Birdman

One of my favorite Hanna-Barbera late 1960's super heroes… Birdman. The sketch for this was done completely in Photoshop… just opened up a new document and started sketching on my digital pen display. After the sketch was complete, I reduced the opacity of that layer to about 35%. The inks were then done on a separate layer. Next step was the full color rendering.

You will -- hopefully -- notice that there is NO BLACK in the final color illustration. After it was complete, I went back in and 'knocked out' all the black 'keylines' and replaced them with yellow for the sun, slate gray for the clouds, a mix of blue and orange for the energy, and indigo blue for the figure. It somehow made the whole thing seem more 'real.'

My goal here was to have a finished illustration that is completely digital… no preliminary/traditional pencil work. 100% digital. Start to finish. (And, Yup... I did it!!)

If you have ever seen the cartoon, you should be able to hear this picture… BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRDMAN!!

Birdman created by Alex Toth and ©2026 Hanna-Barbera. This artwork ©2026 Christopher M. Saghy. All Rights Reserved.