Robert Atkins's Blog, page 57

Avengers April Colors...

In the past theme months or theme weeks I've had some friends color up my sketches. Once again I want to spotlight Mark Roberts' work here. He's already worked up a few of these and I wanted to share them..

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Here's Mark's Deviant art site and gallery, swing by and check it out!
http://MarkHRoberts.deviantart.com/
The line art for Avengers Month sketches are in my 3rd and 4th volumes of the 366: Daily Sketch Challenge SketchbooksVolumes 1,2, and 3 are available for $10 each combining 180 pages of art!






For Sketchbook purchases, Questions and/or Comments email me at:Robert@RobertAtkinsArt.com

Avengers April Captain America, Iron Man, and Thor...

Just a full post for the finished commission. I had a marker that was running out and that actually made for a cool half tone on the rocks. Kind of a dry brush technique when you are inking.

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AVENGER'S ASSEMBLE
For Questions or Comments email me atRobert@RobertAtkinsArt.com

Avengers April Iron Man Inks...

Cool, so last piece to the puzzle here on this commission! I got to see the midnight show of The Avengers movie....simply the best superhero movie ever...hands down. What I love best about it is that it's exactly why the Avengers comic works so well.  You take your best characters, put them together and see what happens. I could go on and on about how much I liked it, and I probably will on the next podcast we do. So I'll save it for then.

Until then, here's the finished inks on Iron Man in his classic armor!

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For Questions and Comments email me atRobert@RobertAtkinsArt.com

Avengers April Thor Inks...

Alright moving on to the inks on Thor. This is of course his classic costume. Because I really didn't get into Thor until more recently, I personally prefer his newer costume. I really do appreciate this design made so recognizable by Walt Simonson. I also loved the run by Dan Jurgens and John Romita JR back in the 90's.

I remember looking at a pencil sketch of Thor that JRJR did that was published in a Wizard Magazine. It was right before he took on the Thor book and I just stared at that sketch over and over. How simple the line work was, and how he captured the mass of the body really struck something in me. I was still in high school learning how to draw and that sketch made a distinct impression on me.

As for Walt, man I love that dude. He would come down to the Savannah College of Art and Design on a  regular basis and do seminars and portfolio reviews with us. Such an incredibly great and humble creator. Him and his wife Louise both are simply fantastic! I recently bought the Marvel Omnibus that includes over 60 issues of Walt's Thor. That book is HUGE...I'm pretty sure if you tripped and hit your head on it, you'd be dead.

So anyway, on to the inked sketch!

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I'll be wrapping up Iron Man and the rest of the background tomorrow!
If you want to pick up the run on Thor that I mentioned earlier, INSTOCK TRADES offers 30-40% off with free shipping for orders over $50If you're getting the Thor Omnibus that retails for $125, you'll be covered!

For Questions or Comments email me at:Robert@RobertAtkinsArt.com

Avengers April Captain America...

Here's the inks on this commission for Avengers month. Luckily I've gotten caught up on my deadline work, and it has really been a lot of fun. So I should be able to catch back up on this blog. Just hang in there with me.

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For Questions and Comments email me atRobert@RobertAtkinsArt.com

Avengers April Tiny Black Knight...

Just a quick sketch, heh once again I am completely behind on the blog. I'll get into it more I'm sure. This was a fun sketch to do because it was part of a large Avengers jam piece.  The sketch itself is only a couple inches square.

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Next up Inks on the big Avengers piece!

For Questions and Comments email me at:
Robert@RobertAtkinsArt

Avengers April Spiderman...kind of...

Okay...and you thought Punisher was a stretch.

Alright, today's Avenger is Spiderman! Yea, Woooo! He's been a prominent Avenger since Brian Bendis took over the writing duties nearly 10 years ago. I've loved how he fit into the team, for some reason, he never really seemed to fit in well with the other heroes. He just had a different background and a different personality and never really meshed well with a group. But in my opinion, Bendis nailed it and he often was a fantastic comedic relief and would be the character to "hang a lantern" on the plot holes of the superhero world. I've really enjoyed that.

So today is Spiderman. Alright, I've drawn Spiderman A LOT on this blog already, so I'm drawing a different version of Spiderman for today. Technically this is Ben Reilly, the Scarlett Spider, a clone of Peter Parker's Spiderman....I'll let that sink in for anyone that wasn't reading the horrifically convoluted clone saga in the 90's...

