Robert Atkins's Blog, page 47

Snow Job Strikes again....

Here is officially the 3rd Snow job I've ever drawn. This was for Gary Godsoe, one of the members of the "What's On Joe Mind" Podcast. I love this show! Its really a fantastic presentation of all the GI Joe news you could want. They keep you up to date on all the toy releases with reviews and commentary, they have tracked news from the upcoming movie, and conventions across the country. They've also been gracious enough to talk about my artwork from time to time, and I've really appreciated it.

So this was Gary's commission request for the Canadian Joe Con I just got back from. I don't typically go this detailed on my smaller con sketches, but 1. it's Snow Job  and 2. It was for Gary. So that pretty much demanded a good amount of time devoted to the commission.

Snow Job - 399

IDW did a great one-shot comic on Snow Job, I think it's been put in one of the collected trades. But I'm not sure which. I'll have to ask about that. But I have the issue, and if you can find it' I highly recommed it. Also Devils' Due Publishing did a Special Missions:Antarctica that I was the inker on. That was a great single issue story that spotlighted all the Snow Joes. 
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Lady Jaye....Woman of Action!

I'll never get tired of drawing this character. Mostly because she's my favorite female GI JOE, but also because I never got to draw her in my run on the book. So any chance I get to do a con sketch or commission of her, I really enjoy it. I think she's my kids favorite GI JOE as well, which makes it even better. I finally got my hands on the 25th anniversary Lady Jaye figure at the Canadian Joe Con this last weekend. Not that she's terribly hard to find, but I realized we didnt have her as a toy and the kids kept asking for it. Luckily near the end of the con I had time to get up and start asking dealers if they had one. After a few, I came across someone who just got one in trade and was willing to sell it as they were packing up. SCORE!

Like the recent Scarlett drawing, I was just going for dynamics and action on this one. She's known for her javelin throwing abilities.


 At Joe Con last year I asked Hasbro why we weren't using Lady Jaye in the comics. I was told that considering her specialty is throwing spears at people, that doesn't exactly translate to modern warfare. I think if you can throw exploding spears....then that might still be practical, but maybe she could work on her other skills too.

At the same time, if you think of the cartoon, she's surrounded by guys shooting LASER RIFLES! So you think she wouldn't have a chance throwing glorified sticks at the enemy. But considering no one in GI Joe or Cobra was able to actually hit someone with that laser, I guarantee Lady Jaye took out more dudes with her javelin nets or exploding spears.


Just sayin'....
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I also think she was my favorite because I grew up on GI Joe through the cartoon. In the comics Scarlett played a much larger role in the GI Joe stories, but in the cartoon Lady Jaye seemed to be the star. Actually, she had the most lines in the cartoon than any other character. So maybe that had something to do with my cartoon crush.

For Questions and Comments email me atRobert@RobertAtkinsArt.com

Recondo...and the Mustache Brigade!

I always like this guy in GI JOE, and I gotta be honest, it was mostly because of his hat and mustache. I wish I had a more insightful reason for liking the character...but dang, that's an awesome mustache.

I remember when I first had the chance to draw him in the book, there was a small strike team of Stalker, Recondo and Leatherneck in the Philippines. It was like the Mustache Brigade for the whole issue. I probably find it even more impressive because it takes me 3 weeks to grow a mustache that only 15 year old envy.


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Range Viper = Creepy

Another one down for my list of specialized Cobra Vipers to draw. This was a sketch for the Canadian Joe con that I did this last weekend. These guys are just plain creepy. Anyone who would want to wear that helmet has some psychological issues....just sayin'

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If you're familiar with the Range viper's file card, they seem like pretty intense dudes. Here's a like to their profile on YOJOE.com!I dont know if they've had much of a presence in the comic. Maybe I'm just not thinking of when it was. Anyone know when/if they had a story about the in the Marvel run? If not, IDW should really spotlight these guys. That would be an awesome story following a unit of these guys on a mission!
For Comments and Questions email me atRobert@RobertAtkinsArt.com

Venom colors...

Here's another commission colored up by Simon Gough. I was happy with this Venom I drew and I knew how much of a Spiderman fan Simon was.....it's his deviant art screen name, so it wasn't a hard guess.

Sure enough he tackled this and did a fantastic job! The book was out last month, but if you missed it, I worked on Venom #20 for Marvel. You can still find it at your local comic shop or online!

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For Questions or Comments email me atRobert@RobertAtkinsArt.com
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Joker iPhone case...

Occasionally someone will ask me to do a drawing on an object instead of paper. It's always a challenge, but usually fun to do. It's intimidating, because unlike paper, you can rarely erase your mistakes. There's also the "unknown" factor to whether or not your pen will stay on the surface and not smudge, or will it show up, or fade. You just never know.

I've used LOTS of various brands of pens and I have a pretty good idea of which are best for a smooth paper surface, a rough textured surface or even a high gloss surface. Some ink simply wont attach itself to the high gloss. I have one set of pens I just got that actually sits on that glossy surface well, but it takes a while to dry.

In this case I got to draw the Joker on an iPhone case that was incredibly smooth and glossy. I forgot to take a picture of it, but thanks to Facebook, it popped up and I can show it off here.

