Ryan Meinerding, Marvel Studios' Head of Visual Development, has posted a behind-the-scenes picture of some concept art for the armor from Iron Man. The 2008 film, which is the first in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, stars Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark. In Iron Man, we see Tony build his armor from scratch, then constantly modify it and upgrade it. It's a hallmark of Tony's character that he's a genius engineer—though he's more likely to call himself a mechanic.

The Iron Man armor, in particular, is a labor of love for Tony. Throughout the films, he makes somewhere close to 100 different suits and wears 19 of them. Some are simple improvements upon the previous models, but some have specific purposes, like the Hulkbuster armor designed to help contain the Hulk. Tony builds lots of tech for his fellow Avengers as well, including leg braces for his best friend James "Rhodey" Rhodes.

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What's especially cool about the image of Iron Man's armor Meinerding posted on Instagram is we can see his art take shape in the film. There's a scene in Iron Man in which Tony builds the Mk II version of his armor and works on a boot that looks almost identical to Meinerding's image. You can see the concept art below.

Though we get a closer look at the interior of the boot in the film, it's easy to see the shape of the exterior reflected in wide shots of Tony's armor as well. It looks like Meinerding's concept must have been the final version used for the film, or at least close to it, because the differences between his art and what we see on screen are minimal.

The design of the boot reflects where Tony is on his journey to becoming Iron Man. This is the first armor he's made in Iron Man after escaping from the cave in Afghanistan. It's simple and utilitarian; more a proof of concept than a sleek and flashy showpiece like some of his later designs. While all of Tony's designs are made with function as the first priority, as time goes on, he improves upon the aesthetics and spends a good amount of time on their presentation as well. But, here, we can see Tony testing out the idea of Iron Man. The design isn't exactly hesitant, but it's clear that Tony's focus is on making the armor work. He's testing out the suit, and he's testing out the idea of becoming Iron Man.

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Source: Ryan Meinerding via Instagram