Creative Strategy: Turtles Imagery

Now I'm not one to watch cartoons and then read reviews about them... but I did happen across this imagery today whilst (not) reading a review for a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode (that I didn't watch).

The image is clearly composed of several layers to create a foreground, mid-ground and background. In the foreground we have the turtle and in the the background we have the city. But it is the mid ground that caught my eye. There is an interesting use of halftone that makes the background look grittier and a bold spatter technique that could suggest either splashed paint or even blood.

I may play around with these techniques myself in the future.