Robert Atkins's Blog, page 46

Snake Eyes #16 cover...

It's been a while since my last post. Mostly due to juggling a few projects at once and trying to catch up on commissions.

This was a cover to Snake Eyes that ran on issue #16, the last issue of my arc on the title. It just came out last Wed. I'll still be doing a few upcoming covers and some more interior work is planned for this fall. I'm really excited about what I have coming up. Here are my layouts and line art for the cover.

Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow #16 cover - 408

I really liked options 2 and 3, I wanted to have Snake Eyes, Storm Shadow and Cobra Commander fading into the black and play off the contrast that is associated with each. It didn't really fit into the story and the shipping schedule. I've really wanted to do a more classic looking Zartan for a while now, and IDW let me do a great fight scene with him and Snake Eyes for the cover. 


An interested side note, both knives that are being wielded by the characters here are designed by Waysun Johnny Tsai. He's a martial arts master and instructor in Chicago that I've had the pleasure of getting to know these last few years while working on GI Joe and Snake Eyes. I first started using the design for his Cuma Tak Ri knife for Snake Eyes with issue #2. Johnny designed a new knife called the Cuma HISS, which is a smaller concealable knife that I have Zartan using here. I always enjoy being able to incorporate actual weaponry in my work, and an even more personable element getting to know the man who designed the weapons!
Check out his Facebook page for updates on his martial arts schools and weapons designs!
https://www.facebook.com/waysunjohnnytsai


Another update, Elders of the RuneStone, a new comic co-created by Quinn Johnson and myself, finally has the first issue wrapped up. The project after getting successfully funded on Kickstarter this last spring has really kicked into gear. We're well into issue #2 and even have quite a few pages done on issue #4 already. So we're moving right along. Our plan is to digitally release the first 5 issues separately near the beginning of the new year, then have a collected trade printed and available for sale some time in 2013.

I've posted quite a bit about RuneStone already on the blog, you can check it out here!

http://robertatkinsart.blogspot.com/2012/03/kicking-off-elders-of-runestone.html

For Questions or Comments Email me atRobert@RobertAtkinsArt.com[image error]

Angel and Iron Fist commission more inking....

Just more detail added in today's warm up. Made a few adjustments to Iron Fist as I went.  A lot of people ask what I use for reference in my buildings. I have photo files of buildings from cities all over the country. NYC and Chicago both especially have a certain "style" to their architecture.

So if the illustration doesn't ask for a specific location, I'm usually free to just grab a building I like from this photo and another I like from that photo. Then I piece together the details. Generally it's a matter of overlapping them as they go into the distance keeping in mind spacing so they don't get confusing. In this piece I purposefully packed them together to give some visual weight to that side.


Angel and Iron Fist Commission inks - 407


The sketches for last years daily challenge are collected in these 3 volumes!366: Daily Sketch Challenge SketchbooksVolumes 1, 2, and 3 are available for $10 each combining 180 pages of art!$5 flat rate shipping for 1 or all 3 combined.
Volume 4 will be coming out this Oct. Volume 1's first print run is nearly sold out. Get them while you can!




For Questions and Comments, or to order sketchbooksemail me atRobert@RobertAtkinsArt.com

Angel and Iron Fist Commission step 4, inking...

Started with the inking on this as my warm up today. Little bit at a time and I'll get this done. My schedule rarely allows for me to take a full day or two to do a commission. Especially one as detailed as this is going to be in the end. A piece like this ends up taking 15-20 hours total.

Angel and Iron Fist Commission Inks - 406




The sketches for last years daily challenge are collected in these 3 volumes!366: Daily Sketch Challenge SketchbooksVolumes 1, 2, and 3 are available for $10 each combining 180 pages of art!$5 flat rate shipping for 1 or all 3 combined.
Volume 4 will be coming out this Oct. Volume 1's first print run is nearly sold out. Get them while you can!




For Questions and Comments, or to order sketchbooksemail me atRobert@RobertAtkinsArt.com

Angel and Iron Fist Commission step 3...

Alright, now with both figures drawn in, I needed a NY City background with our heroes on the rooftops. I usually do this step in my layout stage, but I wasn't really in the mindset to work out buildings when I sat down to do the pencils. So I figured I'd work it out later. I had a good idea of what I was going to do in my head so it wasn't as necessary to work it all out in the layout stage.


Angel and Iron Fist - Finished pencils - 405

This ended up being more complex than I expected, but I wanted to work up a perspective tutorial as I was drawing this. I figured Dan (the guy who commissioned this) wouldn't mind a cover quality background in his commission.
For Questions and Comments email me atRobert@RobertAtkinsArt.com

Angel and Iron Fist Commission...

Alright here's the Iron half of the piece. I'm still going to make a few adjustments on his figure in the inks. But here's a chance to compare I guess what I tend to work out or fix in the inks if I don't want to bother fixing it yet in the pencils. It's a time saver.

Iron Fist - 404




For Comments and Questions email me atRobert@RobertAtkinsArt.com

Angel and Iron Fist Commission...

