Sunday, March 24, 2013

Birds of Prey....

Here's a beautifully colored Birds of Prey piece that Simon Gough and I did together. These are two of my son's and daughter's favorite DC characters, so they really got a kick out of this.

I have a couple of possible projects in the works, so hopefully I'll be able to announce my next long term project soon. Until then, I'm still doing work with NERF and it's new line of guns for their fall 2013 and spring 2014 lines. I'm also doing work on environments on a video game and still banging out these sketches of GI JOE characters for the IDW signature series books. Luckily I can post those sketches, everything else I'm working on I can't show until the product hits shelves.

So it's nice when I can fit in a commission and have Simon color them, it gives me more to share on the blog!

Black Canary and Huntress - 509


Colors by Simon Gough
Pencils and inks by Robert Atkins
This is an example of a full 2 character 
commission with background.





You can check out all the collected trades I've worked on 
and some of my art/sketch books
 here at AMAZING discounts!




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


Saturday, March 23, 2013

IDW Signature Plates Snake Eyes VI...

Here's the last Snake Eyes sketch I'm doing for these IDW Limited edition collector's books for GI JOE. Each oversized book will have an original art sketch plate included with the book. I have all 6 Snake Eyes sketches done. I'll be moving on Destro now. I'll post those up as soon as I get them done.

Snake Eyes - 508







I have just a small amount of these large prints left. I will not be getting a second printing. They are limited to just 50 signed copies. 
 If you're interested, email me and we can work out the transaction and details.

The IDW JOE-Verse by Robert Atkins
17x33
$40
Shipping Domestically $10, Internationally $20
Shipping includes tracking and insurance for safe delivery.



You can check out all the collected trades I've worked on 
and some of my art/sketch books
 here at AMAZING discounts!




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


Friday, March 22, 2013

IDW Signature Plates Snake Eyes V...

Here's the 5th original art plate so far for the IDW Limited collection of GI JOE. They are including an original art plate that I'm drawing for each of these books. This series is called the BLACK LABEL series. These sketches are single character and black and white illustrations. I'm doing 6 Snake Eyes, 5 Destro and 5 Baroness pieces for the Black Label plates.

After I'm through with those I'll move on to the BLUE LABEL plates. I'll talk about those more when I can post them.

Thanks for all your feedback on these. I never get tired of drawing Snake Eyes, he's hands down my favorite character to draw, so it never gets old.

For this sketch, it's all about Snake Eyes in action. I've made a conscious effort to keep these "sketches" as more than just a quick character pin up. I enjoy alluding to a story that is taking place or about to. I figure anyone willing to pay the high dollar amount for these GI JOE collections deserves to get the best illustration I can do!

Snake Eyes - 507





I have just a small amount of these large prints left. I will not be getting a second printing. They are limited to just 50 signed copies. 
 If you're interested, email me and we can work out the transaction and details.

The IDW JOE-Verse by Robert Atkins
17x33
$40
Shipping Domestically $10, Internationally $20
Shipping includes tracking and insurance for safe delivery.



You can check out all the collected trades I've worked on 
and some of my art/sketch books
 here at AMAZING discounts!




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



Thursday, March 21, 2013

IDW Signature Plates Snake Eyes IV...

Here's the next in line of Snake Eyes sketch for the IDW Signature series, Black Label, GI JOE collections. I've got 16 of these Black label original art plates to do that will be included along with the book when you buy it.

This version of Snake Eyes I had designed for the Snake Eyes solo series that started last year. Chuck Dixon and I had actually proposed the Snake Eyes series in 2010. In the spring of 2011 we had finally launched it. The story ended up being wrapped up in the Cobra Civil War story event, and the plots of the Snake Eyes series kind of went away from what we had originally proposed. But in the end the series ran for over 20 issues. I talk more about this design earlier in my blog, but it was a collection of elements from past versions. I added a few practical design or combat elements as well. It's my favorite to draw, but I might be a bit biased...

Snake Eyes IV - 506





You can check out all the collected trades I've worked on 
and some of my art/sketch books
 here at AMAZING discounts!




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





Wednesday, March 20, 2013

IDW Signature Plates Snake Eyes III...

Here is the 3rd Snake Eyes I've done for these Black Label original art plates. IDW is putting out a collector's edition of the run on GI JOE that I was a part of starting in 2009. So with each of these collections I'm doing a series of sketches that will be inserted into the boxed book the buyer receives.

