2000 AD Covers Uncovered – ‘Jaroo and Mr Radtus having a barny’ – Phil Winslade on Megazine 447
18th 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!
Today, it’s time to say hello again to the wonders of the Winslade, as art droid Phil Winslade returns for a ghafflebette wraparound cover to Judge Dredd Megazine 447, out on 17 August, that marks the very special finale to the latest series of Lawless, Ballots over Badrock.
Inside Megazine 447, it’s a triple-length finale to Lawless: Ballots Over Badrock, as Dan Abnett and Phil Winslade bring things to a thriller of a conclusion – Will Jaroo survive meeting the Radtus monster? Will Marshall the Outlaw Metta Lawson survive an SJS beatdown? And will Phil Winslade’s drawing hand survive a triple-length episode with all that gorgeous b&w detailing he puts into Lawless?
Well… we’re not going to answer any of those, but we are going to let Phil take you through his making of yet another incredible wraparound painted cover – something he’s calling ‘Beauty & The Beast’.
PHIL WINSLADE: I was considering a whole Mission: Impossible scenario where Tharg got in touch with a self-destructing tape machine that burnt down half my kitchen but realised that my cultural references were so woefully anachronistic that most readers wouldn’t understand it.
So Matt emailed and said he wanted a cover with Jaroo and Mr Radtus having a barny. “Fine” says I.
Well, apart from referring to The Mighty One as this Matt fella, all seems good so far – ‘Jaroo and Mr Radtus having a barny’ is one of those lines you know will be making it to the title of this Covers Uncovered.
PW: So I needed something with some energy featuring the two characters. I came up with something I thought would work with a strong horizontal movement with Jaroo in jeopardy. I decided that the couple bursting out of Audrey’s stables had potential for lots of action and dramatic lighting as the scene was at night/dusk.
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PW: I also felt that a big double headshot would work and really emphasise the savagery of the battle. So I included that as an option.
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PW: At this point, I’m mainly thinking about the front cover although obviously keeping my options open as to the back cover. I felt that Drury was an important part of the narrative so had him in mind for that bonus feature.
He also gives some extreme foreground dynamic leading you from left to right and hopefully emphasises the movement of the other two figures.
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PW: Sketch one without Drury was more direct and had a more BLAM! quality so I wanted the option to be there for Matt.
(You know Phil, Tharg is going to be getting the droid recalibration chambers ready for you if you’re going to keep mentioning this Matt fella.)
PW: Matt (oh heck, you’ve really done it now,) chose option 3 which was probably the initial image I had in mind before I overthunked it.
I wanted to do a color sketch for my own guidance. I wanted to get that sense of light coming from the unseen hole in the wall. I also wanted the color palette to be different from the cover now adorning Lawless Volume 4. The blue/purple, green, and blues contrast nicely (I hope) with the warm pale oranges and browns. Well, I hope it works anyway.
And Phil was generous enough to share a video of the making of that colour sketch process with us in this short vid, which he describes as this…
PW: The video is all the procreate digital work – after the thumbnails and from initial drawing to color sketch to before any paint or ink was used.
So, keeping in mind this is all just for a colour ‘sketch’ for Phil’s own guidance… watch in awe Earthlets…
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Now, to give you a feel of just what that colour ‘sketch’ entails (yes, sketch… incredible how some artists define sketch!) we’ve pulled a few screenshots from Phil’s video… this is all digital work from Phil, from initial marks through getting the figures in place and then adding colours.
PW: From that point everything was done analogue – tracing the cartoon, physically painting to the point of scanning and editing on PS (which doesn’t have a convenient time-lapse feature).
I traced the sketch onto the Bristol paper I use and taped that to the board and got out the acrylics. Colour is tricky when you paint. In bright sunlight colors look much brighter and less muddy than under artificial light so every evening you think “good grief this is awful” and in the morning light you think” hmm it’s not as bad as I thought…”.
Scanning can do strange things which you have to compensate and adjust – and what it comes out like in print on the different papers is unpredictable. The collections’ covers come out better than the Meg’s but it’s probably that I’m over-sensitive about it. It even changes when you use different apps to view it on your computer!
The painting part took 3 or 4 days after Matt approved the sketch he wanted. Painting always has a “without a net” quality for me. I don’t do it enough to ever feel particularly confident. I hope it has some sense of movement and drama and people enjoy all that Lawless inside.
And that folks, is Phil Winslade in peak artist’s worry mode. Which, of course, as you and I know and we can all plainly see, is absolute nonsense – these painted Lawless covers are always some of our absolute faves when we look back on the year’s best covers.
Despite the worries, he’s done it again with the stunning finished painted cover of Megazine 447, sending along these final painted images before the trade dress gets put on…
And that’s it! Thanks so much to Phil Winslade once more for sending that one along. You can see it in all its glory adorning Judge Dredd Megazine issue 447, out right now from everywhere the Galaxy’s Greatest is sold, including the 2000 AD web shop.
It’s packed full of Thrill Power, a one-off Judge Dredd, the conclusion of Psi-Judge Anderson: Dissolution, and of course, the triple-length finale to Lawless: Ballets Over Badrock by Dan Abnett and Phil Winslade – who we all hope is currently enjoying a little time off and icing his drawing hand and wrist – after all, that amount of incredible detail has to hurt!
And if you’re looking for more of that wonderful Winslade cover work… you can find it here – more Lawless for Megazine 418 and Megazine 422, and some older Dredd covers for Megazine 365 and 2000 AD 1879. Well worth taking a look!
And finally, because we know you love to see these things in all their glorious detail, the full-sized versions of those screenshots we took from the video Phil sent along…