I was afraid the lines might smudge a little, hopefully it's dried enough now that there wont be any more smudging.

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Just a heads up if you ever get a sketch like this, I'd get a spray fixitive or a spray varnish to clear coat it and set the inks. Otherwise eventually this will all rub off handling it so much. OR get the drawing done on a matte surface kind of case and give the artist fine sharpies to use to make sure it's permanent ink. 
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Scarlett in Action!...

Here is another wonder color job done by Simon Gough over a Scarlett commission recently. I think with this sketch I really tried to capture movement and a dynamic female figure. I think torque-ing that front foot inward really helps sell the run for some reason. As always Simon did a great job with the atmosphere in particular.

Scarlett Colors - 393
Colors by Simon Gough
Original Line art by Robert Atkins
I'm headed up to the Canadian Joe Con this weekend, so I'll have quite a few sketches from the show to start putting up here this week. I'm going to guess it will be GI Joe heavy on the character choices...just a guess.
IDW put out a cool trade collection called the GI JOE: The Best of Scarlett, that I also did the cover for. Now that I think about it, I forgot to put that in my collage of IDW covers. I'll have to revise that again!  You can find the book 30% off,  here at INSTOCK TRADES



For Comments and Questions email me atRobert@RobertAtkinsArt.com
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Taskmaster Inks...

There's a few reasons I dig this character so much. I know he's a bit crazy looking with the skull mask, but as a villain it's a tried and true approach. (Skeletor anyone?) His powers are also very cool, he has a photographic kinetic memory. Anything he sees done, he can physically mimic it exactly. That can range from watching Top Chef and cranking out some perfect entrees, to spying on a Captain America fight and learning how to sling a shield around with perfect accuracy. Over the years he's built up a catalogue of the best fighters in the Marvel Universe and in turn become one of the most formidable villains out there.

I also realized that he was one of the main villains in the very first Marvel Comic that I remember reading as a kid. I was in grade school and working a paper route in our neighborhood. There was corner store called "Huck's" that carried a few comics and as I'd pass by that store delivering papers in the morning, I'd take a few minutes and flip through what comics looked interesting.

This became a pretty frequent stop especially in the winter when it gave me a few minutes to warm up. I picked up Iron Man #254 that had a Santa Claus shooting a blaster gun at Iron Man on the cover and it said in huge red letters "HO-HO-HOMICIDE!!!" I thought that was about the coolest thing ever and read the book right there.

The bad Santa story was just one of the running plots in the issue. The secondary plot was that Taskmaster was running a training program with 4 hopeful assassins. Ultimately he put them through various death traps, and fights to find out who was the strongest and most cunning. I didn't know anything about his abilities from that issue, but the Skeletor head bad guy instantly got my vote  as a pretty cool dude.

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Oh yeah, and he's got buccaneer boots. So that means he's automatically awesome. Think about it...Captain America, Hawkeye, Cyclops, Deathstroke...the awesome-list goes on.

For comments and questions email me atRobert@RobertAtkinsArt.com[image error]

Taskmaster pencils...

Warm up for today's post. This is one of the few con sketches that I've needed to catch up on.  I'll be doing these this week, and the pre orders for the Canadian Joe con coming up. Lots of good blog material to do. Lately I've been busy with cover work that I can't show until it's solicited or on the shelves. Since it's been so time consuming getting that done in time, I haven't been able to do to many daily sketches. But my schedules FINALLY loosening up some and I can do my warm-ups again. If feels like a pair of comfortable shoes.

This last year I got so used to doing a figure drawing before even starting my pages, that I forgot in the last month or so how that helped me. This was a breath of fresh air to do and got me loose for the day (night) before I started my Elders of the RuneStone page.

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This was penciled on a 9x12 2-ply Bristol Board.I don't normally pencil a sketch this finished before I start inking. I will post the inks tomorrow. But I am also having Juan Castro ink this as a chance to try a new style in our collaboration, and I wanted to finish it enough to give him the lighting, and details of the costume and character. I tried to leave it open enough for him to make some decisions and see what he comes up with different than how I would do it. There has to be a lot of trust between a penciler and inker partnership. His lines will be what represents my final art. All my work is erased away or taken out as the underdrawing when he's done. I have to trust that the inker can finish and even improve on what I've presented. 
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Iron Fist colors...

Here was another sketch from back during Avengers month that Simon Gough has colored up and I wanted to show it off here. Iron Fist is one of those Marvel characters that I was completely oblivious to. It wasn't until a few years ago that Brian Bendis was writing Avengers and starting including him and Luke Cage into the stories so prominently that I got to know and like the character.

His solo title also came out about the same time, and was a perfect jumping on point to show the characters origins and build on his backstory to create a legacy. Meaning, there were previous Iron Fists before this current Iron Fist, Danny Rand.

Between those two titles, I really got to like this character and he's been one of my favorite to draw ever since!

Iron Fist Colors - 390

His original disco collar, green suit! Simon did up this variant color similar to his current white suit, but he collar and open shirt are different now. Apparently peripheral vision is useful when Kung Fu is involved.
You can get his solo title collected into trade paper backs for 40% off here at 
INSTOCK TRADES!



For Questions and Comments email me atRobert@RobertAtkinsArt.com