I haven't done one of these threads in a VERY long time, and I don't think I've done any where I was working with my current painting style, so I thought I might do one again.

I've been swamped for months with some rather large projects, and haven't been able to do much in the way of original illustration pieces since...I honestly don't know when. But when I saw the pictures from the 2012 San Diego Comic Con of the armour from Iron Man 3, I started thinking that I'd like to do a painting of this suit. There are some things about it that I don't really like all that much, but I thought I could work with them and see how the whole suit moves together.

Thus, to start off, I'm going to post a few of the photos that I've found online of the suit:

Here's the basic figure breakdown. I'm kinda thinking that Tony is going to be flying into the SHIELD helicarrier main bridge, maybe through a broken window/floor, but I'm not entirely certain yet. It's going to come down to how much detail I'm going to be putting in there from all the fiddly bits on the armour, and how busy I want to make the background by comparison.



The tricky bit with this armour is that, while it is a fairly simple colour composition (mostly the gold/beige), there are SO MANY TINY DETAILS...seriously, I'm detailing the thing at the moment, and it's almost painful to figure out where all the various plates and gears and such are fitting into the figure as I go along. However, most of those details will vanish one the painting really begins, in which case I could go with a much more complex background. I dunno.

There is no commission or anything for this, just me really wanting to bust out a new Iron Man piece, so I am free to change my mind as much as I want

This is what my screen looks like while I'm doing this part of the illustration, by the way:



I'm building up the basic illustration on different channels (in different colours, so I can easily see what is new versus what I'm wanting to change).

neat-o

I hate that new armor. But I am very interested in seeing what you do with it.

I'm not really a big fan of the new armour myself, but like I said to you earlier I reckon if anyone can make it good you can. I think if it were at least more gold instead of just cream coloured it would probably be an improvement. I like the helicarrier idea, it'll be cool if you can work that in.

It's....I dunno. I know that I don't like the beige, so I will be skewing to either the 'regular' movie golds or to the more traditional golds that I normally look. I'm hoping that will improve the dynamic on it, make it look less like an appliance or an original Macintosh.

I'm also having to fudge details on it - as much as I love the earlier designs (and the overall 'jet airframe' look of the designs), they don't allow for a really huge range of movement, so some of my bent knee poses wouldn't work onscreen. However, if I minimize certain aspects of it, I can get away with it.

I'm excited to see something new in your illustration style now, I haven't realized until you pointed it out just how long you've been busy for.

Here's the more detailed sketch:



I didn't find any info on the back of the legs, or even the inside of the legs, so I had to just fake it, just like on that circle gear on Tony's hip. And, again, I ended up fudging some details for the sake of movement in the figure.

I didn't notice the recessed grooves in the gold faceplate (at the top, in the 'horns') until I started drawing this - that's actually a nice touch that I think I'll want to pick up on when painting and lighting it.

There's one decision I've consistently made on my Iron Man pieces that I thought I'd mention as well - his feet in flight.

Now, it's established in the movieverse that Tony keeps his feet perpendicular to the direction he is flying, as the boot jets fire at a right angle from the plane of his foot. However, I always have it angled in such a way that Tony can basically point his toes closer to a more 'traditional' super hero method of flying. It does seem to work better for me, and it's more of a nod to how he's usually portrayed in the comics.

I agree with all of this.

So, I've come up with the basic idea for the background. And, yeah, it involves the helicarrier.



I know that I should be using the helicarrier from the movieverse...but, I dunno. I do like that design, I really do, but the original funnybook one is just so much FUN to draw. I've roughed it out here, and I'm going to break out my TPB of Nick Fury: Agent of SHIELD to nail down all the details. I did decide to not have him fly into or out of a damaged helicarrier, however, as I didn't want to have the viewer think he had caused any of that damage in the first place. I may end up adding some jet fighters or maybe the Quinjet as well, but I want to play with this composition first.

Looks great, Ian. I love that you're using the original helicarrier design.

Thanks, Junkie

Alright, here I've got the design basically worked out.

There is something about the positioning of the Unibeam/RT that's kinda bothering me...I think I'll tweak it a bit before I begin laying down the flat colours.

I don't like the new design either but I'm looking forward to the finished result. Looking good so far.

Looks awesome so far.

It's always cool to see the process! Thanks for sharing Ian!

Nice!

Okay, yeah, moving the unibeam down a bit seems to make it work a bit better for me.

Now I'm gonna start laying down the basic flat colours. Each major element is getting a separate layer so I can more easily manipulate them in the painting stage.



I'm painting all this in CMYK - all of my illustration work is done in CMYK, while my photography is done in RGB.



This is the most tedious part of the process...I'm probably going to be working with somewhere between thirty and sixty layers with this piece, depending on how many background elements I put in both behind and in front of the helicarrier, not to mention the various special effects work on Tony himself.

Here's one reason why, with this painting style, that I do like working with everything on separate layers - it makes it easier to correct some perspective and layout issues.



When I dropped in the rotors, I found I didn't like how the helicopter engines on each side of the helicarrier lined up - so, with everything as separate elements, it was much easier to move the engines around to get them to work better.