about both of those characters that the artist appreciates.

Fan Art Spoofs
Character combinations are spoofs or parodies of popular characters, created with the intention of forming a humorous hybrid. The majority of character spoofs are non-official art works, though occasionally they are created on an official level by TV series producers as a means to entertain viewers.

Above: A combination of pikachu, a magical animal character from the anime series Pokemon, and a cthulhu, a fantasy character first introduced in literature by HP Lovecraft in the 1920s. The resulting character combination is a cthulhuachu. [source]

Above: Family Guy's dynamic duo, Brian the Dog and Stewie, transform into a parody of DC Comics' Batman and Robin. This is an official transformation created by the artists of Family Guy for use in an episode. [source]

Above: Mario Bros vs Winnie the Pooh and Piglet. Children of the 80s will recognize both sets of famous friends that have been used in this character combination.The transformation that the four characters have undergone reflects the transformations that the Mario games and the Pooh series have experienced over the last three decades. [source]

Above: Wolverine Mouse? Mickerine? Wolvermickey? The usually light-hearted and lovable character of Mickey Mouse has been combined with the intense, angry persona of Wolverine from the X Men. The artist has combined elements from each character, such as Mickey's gloves and Wolverine's blades to create a balanced hybrid character. [source]

Above: A Photoshop hybrid of Rowan Atkinson's Mr Bean character and a na'vi alien character from the movie Avatar. Although the resulting hybrid character has mostly na'vi characteristics, such as the hair style, blue skin and wide, flat nose, Mr Bean's character traits shine through. [source]

Above: A Muppet X Men spoof. Jim Henson's popular Muppet characters have appeared in a number of fan art hybrids. [source]

Above: The Simpsons parody the famous photograph of The Beatles crossing Abbey Road, with Homer Simpson as John Lennon. The zebra crossing used in the original photograph of the pop group is now a popular tourist destination. [source]

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Funny Cartoon Paintings

Modern artists have begun to reflect the cartoon style found in animated films and comics. This modern art style is being created in both fine art mediums (such as paint or ink) and in digital art programs such as Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.

Humorous Design
Cartoon character designers exaggerate facial features and twist the proportions of the characters' bodies, creating humorous creatures that parody the human form. Often, facial features such as eyes, ears or noses will be shrunk or enlarged, creating such a gross caricature of a human face that an entirely new character is born.

Above: Greg "Craola" Simkins has based this cartoon painting on real-time puppet and animated characters from the popular kids TV show The Muppets. 

Above: A cartoon painting by Brandt Peters. The main subject of the image is a female cartoon character whose face is a humorous caricature boasting a flattened head, no chin and a tiny, shrunken nose. Even the proportions of her body have been exaggerated or shrunk to complete the character's design.

Above: Photoshop artist Tiago Hoisel is a master of caricature, emphasizing not only the facial features of his characters but their emotions and attitudes too.

Art as a Cartoon

Traditional animated cartoons and comic books feature characters that have heavy outlines and solid areas of color. With the advent of 3D animation software, these strong outlines have begun to fall away in favor of semi-realistic, 3-dimensional characters. These characters are most often reflected in the work of digital artists.

Above: Philip Bosman's painting style is influenced by graffiti, an art form that often incorporates cartoon characters into street art murals. In this painting, we can see the influence of traditional animation and comics in the dark outlines and three tone shading.

Above: A cartoon painting by Mark Fredrickson of a cow with butterfly wings, flitting about like some kind of a bovine fairy. Fredrickson produces his art in Photoshop, mimicking the subtle shadows and highlights found in 3D animation.

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Cute Cartoon Tattoos

Cartoon tattoo designs are often based on popular comic or cartoon characters. These characters are fairly common as tattoo designs, so for a more unique, personalized tattoo design, customers will sometimes ask the tattoo artist for an original cartoon tattoo.

Toon Tats
Most cartoon tattoos have clear outlines and solid areas of color. These kinds of designs are easier to ink into the skin than designs with intricate detail or shading. This means the resulting body art is often of a high quality. Most cartoon tattoo designs use one character, with little or nothing in the background. This gives the image a clearly defined silhouette.

Above: A cute baby bat cartoon tattoo, for a humorous gothic effect. The clear outlines and crisp edges makes the tattoo really stand out.

Above: A cartoon bird design with a graffiti tattoo influence. By using a few subtle highlights and shadows, the tattoo artist has given an otherwise flat tattoo depth and interest.

Above: A cute cartoon character with the typical cartoon design elements of big, shiny eyes and a cute little smile.

Above: A cartoon cat tattoo design. The tattoo artist has highlighted parts of the cartoon kitty to give this design more definition.

Cartoon Tattoo Designs

Cartoon tattoos are often colorful and interesting to look at. Unlike many tattoo designs, cartoon tats have no distinct meaning or symbolism, other than that the wearer of the tattoo liked the cartoon character.

Above: These cute characters have been influenced by cartoons, but the style is 3D, using careful shading to smooth out the characters. See Kelly Doty's best tattoo designs.

Above: This geeky gecko tattoo makes a humorous body art piece. The tattoo artist has added shadows to create the illusion that the gecko is perched on top of the skin.