I had an interesting pairing request for a commission. Angel from the X-Men and Iron Fist, both Marvel Comics characters, but rarely have they ever really interacted with each other. One of the great things about personal commissions is the chance to not only draw characters I don't normally have the chance too, but also that it could literally be anyone paired up together.

Here's the first initial sketch and the pencils of Angel. I'll be posting up progress shots as I go through this one.

Angel - 403

Here is the small layout that I worked out the figure poses and composition on. There will be a NY rooftop cityscape in the background too that isn't shown in the sketch. 

This is as detailed as I need for my layouts, just enough to get basic figure proportions and the compositional spacing down.

Speaking of strange pairings in commissions. Here is a Hawkman vs. Captain America that I've done as well. I'd like to do more of these Marvel vs. DC battles. 


For Questions and Comments email me at Robert@RobertAtkinsArt.com

Also don't forget to check out INSTOCK TRADES for 40% off your Graphic Novels and comic Trade Collections!

BlackBolt....

Recently Bart Sears, an amazing veteran comic artist, has been doing daily sketches on his facebook page. I'm constantly amazed at his ability to capture the figure with quick marker sketches. Bart did a regular drawing tutorial article called "Brutes and Babes" during the 90's in Wizard Magazine. That article really opened my eyes to comic figure anatomy. I was still in high school and realizing that I really wanted to draw comics as a profession. His article was my first introduction to any kind of instruction into drawing comics.

In more recent years I've had the chance to meet Bart at various conventions. He's been gracious enough to review and critique my work a number of times. Each time he taught me something new, and it's still information that I use on a daily basis with my figure drawing in comics.

I was able to get one of his daily sketches from his Facebook page and his work has really been on my mind lately. With out realizing it, I think it influenced my sketch for today. I don't know if Bart knows about or reads my blog at all. But I hope that if he came across it he'd be happy to know how much he's   influenced other artist's in the industry that appreciate his work.

If you want to check out Bart's work, definitely go to his Facebook page, and he also has some great sketchbooks available at his website here: http://ominousstudios.com/emporium/



BlackBolt - 402

This is only the second chance I've had to draw this character. The first was earlier in the blog here,

He really is a distinct character, but as far as I know is still considered dead in the Marvel comics since the "War of Kings" story arc a couple years ago. That's a great outerspace Marvel cosmic story if you get a chance to check it out!
You can get the collected story here at INSTOCK TRADES for 40% off!



For Comments and Questions email me atRobert@RobertAtkinsArt.com

VERSUS....

I started up a new debate thread with the Star Joes podcast crew on their forums. It's the constant conversation that you can't help but have when more than one geek is in a room.
"Who would win?"So join the conversation, wear your Geekdom with pride and vote in the comments below!

First up: Snake Eyes vs LeonardoLet the geek debate begin!



You can see the ongoing posts and current battles here on the Start Joes forums:
http://www.forumforgeeks.com/viewtopic.php?f=60&t=4356&p=45687#p45687

For Comments and Questions email me atRobert@RobertAtkinsArt.com

Legend of Korra....

Man, I've been just begging for an excuse to draw some Avatar characters! Especially Korra, the current Avatar of the new Nickelodeon cartoon series. I could go on and on about how incredibly awesome this cartoon is. Long story short, it's a weekly cartoon with a full length animation quality to the show. The character design, the fluid motion and fight choreography, the mythology, music score, intricate backgrounds all come together for an astonishing show.

Korra has quickly become one of my favorite cartoon characters of all time...and that's saying something!



This was a convention sketch and they specifically asked me to draw her in my style instead of mimicking the show model of the character. A very fun exercise.
Avatar Korra - 401


For Comments and Questions email me atRobert@RobertAtkinsArt.com

JOKER again...

This was a Joker commission I did for Mike Heddle, the guy who runs the Canadian Joe Con. It was an incredibly well run show. I had a grate time and was really grateful that they'd consider bringing me up to meet all the Joe fans and hang out for the weekend.

I believe next year they are planning on doing the con a little earlier in the summer, probably in June. So if you can make it, I highly suggest going!

I've only drawn the Joker a few times, and it's definitely a work in progress. The more I draw him the more comfortable I get doing it, but he has such a distinct look. It's a tough balance to make him look so exaggerated, but not silly. You still have to make him look psychotic and threatening, but almost in a non threatening way. It's weird. Still, he's a very fun and challenging character to draw.

It also marks my 400th consecutive post!!! man, I didn't intend to keep this going after my year long challenge was done back in July, but it's kind of worked out that way. I tend to take breaks due to cons or my tight deadlines occassionally, but then I do enough sketches, warm ups and commissions to catch back up.

My plan is to finish all the commissions I have due to people on my list and any left over convention or pre-order sketches. As soon as those are done I'll get back to my themes. My first theme I'll do will be a full month of He-Man and the Master of the Universe! But like I said that will be just a little bit longer while I catch up.

Joker Commission - 400
Click to see it larger! If you right click and "Save image as", you can see it even larger than it allows through the blog. 

For Comments and Questions email me atRobert@RobertAtkinsArt.com

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