Hey gang.

Over the last few weeks, I've been reading Essential Iron Man Volume 1 and watching some of the earlier James Bond movies. This gave me the idea for doing a new Iron Man piece, something in the style of the old James Bond posters.

Here are a couple of examples of what I'm referring to.

So, I began doing a couple of preliminary sketches, just to get the style down.

I wanted to take elements from the stories in Volume 1, doing this as if it were a movie poster from 1965.

Here is the first rough idea.

Not a bad first try, featuring the following characters:

Hawkeye, Titanium Man
Melter, Black Widow, Tony/Iron Man, Countess De La Spiroza

And it incorporated a 'crazy rocket' design in the bottom, something to create a cool explosion effect.

My main problem with it, however, was that Tony had his mask off. I wanted to feature the fact that I was using the Ditko design of armour, and this just didn't work for me ultimately. It also didn't show Iron Man, but just Tony wearing the armour. A subtle distinction, I'll admit

Cool idea. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Here is the second attempt.

This time, I've got Tony as a separate 'floating head' and suited up in the armour. I'm much happier about this.

Plus, I realized that I had to include Pepper Potts and Happy Hogan in the picture. Otherwise, Tony would only be surrounded by enemies. Plus this let me put some Moneypenny action into the picture.

Here we come to the final pencils.

I liked the fact that the rockets that Stark Industries (or Enterprises, I forget which one came first) didn't look like NASA rockets, but had these crazy air intakes and extra stuff all over them. So, I played up on that.

I also made Happy look a bit more like a bruiser than he usually appeared at the time.

...you know, I don't know how many times Natasha used this particular Black Widow costume, but it really screamed the 60's to me, so I had to use it here

Awesome!

Nothing phallic about the giant rocket with "STARK" written on it. Nope, nothing at all.

Seriously, though, great picture.

Thanks, guys I'll be doing the colouring in a few days, so I'll do a breakdown of that process in more depth than the drawing.

And, heh, what's phallic about a rocket?

I will never, if I live to be a hundred, figure out how you always make the armor look like shiny metal using nothing but a pencil. Simply amazing. This whole concept is a very cool idea.

The only thing that made me do a double take was the head shot of Tony. I don't know if it's the hairline or the eyes or eyebrows or the shape of the mustache, but I didn't immediately recognize him AS Tony. The facial features don't evoke that "dashing American stud" vibe. That face could almost be mistaken for Asian at the eyes, or eastern European at the nose and mouth.

No one else is saying anything, though, so it could clearly just be me.

Can't wait to see this in color!

Very cool!

Looks great Ian!!

Thanks folks

That's a good point, Frank. I was trying for a slightly softer look, one with a bit more concern in the face. It's tricky when you've got a guy who is seen (to the general populace of the people of the time) as being that dashing American stud and is someone who knows that he really can't be that person anymore. If anything, he's starting to resemble more and more his cousin Morgan - although that change of look would be due to stress and a feeling of alienation, rather than from excess A sense of sadness about his own condition.

That being said, I can definitely see where you are thinking I went a bit too soft. I hadn't noticed it before, but I can definitely see it now. I'll probably tighten that effect up a bit when I paint it.

looking forward to seeing this progress to the finished piece

I wonder if a casual observer will get that the big head in the upper left is the Heroes head, or imagine that he, like titanium man are the two major bad guys in the book.

I do like that you included him, since Tony (like Peter Parker) is so integral to the hero that is Iron man.

I guess I also prefer the first composition, with all the bad guys, that is more reminiscent of the Bond posters you highlighted above.

Hope it is ok to give honest feedback.

Todd

ps. normal caveats-not an artist, cant draw stick figures, cannot color in the lines.

pps. Thanks for sharing your original art, and especially the colored art that you are doing.

No problem with the feedback, Todd - I'm quite happy to get it.

It was one of the things I was thinking about when I created it. The more I thought about it, the more I kinda liked the idea of there being this confusion as to whether Tony was an enemy or not.

In many ways, Tony is his own worst enemy here. The reason he is Iron Man (at this time in history, anyway) is because the chestplate is what is keeping him alive.

Conversely, he is hampered during his actions as Iron Man by the fact that the chestplate keeps him alive. As the suit powers down due to combat, Tony comes close to death (and not just from his opposition).

So, there is a lot more going on here than just a guy putting on a pair of longjohns and beating up crooks. Until he got his replacement heart, every combat situation was life-or-death for Tony, in a way not normally faced by other underwear-on-the-outside folks.

Granted, this is all stuff I came up with after I had put together this newer version. I still thinks it makes a certain amount of sense.

I do buy the arguement you are using, though - the first sketch would have been a perfectly valid way to go (with perhaps just the inclusion of Pepper and Happy into the mix). But, as I have stated, I had a few different reasons for wanting to change the main part...

...

Although, perhaps if I had used my first illustration of Iron Man (with the mask off), and had Iron Man facing Titanium Man as the two 'big heads' portion of the picture...hmmmmmmm..........

Well, I can always play with that idea later.

...or someone can also just commission it from me as well

Again, thanks for the feedback, Todd

Thanks

I'm finishing up one more large pencilled picture like this right now, as well as painting another Bob Layton piece. Once these two pieces are done, I'll be painting this.

So, maybe by the weekend there will be something to show here

real sweet

The more I study this piece the more I like it. It is getting used to "your" Tony as opposed to the "Don Heck" Tony of that era.

Here, we've got the basic flatted image.

Now, these are not the colours that will be used - rather, just 'placeholder' colours until I decide what precise colours to use on all the characters. But it is already giving me ideas - the blue background will also mean that Tony and Titanium Man will be shifted towards bluer colour scheme, while the rocket in the foreground will have a warmer, more orange colour shift (as will the smoke/blast behind it).

I'm still nailing down some colour references as well, specifically for Black Canary.

Also, the pencil lines themselves will not be, in the final image, this black/grey colour - rather, like all my other pencils-to-colour projects, they will generally be darker tones of whatever colour is underneath them. With some tweaking, of course.

Black Canary?

You know, I could just retcon this thread so that, not only did I write Black Widow, but you also responded 'Black Widow'....but I won't

Okay, yes, I meant to write Black Widow Although, with the fishnet stockings on this costume, I think I can be slightly forgiven

Oh, and here is a tricky bit with working on characters from this era - the colours on characters kinda jumped around a bit, especially compared to how they appeared later.

F'rinstance, here is the cover to Tales of Suspense #64, featuring the first appearance of Natasha in this outfit. Note how differently Hawkeye's mask is coloured versus how it is coloured later.

The nice part about this is that I get to take some 'creative liberties' with the colour scheme. For one thing, I think I want to stick to using flesh tones on the Widow's fishnets, rather than paint them blue (like in the cover). Using Black Canary as an example, it is really quite funny how often her fishnets were painted either flesh or blue, depending on the issue.