Okay, technically Ben Reilly was never an Avenger, technically this isn't the "real" spiderman, and technically he's wearing a hoodie tucked into his belt, which is the weirdest superhero costume elemet I've ever seen, But it's STILL SPIDERMAN...right? eh? eh? (if you can't tell I'm bobbling my head back and forth like a used car salesman, or my brother Richard right now trying to convince you)

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Like these other dudes, I've drawn Spiderman many times this year. For those that are going to lynch my for using a cloned version of Spiderman for my Avengers Month, Here are some of the other Spiderman sketches I've done this year.







For Questions and Comments email me atRobert@RobertAtkinsArt.com
For where to find me if the lynching begins you can contact on Facebook here:http://www.facebook.com/tomfeister

Avengers April Captain America...

Woot! Man I love it! Cap is hands down my favorite character in comics. So it's not too surprising that I've drawn him so much on this blog. Like the other Avengers I'm realizing that I've kind of just had an Avengers year with other themes mixed around them. But here is the third installment of my commission and you can see the final layout in the pencil stage.

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So here's Cap, I've still got to work out that dang shield. I tell you what, man, the two things I hate drawing most are stars and ellipses! As much as I love Cap, I'm pretty sure drawing him full-time would either cure me of this pet peeve or make me go insane with unrivaled patriotism. 

Here is the combined figures in the final composition. I'll do my patented ruble and rock at the bottom to fill space. At first I wanted to throw in a Quinjet in the upper right hand corner, then filled it with Thor's cape and liked that better. 


Here are a few other Cap blog sketches over the last few months, or previous commissions that appeared on the blog.








For Questions or Comments Email me atRobert@RobertAtkinsArt.com

Avengers April Iron Man...

Didn't we just see this guy? But this is the classic version, well not THE classic version, but one of the very many classic versions. Sorry this is getting confusing already and I haven't even started talking about the drawing yet.

Okay, so this is the armor that artist Bob Layton made so crazy famous and recognizeable. I love Bob's work, so lets get that out of the way. This is actually my favorite armor to draw. Mostly because it's a technical thing to be covered in metal armor, but with this design it feels organic. A lot of smooth lines, the shiny reflective metal and how the armor accentuates the bodies form in this version makes it a breeze to draw quickly.

Nice straight on shot, classic pose for Iron Man. I got the chance to draw this armor in the X-Men Forever issue I did. It was a strange round about way to draw this armor in a published book, but I'll take it!

Here's the next part of the commission:

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You can see here how loose I can be with my pencils when I know I'm going to be inking it myself. I'll just fill in the blasts and jet trail of smoke with the ink. That keeps it very gestural and organic like smoke should feel. Also the reflections in the armor I try to keep loose. The only thing I don't like about this armor, is he can give the wrong expression if you're not careful. You'd think the eyes slots and mouth opening would stay the same and you'd stick to the model of the mask. However, at different angles, even a blank face like this can give the impression of worry, or sorrow, or anger, just by varying the angle you're looking at the face. So I have to compensate for that, and I'll go in and tilt those eye slots down a bit to make him look more angry instead of confused like he does here.

Here are a few panels from X-Men Forever that I've had the chance to draw Iron Man before.

You can get the collected trade with this comic in it here at INSTOCK TRADES40% off!

For Questions and Comments email me atRobert@RobertAtkinsArt.com

Avengers April Thor...

In the effort to catch up on both commissions and my daily sketch blog, I need to thank Brian for being so gracious as to have asked for a 3 character commission of Thor, Iron Man and Captain America! I love it when a plan comes together!

So, I did the layouts for this and I'll post up each component as I get through it. First up is Thor. Brian is keeping this all classic, which I couldn't be happier about. Personally I dig Thor and Iron Man's new look, but for me, the classic Cap costume is where it's at!

Here's the Thor Sketch, you'll see how this all fits together in a few posts.

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I'm sure I'll be making slight adjustments here and there before the final. The nice thing about scanning in your work and seeing it up on the computer screen is that it gives you a new perspective on your drawing. Seeing it at a different size and angle lets you see all the imperfections. Still this is just an underdrawing done with 4 H lead.
I feel like I've drawn Avengers all year long, and like the Hulk I realized I've drawn Thor a ridiculous amount of times. Here are some of them.








Dang....thats a lot of Thor. Still I think I might have drawn Spiderman and Captain America more...