Good day kiddies. Prep those shoes and break out your fingerpaints because we’re going to learn how to paint Iron Man!
Note that this is not the definite method to painting a hard-lined comic style image. Others may have different orders or different schemes. At least, I’ll break down what I do which hopefully helps for those who ask.
For the tool’s I’m using, I’m basically equipped with a 1/0 and 1 sized brush. The 1/0 is used for fine details and lines while the 1 is used for coloring since it can handle small areas.
For lines, keep your brushes damp at ALL TIMES. I’ve heard some of you guys are drying your brushes so it gets stiff and pointy. When you do that, it’ll be like those olden time pens. You know the one with the feather, the ones used to sign the Declaration of Independence. You’ll be constantly dipping just to do one line because the bristles basically won’t hold any paint.
Thanks to artist Jim Lee for these images I’ll be applying.
1. After your shoe has been prepped, we’re going to start with the basic outline. Here, I’m doing it with black paint on a white background because it’s easier for you guys to see and also I didn’t know what color I was going to paint behind him until last minute. It IS better if you paint whatever color you’re going to use in the background first before the image. In that case, you don’t have to worry about painting around the image. And when you do paint over another color, instead of black use white. It’s a lot easier to cover up when you make a mistake.
So whether you’re using black or white, simply outline the basics of the image. Don’t worry about lineweights since you’ll be covering up most of it and you’ll clean it all up with more at the end. Don’t worry about hatching or stippling. Just concentrate on the major shapes that’ll help you seperate the colors.
2. I like to work from lighter colors to darker. If you get a stray mark with a lighter color, it’s easily overlapped by the darker one.
Here, I’m simply painting the areas that are going to be gold. Just like colorways, you still have to paint in layers.
3. Same as step 2 except with red. As you add more colors, you really have to start being careful. If you get any dark colored paint over another section, sometimes it’s better to paint over the messup with white and then go back with the lighter paint. Trust me, it’ll cover up faster.
After this step. you should have painted everything with solid colors.
4. Now we’re giving Iron Man some shine simply with some white paint. The trick is to get just a little bit of white on. To do this, dip your brush in the paint. Then just wipe a couple times on an old rag to get rid of most of it. Take what’s left and brush on to the shoe. Now there still may be too much of a contrast between white and the other color. Simply mix a little white with the background color on a pallette and brush around the white you just painted.
5. Now, that we got the shine on, time to give him some shading. Since it is a hard-lined drawing, it’ll just be like painting shapes with no need to blend into the color behind it. To shade the gold and the red, I simply took those colors and mixed in a little bit of brown. Try using other dark colors other than black. Mixing in black at times can make it look “dirty”. Once you’re done with the color gradients, time for the final outlines.
6. Before addind black, try adding some more shine with hard white lines. This is different from step 4. They are simply hard white lines that not only give some added shine, but helps distinguish shapes and body parts from each other. Use it sparingly.
Finally, go over the entire image with black. This is the time to settle down and be as neat as possible. Covering up black stray marks is a pain in the tush. Do your final hatching or stippling for shading and you’re done. Iron Man is now ready to kick some ass.
Now that was fun,right? Let’s do it again but with more color.
Here, we’ll give Iron Man a cool laser effect. This means more color gradients based on where the laser glows.
1. Again, start with your basic outline. Nothing new here.
2. Now, Just paint the first layer of yellow. I’m using yellow instead of gold to make it look like it’s reflecting off of the laser. Also, I’m painting the middle of the laser. Just like the first guide, we’re going to give him some shine. Except this time, it’s going to be with yellow.
3. Next, we’re adding a yellow-orange color around the yellow. The trick to blending comic images with solid colors is to slowly change the colors.
4. To finish up step 3, I’m basically going around the yellow-orange with regular orange. You can see the difference in the picture.
5. After solid orange, red is the next color. In the picture, you can see how I blended by simply using the solid colors of yellow, yellow-orange, orange, and red. Also, you’ll see that just like colorways, I have to paint in layers.
6. I finished up the red with 2 more coats. After that, I add some red dots in the middle of the laser for effect.
7. Time for shading. For the yellow areas, I used an even lighter yellow-orange mix. For the red area, I used a red-burgandy mix. I also took some of that burgandy and added more of those random laser spots.
8. I use more hard white shading. Since I shaded most of the areas with yellow already, I use even less white lines than I did in the first guide above. I basically used the white on the areas well away from the lighting of the laser.
9. Finish up with the final black outline and you’re done. Iron Man returns even badder than before.