For this Snake Eyes I wanted to draw the GI JOE: Resolute version from the animated shorts a couple of years ago. I really like this design and even pulled some elements from this for my take on Snake Eyes in the recent comics.

In the Resolute animation, he's mostly gray, so I didn't want to drop a lot of harsh shadows across his body. I think this would actually look better colored up or with a grayscale marker done on it. Still, I had fun with the design, setting the scene and implying some story about to happen.

Snake Eyes - 505


You can check out all the collected trades I've worked on 
and some of my art/sketch books
 here at AMAZING discounts!




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



Tuesday, March 19, 2013

IDW Signature Plates Snake Eyes II...

Here is the next Snake Eyes sketch in this series of original art plates that I'm doing for IDW Publishing.  I have to do 6 Snake Eyes character shots total. It's been fun working through the different versions of him. This is his V2 costume based on the second toy that came out of him. Here's where he started wearing the recognizable Snake Eyes visor and took on a more ninja persona and gear.

Snake Eyes -504


With these sketches I'm trying to atleast establish a scene or environment. Too often I just see a quick character sketch floating on a field of nothing. And sure, it's cool to look at, but I'd always so much rather tell a story. Just by adding a bit of background you set the stage for someone to build a story in their mind about this drawing.


You can check out all the collected trades I've worked on 
and some of my art/sketch books
 here at AMAZING discounts!




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



Monday, March 18, 2013

IDW Signature plates Snake Eyes 1...

IDW is doing limited edition books that collect the GI JOE run I was a part of. The books are high dollar collector items and with each book I'm doing an original art sketch plate. 

There are two levels of books. A black label book will have a single character inked sketch. The Blue label books will have two characters with full marker colored sketches. I'm working through the black label sketches first. I have a number of Snake Eyes that I'm required to do (which I'm always happy to draw SE) So that's cool. Here's a classic V1 Commando Snake Eyes. The sketch plate drawing area is only about 6x9.

I'll post these up as I get them done, I have quite a few left to knock out. 
Also, I should mention that I relied on  3d Joes website for details on many of these sketch plates. If you haven't gone to Carson's site, he's created a 3d turnaround of every 80's released GI JOE figure. It's simply amazing. Here's his site. 



IDW Signature Plate - V2 Snake Eyes - 503






You can check out all the collected trades I've worked on 
and some of my art/sketch books
 here at AMAZING discounts!




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



Sunday, March 17, 2013

Archangel sketch...

This was another blank comic cover sketch from the C2E2 show in Chicago. For the same guy who was getting the Blackbolt too.  I think this is the first time I've drawn Archangel, I saw in my head what I wanted to do immediately, and whenever that happens there's no cutting corners. If I don't draw it out completely I always feel like it's half finished since I know in my mind what I originally wanted. Luckily this guy was patient and let me take my time on it.

I really enjoyed the recent Uncanny X-Force run, so this was a blast to draw and see it on the cover of the book.

Archangel - 502




You can check out all the collected trades I've worked on 
and some of my art/sketch books
 here at AMAZING discounts!




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



Saturday, March 16, 2013

Blackbolt...

This was a cover sketch of Blackbolt done on an Avengers blank cover at C2E2, the con I was recently at in Chicago. Not sure if it's like this on every new Marvel blank, but this cover REALLY bled with any kind of ink I put on it. That means a piece of paper wont allow the fluid of the ink to sit on the surface of the paper and dry, but instead absorbs it rapidly and the line "bleeds" out.

So I'm happy with the end result as far as the sketch goes, but it was a struggle to keep it looking as crisp as I would have liked. I think I still got the effect, just that it took longer and I had to really focus on every line as I went.

Still a cool character to draw!

Blackbolt - 501







You can check out all the collected trades I've worked on 
and some of my art/sketch books
 here at AMAZING discounts!




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


Friday, March 15, 2013

Frank Castle...in Color...

Here's a recent sketch I did again that Simon came in and did some great colors on. I love how he's able to really push the depth of the piece by blurring out the background, which bring the Punisher into a clearer focus and pushes him forward. Cool stuff.

Also, post #500, It's been a long time running, but I still enjoy keeping up the blog as much as I can. I'm glad a lot of you have kept checking it even when my schedule got crazy and I wasn't able to post as often. I'll have a huge wave of artwork to show as soon as it hits shelves and I can divulge a lot of what I've been working on the last 6 months or so.

The Punisher - 500

Simon's Colors


My original line art



You can check out all the collected trades I've worked on 
and some of my art/sketch books
 here at AMAZING discounts!




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