2000 AD Covers Uncovered – Jaegir’s wired up wrong… Alex Ronald on Prog 2294
10th August 2022
Every week, 2000 AD brings you the galaxy’s greatest artwork and 2000 AD Covers Uncovered takes you behind-the-scenes with the headline artists responsible for our top cover art – join bloggers Richard Bruton and Pete Wells as they uncover the greatest covers from 2000 AD!
This week, with a strung-up Jaegir, it’s the return of art droid Alex Ronald to the cover of 2000 AD Prog 2294 – out on 10 August in all the usual Thrill Powered places.
Since first appearing in the Prog back in the 90s, with a first appearance in Prog 984, Alex Ronald’s stylings were to be seen on Judge Dredd, Vector 13, Rogue Trooper, and Sinister Dexter before he moved on to other things in the CG industry where he worked as both an illustrator and 3D modeller.
But the lure of 2000 AD meant a return to working for The Mighty One, with his computer-rendering and painted style making him an accomplished cover artist marking him out and providing some of the most striking and stylish covers in recent years.
This week, Alex is headed out into the wasteland of Nu-Earth for a Jaegir cover. Inside the Prog, Gordon Rennie, Simon Coleby, and Len O’Grady are giving us a technicolour masterclass of a tale in Jaegir: Ferox that finds Kapitan Kapitan-Inspector Atalia Jaegir of the Nordland State Security Police in something of a bind at the hands (and thorny tentacles) of General Kurga, one of her own side who sees himself as Number-Earth’s saviour.
Now, over to Alex for the breakdown of the cover, which all started from Tharg giving his art droid the reference image The Mighty One wanted from an internal panel from Jaegir: Ferox.
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ALEX RONALD: The reference image for the cover had Jaegir her being pulled up to a wall by the bio wire, arms out-stretched.
I ran into an issue trying to replicate this with the cover dimensions since she seemed far off and removed from the viewer when I had her fully in shot.
I felt the cover image would be stronger tighter in, focusing on her eyes and the rage at being captured. So instead I opted to have her straining against the wire which allowed me to go closer and have her full upper torso in frame.
As you can see from the rough, initially I had the wire across her face which reminded me of one of the Hellraiser characters. But for final art, I thought it best to remove that and allow her distinctive facial scars to be seen in their full gory glory.
As with most of what I do, it’s a rough 3D model which I sketch over, add detailing then paint on top of that after approval.
I hope you like it.
Oh, we do like it Alex, we do indeed! Thanks so much to Alex for sending that one along to join the growing library of Covers Uncovered entries here.
You can find 2000 AD Prog 2294 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Ghafflebette comics, including the 2000 AD web shop from 10 August.
And for more Covers Uncovered goodness from Alex, be sure to click through and have a look at his work on Prog 2016, Prog 2047, Prog 2162, Prog 2191, Prog 2206, Prog 2255, and Judge Dredd Megazine 435.
