Fire and Ice are one of those time tested opposing forces that make for great duels among characters who posses each respective ability. In Marvel Comics, the most well known hot-head is none other than Johnny Storm from the Fantastic Four. On the other end, the Iceman of X-Men fame, who goes by Robert Louis "Bobby" Drake, is the cold counterpart to this elemental struggle. I was commissioned to illustrate these two characters going at it at Professor Xavier's Manor.
The Wire Frame
The most difficult part of this drawing was the overall composition. If an image contains more than one character, I need to be purposeful in giving each one enough real estate and dynamic perspective. Having two characters facing each other in profile view is not very engaging. As a result, one character would be seen from the front and the other would have more of his backside visible.
The Sketch
Since Johnny Storm, aka: the Human Torch, could fly I wanted the image to have the camera up high looking down at Iceman, with Johnny diving down with a blast of heat. Iceman would be protecting himself with an ice shield. To be honest, this was my first time drawing these characters. Looking back, I should have made the fountain behind Iceman frozen over. It would have been cool to see the ice sculpted in sharp spikes.
The Line Art
My personal drawing style does not resemble the look of an actual Marvel comic book, but I did try to put in a lot of detail with the characters and the background. My grass is pretty bland, but I was proud of the bushes and the building exterior behind them. I'll admit, the fire and ice effects are so simple it's almost embarrassing. I would make up for the lack in lines with color and "special effects".
The Flat Colors
The classic portrayals of these characters are quite similar in the fact that they are usually colored silhouettes of men with white eyes. The Human Torch is basically a red man with fire effects around him and Iceman was quite literally a man made of ice. I decided to go with a more modern design for both of them. Johnny Storm can still be seen wearing his Fantastic Four uniform and Bobby is wearing the black leather like he doe sin the X-Men movies.
The Finished Illustration
When it comes to Marvel superheros, I have a lot of drawings featuring Spider-Man, but that's about it. It was nice to have an opportunity to illustrate some new faces. It's not my best work, but a good learning experience nonetheless. What other Marvel superheros would you like to see fight each other?