Above: Big eyes and a large head are two popular character design techniques that cartoon artists use. The tattoo artist has uses soft shading in flesh tones to mimic human skin, a tricky effect to achieve on skin of a similar color.

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Chainsaw Carving is a Chip Off the Old Block

Chainsaw carving combines the ancient art of carving with the modern technology of the chainsaw, commonly used for tree felling. The artist uses the chainsaw to carve a wooden trunk or block, in a performance that is fascinating to watch.

As with most art forms, chainsaw carving has been used to create fan art of popular media characters from films and games. Most of these character statues are carved from several pieces of wood that are fitted together during the carving process.


Carving of Big Daddy from Bioshock
A chainsaw artist, Jason, creates a chainsaw carving of a Big Daddy from the game, Bioshock. The video below shows the process from selecting wood to completing the tiniest detail.

Above: A video of the chainsaw carving process, which shows a chainsaw artist called Jason carving a Bog Daddy character from the popular game, Bioshock.

Above: The finished sculpture. The large statue is highly detailed and beautifully finished.

Chainsawed Characters from Star Wars

George Lucas's famous movies, Star Wars, have inspired artists to create fan art of the movies' characters. Chainsaw carving lends itself particularly well to woolly and furry characters such as Chewbacca and the Ewoks.

Above: Chewbacca, with Jar Jar Binks. These chainsaw carvings were displayed at an extreme sports event. Apparently the artist won the audience's heart when he cut Jar Jar Binks' head off with a chainsaw.

Above: The Ewoks, a furry alien race from the Star Wars films. The artist has painted the wood to give the statues more character.

Lord of the Rings Characters in Chainsaw Art

JRR Tolkien's famous fantasy novel, The Lord of the Rings, has a cast of fascinating and unique characters.  A favorite character from the books and films is Gandalf the wizard, with his long beard and flowing robes, this staff-carrying warrior wizard is highly recognizable, even from afar.

Above: A flat panel chainsaw carving of Gandalf the Grey, from The Lord of the Rings. 

Above: A B-grade depiction of Gollum, mutated hobbit who lives underground and speaks in sibilant riddles.

Above: An ent, a tree character, carved into the trunk of a living tree. Ents can move, talk and have a culture of their own.

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Creative Cartoon Chess

Chess sets are traditionally made up of characters found in a medieval royal court. Cartoon chess pieces still use the traditional labels such as king, queen, knight and pawn, yet the human subjects  have been replaced with the characters of popular cartoons and games.

Cartoon Chess Sets
Traditional chess set designs are based on the opposing colors of black and white, to distinguish each players' pieces and squares. The vibrant cartoon characters allow chess sets to be filled with color and personality, creating an appeal for younger chess players.

Above: Characters from the popular children's TV series, The Smurfs, are the subject of this cartoon chess set. Papa Smurf is the king and Smurfette is the queen.

Above: This chess set is based on Nintendo's famous console game, Mario Brothers. Cartoon chess sets are mostly made of plastic, which means that they are more child-friendly than the stone, glass or wood chess sets of the past.

Above: Charlie Brown, Snoopy and friends become playing pieces for this character chess set set based on the cartoon, Peanuts.

Above: Marge and Homer Simpson play the part of king and queen in this cartoon chess set.

Above: This cartoon chess set boasts characters from the adult cartoon, South Park, with Kenny as the pawn.

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Photoshop Humanoids

A humanoid is a creature that has human characteristics. The term was first used in 1912 to describe skeletons that were physically similar to, but not exactly like, human skeletons. Humanoids appear often in science fiction novels and movies, as aliens or robots that resemble humans. Distinctive human features of humanoids areopposable thumbs and a bipedal bone structure (the bone structure of creatures that walk on two legs).

Creating Alien Photoshop Humanoids

Alien designers often show aliens as having two or three fingers along with an opposable thumb. In the picture above, the creature is further personified through the use of a human facial expression and clothing that resembles those worn by Earth men.

Humanoids are often depicted as having animal features such as claws, feathers or leathery skin. The humanoid above is a biped, yet the bone structure of the head and legs resembles a demonic, alien creature. This manimal belongs solely to the world of fantasy, bearing little resemblance to any Earth creature.

Digital artists can create believable humanoids by retaining the basic structure of a human physique, while adding alien features to the structure. In the image above, the artist has elongated the character's skull and added extra alien characteristics to the head and body. Even though the result is distinctly alien, this humanoid retains the human characteristics of recognizable facial features and basic human body structure.

Designing Robotic Photoshop Humanoids

This CG art work was created with photo manipulation. The artist morphed a photograph to create a female robot humanoid. Though this character is a machine, it retains the organic essence of a human woman.

The above design is a believable, photo-realistic portrayal of a robotic humanoid woman. By using intelligent lighting techniques, the artist has managed to create a 3D feel for the character. The feminine essence of the robot is emphasized through the artist's use of exaggeration - making certain parts of the robot woman's body larger or smaller than it would realistically be on a human figure.

There are thousands of manimal, hybrid and humanoid Photoshop designs online. The images the computer graphics artists create are limited only by their imagination and their skill.


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