Keep exploring! I like the more active stance version with the sword drawn, but I think you can go further. Thumbnailing your idea is one of the most important steps. You can't do too many thumbnails before jumping into your illustrations. Right now you have a few varied poses in your thumbnails to show your character, but the composition, camera angle, and storytelling all read pretty much the same. For example your horizon line is in the same place for 3 of them. Try one looking up at the character from below like a worm's-eye view to make them look huge and heroic, or look down on them from a bird's-eye view to make it look like they're entering into a dangerous situation. Give your character an action like unsheathing their sword, or winding up for a strike. Make it active. Try as many different versions as you can so you can tell a story with your illustration. Here are a few free videos on cinematic composition, and visual storytelling, hope this helps! https://www.proko.com/course-lesson/mastering-visual-storytelling-angles-shots-and-camerawork-for-comics https://www.proko.com/course-lesson/basics-of-comic-composition https://www.proko.com/course-lesson/cinematic-storytelling-and-compositional-pitfalls

Did a few drawing at first, but thought I could do better, so did another page. Still some mistakes, but a fun exercise!

Not a cover, exactly, but playing with some interior action scenes and storytelling. Traditional pencils/inks, 5"x7" format on Bristol. Initially used the truck flip reference from the The Dark Knight (2008) and then played with the proportions a bit to exaggerate the explosion.

Another color rough.

Hey @Gym Kirk! Welcome to the Marvel course!! The Pentel line of brush pens are a popular refillable option! Check out the Pentel Pocket Brush Pen (shiny black plastic,) it's a great all around ink brush with replaceable cartridges. You can also buy your own ink and refill the cartridges if you want. It's a great one to get started with. I also really like the fine point Pentel Brush pen (XFP5F) for rendering and most fine detail work, it's approximately the size of a #2 ink brush, and for more dry brush effects grab a Medium Point Pentel Brush Pen (XFP5M). Any of these options should cover most of your needs! Hope this helps!

Finally getting a chance to put some time into this Steve Rude master study again.

I started rendering the spheres in charcoal using Conte 2B/White on smooth newsprint, then repeated the exercise in graphite with 2H, 2B, 4B, and 8B pencils. One of my main struggles was pushing the lighter values dark enough, and keeping the gradient transition smooth and even. I tend to start light and build up slowly, but I often stop too early—so most of my spheres end up too light or high-key, even after multiple layers of rendering. Some of the transitions are patchy and uneven as well (which I can see way more when they’re viewed as small thumbnails!) For the untimed spheres, I gave myself between 45 minutes to an hour each. I didn’t change my overall approach much for the timed versions, but I noticed some differences as the time decreased. The 10-minute version felt fast, but I liked how it came out a little more stylized. Since I didn’t have time to smooth things out, the first, more gestural marks remained visible, which gave the drawing a certain energy that I actually enjoyed. In the graphite version, the reflected light came out too light, but I focused on using cross-contour marks to help reinforce the spherical form. In the 5-minute studies, I realized I spent about 50–60% of the time just getting the lay-in right and making sure the sphere looked proportional. That didn’t leave much time for rendering. Charcoal helped here—I was able to lay in darker values more quickly and shift my focus to halftones sooner. I also tried a 5-minute graphite version using a blending stump and a quicker, more gestural hatching approach. The stump helped build value faster, which gave me a bit more time to suggest cross-contours and pull out highlights with an eraser.

A study of a Chien Chung Wei demo, I really learned a lot from this one. His extreme simplification of background elements to large washes of warm and cool really struck me. I love the feeling of over exposed light seeping through the leaves. It's a fun photography trick to try to emulate. Also a quick sketch from a photo I took in Lake Tahoe a few years ago. I'm far less happy with the overall composition of that one, the bench became a tangent no matter how I tried to scoot it around. Should have played around with some thumbnails before hand, but I was mostly concerned with putting brush to paper with the short time I had to paint. On to the next ones!

I did this as a preliminary study for a class I take with Julie Pollard. 4" x 6"

Study from a painting I found on pinterest.