Crane meets Crane

Edit* Since I'm never satisfied, no reason I cant go back and touch a few things up on my picture. It was bothering me for a while

I've always loved the story of Sleepy Hollow. Partly because the idea of the headless Horseman has always terrified me. Now that I've gained a massive love for The Wolf Among Us, Ichabod’s adaptation in that series has caused me to remember how much I love the story and how much I’m fascinated with his character. I became even more familiar with the story when I started getting into Batman. Many fans know that the character of Jonathan Crane AKA the Scarecrow, was very heavily inspired by Ichabod Crane from the Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Right down to similar experiences with bullies, being awkward and maladjusted nerds, becoming the victims of cruel jokes right after getting their hearts broken, being very lanky and thin and most obviously having the same surname. Some of Jonathan’s bullies would call him Ichabod due to his resemblance. But it was also through the story that Jonathan found his inspiration, swearing to overcome his fear, unlike Ichabod, whose fear probably killed him. You can see for yourself by looking at this and going down to “High school” or go to this comic page where he explains how he became inspired by their similarities, even regarding Ichabod as an idol. Seriously the parallels are just fascinating. And some of the themes of Sleepy Hollow often crop up in many Scarecrow comic stories, not just his origin.

‘Cos I love these two so huggy-muggy much, I decided I should finally draw a picture of them both meeting at last!

I had an ambitious idea of how I wanted the drawing to look. I knew I wanted it to take place inside the Headless Horseman Bridge and shown from a Dutch angle.

I had the Scarecrow holding an unlit Jack O’ Lantern since Pumpkins sort of play important roles for both of them. I was originally going to have him holding his scythe, but then I thought it would be too threatening. Honestly if Scarecrow got to meet Ichabod, he wouldn’t want to kill him. Also I think Jonathan holding an unlit pumpkin would be a nice contrast to the candle Ichabod’s holding. Plus I imagine it would be Jonathan’s means of a piece offering, almost as if you could see him saying “You know that Candle would do very nicely for my lantern”. But given what happened in the book, I’m sure Ichabod would likely shit a brick at the sight of anyone holding another pumpkin.

I still want to improve on my colouring. So I decided that the night-time would have a monochromatic green tint to it, just like in the videogame Batman: Arkham Asylum. I’ve always been in love with how the night-time looked in that game. So I was eager to try it out myself, even if it did prove difficult. Especially when combined with the warm light source from Ichabod’s candle.

It wasn’t easy, and even then I’m still not pleased with it. But hey, I’m still learning and I hope to improve. Maybe one day when I’ve gotten better, I can do this again.

Also to answer your question... Yes, I am still bouncing off the walls waiting for episode 3 of The Wolf Among Us!

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