Wakanda Forever!

Today is THE DAY! The much anticipated release of Marvel’s Black Panther is here!! We are BEYOND excited to be viewing the movie this weekend AND we hope you are TOO!

Until then, we thought it would be cool to share some incredible art with you, starting with King T’challa himself.

 

To me this piece exudes strength and power. The strokes of color create something beautifully dramatic and those golden eyes tell a story all their own. I love it! As soon as I have cleared the wall space, I will be adding it to my art collection. You can get yours at a really great price here…

http://brunodigitalillustration.bigcartel.com/product/mcu-series

GiGi and I were able to catch up with Robert last summer at one of our large local conventions, HeroesConvention and he was gracious enough to answer some of our burning questions. Take a look.

WGG: How long have you been doing fandom artwork?

RB: I always knew I wanted to work within the Entertainment and Sports industries so I have pretty much been doing it since I started, about 3 years ago.

WGG; It may seem like a weird question for an artist with this much work but do you have a favorite piece…or fandom?

RB: You could easily say Star Wars and Marvel. I’ve been a Star Wars geek my entire life and then a little bit later I got into Spiderman, X-Men and so on but if I had to pick a favorite piece, it would probably have to be the Darth Maul print I was lucky enough to be commissioned to do for LucasFilm a few years ago.

WGG: So we notice from Instagram that you do a good amount of work digitally and can take it anywhere. What is your ideal work station?

RB: I am actually very comfortable working at home. Rearranging my apartment to be workable studio makes it easy to create, take breaks when I need to, eat and I even have a printer set up so that I can work on filling orders when I need to. It is nice to now be able to work mobily, so that, for example, when I am at conventions or traveling like this and I need to do some commercial work, it doesn’t get held up. That is thanks to Wacom and their mobile work station…Even if I am on an airplane I can get a good 4 hours of work done which is pretty incredible.

WGG: Do you listen to music when you work? If so, what is it?

RB: That I do. What kind depends entirely on what kind of mood I am in. It ranges from Classic Rock, to Classical, to Rap, to Hip Hop, Alternative, Electronica…it really just depends…Classic Rock is probably my favorite though and that’s thanks to my parents…they played it constantly when I was growing up and it just kinda rubbed off.

WGG: Can you tell us a little bit about how you found your style.

RB: I think it’s really important not to force a style, it has to develop organically. When I was in college I looked and was inspired by poster artist like Drew Struzan, Richard Ansell and Frank Franzetta. I paid attention to how they did their layouts, character designs and I was also looking at sports artists like Leroy Neiman, the vibrant abstract colors and as I kept working on my drawing, it kinda culminated into creating my own palettes and it slowly progressed into what you see here.

WGG: So for an aspiring artist, in regards to developing a style, what would you suggest?

RB: Be informed. Do all the research you can on art history, the different genres and eras…Don’t try to copy anyone but pull from everything you learn and that will help you develop a unique and individual style.

WGG: And we better wrap this up, as you are getting busy. Lastly, what would you say to young artists?

RB: Honestly, in this day and age, there are so many resources, especially via the computer. Social media and various other websites that allow networking make it easier to create and share than ever before. Take advantage of how easy it get your name out there for little to no cost.

 

***There was a lot of banter in between questions and one of these days, when my nerves dissipate a bit, I’ll share the actual audio of our interviews ;)***

 

We really appreciate Robert taking the time to speak with us, and we hope we you found his answers to our questions as helpful and fun as we did!

Here’s a quick look at the our collective pieces so far…

 

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Robert’s use of color and texture are something I really appreciate and I will honestly have an entire wall of his work before it’s said and done 🙂

And I dare say when WeGeekGirl’s HQ comes to fruition, between GiGi and I, we will own his entire collection 🙂

 

(Fun Facts: Michael Rooker requested a Yondu print from Robert at Salt Lake City Comic Con and Chadwick Boseman signed a T’Challa print for him…Pretty rad, right!?)

 

To find out even more about Robert Bruno, you know what to do…

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/brunodigitalillustration

Twitter: @brunodigill

Instagram: @rbrunoill

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We adore you Robert! Thank you for your time and your wonderful art!

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Don’t forget to get out there and support Black Panther this weekend!!