As many of you know, I recently finished up a series of covers for Dark Horse Comics’ “Serenity: Leaves on the Wind”. The last issue of the series, #6, just went on the stands this past month.
I’m a big Firefly fan, so it was a really fun project to work on, and I’m actually kind of sad to see it end. Disappointment aside, it is really nice to be able to step back from any long term project and see the fruits of your labor as a collective whole. There are of course things I would change, but overall I’m quite happy with the way these covers look as a series.
Having 6 different covers to play with, meant the Editor and I could give each of the characters their own time in the spotlight, rather than just focusing on the leading man.
I started the series off working tradtionally. The first two covers are all oil paints. On the third cover I experimented with some acrylic airbrush and colored pencil techniques, which I loved! (More on that in the near future).
The fourth cover was a mixture of tons of different of mediums, mostly due to frustration and my ineptness. I spent a lot of time repainting Kaylee’s face, over and over, trying to get the likeness just right. The real trouble is, I was trying to give her a tough expression, and that character just doesn’t make that type of expression, so it always looked wrong.
I finally got it right (I think), but having spent so much time revising the painting, I was really starting to fall behind schedule. So, to save time the fifth and sixth covers were done entirely in Photoshop.
Epic. Great collection of covers. Poor Wash… *sniff*
Will you have these available soon for resale off your website? These are wonderful! I am also a big FireFly fan 🙂
That last one hits me right in the feels, great work!
Kaylee's face is looking like the traditional art. Nice work. It will inspire me looking for better job.
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Kim, the originals are for sale, but not prints. Even though Dark Horse owns the rights to my image, Fox owns the copyrights to Firefly, which means I can't legally make reproductions without their expressed permission… and try as I might, that will NEVER happen.