ASH COSTELLO - THE ONE TRUE HARLEY QUINN

The final completed piece of Ash Costello in The One True Harley Quinn

   Embarking upon any new project, I often recognize that things are going to take a turn for the more elaborate somewhere along the way. Admittedly, when I contacted Ash Costello in early Spring of 2016 about creating a custom piece for her, my original vision, while not modest, was something I figured I could pull off in a few months. Surely a portrait/montage of her performing, much like my previous Black Veil Brides pieces would be the right idea.

Was I wrong... thankfully!

    And why I would think, for one moment, that the incomparable Ash Costello deserved anything less than a creation that spanned well over a year and spoke directly to and about her as an artist?

    So when Ash accepted and answered my inquiry with the suggestion of creating a Harley Quinn themed piece, it made obvious sense. It immediately allowed my imagination to run more freely and not be constrained by the trappings of a standard portrait- collage style.

  The good thing was that all the while, my original intention was to create something that communicated the visual "duality" or two sides of Ash as Harley Quinn, naturally divided visually due to her (as well as interpretations of Harley's) trademark red and black "half head" hair.  For one side of her I would choose a reference image that was intense and angry while the other more seductive and satisfied. Those references came rather easily, as I employed an earlier, intense close up photoshoot Ash had done as the inspiration for the piece.

   However, I began to struggle with how to create a two sided portrait with two entirely different expressions.  If both sides were placed against one another, the effect would look completely unnatural.  In order to do this effectively, I conceived splitting the two halves with some sort of imagery up the middle. Initially the concept was a tear, or some visual effect inherit to Harley's erratic and diabolical nature. None of them really worked. I struggled for a very long time attempting to decide how and what to do, and I must admit, there was a point where I began to question the concept altogether.

Side by Side comparison of Left Side artwork to reference photo. 

 Regardless of the overall concept challenge, I got to work immediately on the left side - facing observer - portrait, or the red side of Ash as Harley.  Here I cold concentrate immediately on Ash's portraiture and likeness, which required less of my imaginative skills versus the technical.  Often my art works this way. When I'm not able to conceive something fresh or innovative to the piece, I will work on areas that require little to no imagination. In other words I am replicating a skin texture, an eyeball, shadowing or worst of all, hair!

  The difference this time, to my portraiture in the past, was that I wanted to create the most photo-realistic painting I had done to date, all the way down to the most minute skin texturing. I intended the final effect, when art was put side by side to the original reference photo, to appear nearly identical.

  So painting began and proceeded rather smoothly and quickly on the "left box/right side" of Ash.  In order to recreate her skin texture and Harley's "New 52" style makeup, I worked at an extremely close level, painting textures and lines that, are nearly impossible to pick up from afar.  I added three streaks of smeared eye makeup as well as the indicative Joker smile, smears and streaks due to stress and sweat.  All the while, building a story behind the imagery.  This hyper-detail, while tedious, was exactly the look I was hoping to create.  The "Left Side" would be far more menacing, tougher, harder... I wasn't concerned with making Ash's skin texture smooth, as I wanted the makeup to convey the erratic and unpredictable nature of Harley Quinn in the midst of some taxing conflict.  The left side would contradict the right, and neither would need to be consistent, creating a frantic, broken series of moments.

   During the time, I continued to conceive ways to create the full composition.  It began to dawn on me that the subject matter presented the perfect opportunity to create something more authentic to the character of Harley Quinn, while playing off of the real life persona of Ash Costello.  Instead of just a split view of two separate close ups of Ash, a middle panel could present an opportunity to do a full bodied portrait in an an immersive environment.  Once this idea came to fruition, it made complete sense to create a three panel comic book style and an illustrated story excerpt for the entire piece.

  One of my first homages in the work to Ash Costello's career and influence, was a cleverly conceived means of recreating the New Years Day band logo, to which Ash is the popular group's extraordinary front woman.  Having no prior concept to do so, I thought it may be a great idea to recreate her hand holding a weapon of Harley Quinn's greatest foe, one of the Batman's Batarangs.  Upon the Batarang, inscribed in the (perceived) blood of Batman himself is written New Years Day. Ash's hand was actually created by taking a photo of my own hand in the position I wanted and illustrating it side by side. It took nearly three weeks alone to recreate every texture, crease, fingerprint, nail and tattoo, utilizing a number of textured brushes as well as entirely hand rendering and painting every single detail.

   With the left side panel primarily completed, I now began to turn my attention to the center panel, where I had concluded to create the full bodied portrait of Ash amidst a backdrop of Gotham City.  The first order of business was to recreate Ash's likeness and physique from reference. At the same time, I researched the "New 52" version of Harley Quinn, selected the outfit I wished to recreate her in, and began illustrating this portrait, which from top to bottom would take nearly four months to accomplish.

