The texture and shading that Skullkickers artist Chris Stevens is able to articulate on Bristol board can look almost inhuman. Most of his sketches that he shares online are in black and white, but the surfaces he renders on Captain America's costume and Hellboy's Right Hand of Doom look real enough that you can almost reach out and touch them.
Stevens' deviantART account hosts some cover-quality Swamp Thing, Darth Vader and vintage Cap pieces that pack the grace of a Marko Djurdjevic pinup with the precision and liveliness of a Phil Noto page.

His Young Avengers, Darkness and Harley Quinn attempts likewise look so nice that it's tough to figure why they aren't already colored and printed on some trade paperbacks somewhere. Feel free to zoom in, too. The closer you look at the examples we've posted after the jump, the more convinced you will become that when Stevens gets his work colored it's only to maintain an air of modesty.

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