With "The Dark Knight Rises" opening worldwide this weekend - posting my portrait of Christian Bale as Batman seems like a no-brainer today. This hedcut was actually created for The Wall Street Journal back in the summer of 2005 for Christopher Nolan's first film in the trilogy - "Batman Begins". I very rarely used solid blacks in my drawings for the Journal...as a matter of fact - we were encouraged not to. I played around with different dot techniques and patterns trying to simulate the mask's distinctive rubbery surface and finally decided to make this an exception. And - I'm really looking forward to seeing the new film!