Ash's Harley Quinn, prior to adding face makeup, against the backdrop of Wayne Tower and the Bat Signal.

   The setting in which Ash's Harley would exist, took some time to conceive, where often I had a clear mind's-eye for what I wanted, yet couldn't quite materialize.  At one point, I had her at street level, in a narrow alley, with flashing police lights behind.  However, I quickly realized the perspective of this shot left a lot to be desired, with the walls of the facing buildings taking up far to much visual space in a very mundane way.  I often became discouraged at this stage, still concentrating on Ash's portrait, which took a great deal of time and effort to recreate small wardrobe details like buttons, lace and leather seams.

   Then I recalled, that I had started another piece some years prior, of Batman,  in which I had begun to develop a Gotham City backdrop.  The centerpiece would be Wayne Tower, of which I had partially completed.  I was confident, that this Batman art wasn't something I planned to finish any time soon, so I basically transported the background from there to this one!  From the vantage point and perspective of the city behind Ash, I wanted to place her up higher than ground level, so I conceived that she would be standing upon a rooftop with a short wall backdrop.  From there, I started to illustrate other buildings, some in foreground, that would make for a central storyline for the entire artwork.

Fire and smoke, created by airbrushing with various levels of color and brush effects

One of the most dramatic highlights of this central panel, which was now starting to take shape, would be the destruction of two of the main focal point buildings directly behind Ash's Harley.  I began rendering fire and smoke pouring from several building windows, eventually adding more and more until these structures were entirely engulfed. This work, of course, would be the responsibility of one Ms. Harley Quinn, and having some current vendetta for which she felt the need to send a message, setting an entire block of the city ablaze.

Nearly completed center panel prior to the addition of dialogue bubbles.

   The story behind this art was really starting to take shape. I would begin to question, how might I be able to correlate Ash Costello to Harley Quinn in the tale this piece was trying to tell?  I began to conceive that maybe Ash Costello was indeed the ACTUAL Harley Quinn, and while others were out there, they might be posing as her, and that, retribution for such was necessary.  Hence the idea behind "The One True Harley Quinn", which would eventually become the title of the piece.  On panel one, I had created a seething, angry Ash, who would be appalled by the fact that another were claiming to be her.  The middle panel would pan out, to reveal her actions taken, to apprehend the imposter and show her malice through destruction. Finally, the third panel would show Ash satisfied, cunning and resolute, where she would reveal the final play in her story.  So, in effect - conflict, action, resolution!  These tenants of storytelling translated perfectly, and while I hoped that the imagery would speak for itself, I realized that, while I am creating a comic book icon, I should turn the entire piece into a three panel comic, complete with dialogue.

This new idea led to the addition of the "other" Harley Quinn, to whom Ash would be referring to throughout the story, and would have apprehended.  I thought it would be clever to illustrate Margot Robbie as the "other" Harley Quinn character, in her reminiscent attire from the DC Suicide Squad film.  This was a difficult pose to create, as she would be hunched up, knocked out and in captivity. To further enhance the Ash Costello tie-ins, I conceived that, the means of bondage would be a microphone, who's cable would wrap around the wrists and ankles of her captive.

Months went on, illustrating and rendering more and more details and "Easter Eggs", which my recent work had become noteworthy for.  I added newspapers under Ash's custom NYD (New Year's Day) steel adorned thigh high boots, further creating the storyline.  To homage New Years Day even further, the story itself would take place on New Years Eve, where coincidentally, the band would be ushering in the year end festivities, which would culminate in a massive fireworks display over Gotham.  Of course, Ash would be taking this opportunity to create her own fireworks display, by not only setting the Narrows ablaze, capturing the "false" Harley Quinn, but taking out the Caped Crusader as well!

Depiction of a captured "Margot Robbie's" Harley Quinn.

  The completion of the center panel was truly an accomplishment, as I had labored countless hours trying to conceive a way to illustrate the idea I had floating around my head for a very long time. With some extra added touches, I was on to the final panel, which again, would be less about conceiving more story, but more about completing Ash Costello's likeness again, just with a different expression.

  This method, part concept and creative while part technical and mechanical, really helped to keep the project moving forward.  While nothing was. nor ever is "easier", being able to bounce back and forth between the big creative ideas and experimentation one day, while faithfully recreating imagery or rendering textures the other, provided a diversity of applications and a break from either one or the other.   To be entirely honest, as a conceptual artist, some days you have it and others you might not.  Coming up with clever ideas happen in big Eureka moments, so when they aren't revealing themselves, the things that need to get done help to keep the project constantly going.

Homage to both Joker and Jimmy Trigger, Ash Costello's husband.