2000 AD Covers Uncovered – Prog 2318 sees Toby Willsmer getting to grips with Keeper Hag!
8th February 2023
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!
On the cover of Prog 2318, we have Toby Willsmer, giving us a touching little moment between Keeper Hag and Judge Dredd – out on 8 February wherever you get your weekly dose of Thrill Power!
Based in New Zealand but born and raised in ‘70s Britain, Toby first got his work published in the Prog after winning the January 2021 2000 AD Art Stars contest, with a great-looking Sam Slade Robo-Hunter, and since then has been a regular cover artist on the Galaxy’s Greatest, with his distinctive visuals have been jumping out at you regularly on the cover of several Progs, including this one.
Featuring Keeper Hag getting a little too up close and personal with Dredd, Toby’s cover takes inspiration from the current Dredd strip, The Hagger They Fall by Arthur Wyatt, Rob Williams, and Paul Marshall, with Dredd following up the events of the Atlantis attacks by The Red Queen (soon to be collected in Judge Dredd: Requiem) and on the trail of Keeper Hag. And you know what? I reckon they’ve found each other…
Now, over to Toby to tell you all about it…
TOBY WILLSMER: Matt/Tharg asked if I could come up with a cover with a close-up of Dredd straining in the Keeper Hag’s grip. In my head I had an idea I thought might work.
1 – Sketch – My usual place to start is with a good ol’ 2b in the sketchbook. Quickly getting down the ideas and seeing what works and what doesn’t.
2 – Roughs sheet – I put the ideas I had into the template and drew over them until I had something that I liked to show Matt.
3 – Rough colours – As there was no need to have a specific background for this cover. I went ahead and came up with a couple of colour schemes that I thought would complement the two figures.
4 – Cover lines – Once Matt was happy with his chosen rough and colour scheme I went ahead and drew up the linework. It was during this stage that I added Dredd holding his trusty Lawgiver to see what it might look like. So drew up a couple of quick options and fired them off to Matt to see if he preferred that… He did.
5 – Cover shades – With the outline all done and updated, it’s the usual route to finish the piece. Adding the shades and shadows first.
6 – Colour stage 1 – Then the base colours get added.
7 – Colour stage 2 – Adding the background splurge colour fest until I’m happy with the result.
8 – Colour stage 3 – And lastly adding all the details and lighting to give the piece some life.
There you go, another cover completed! But hold on, that’s not all, as Toby also sent along a video of the entire cover process, from blank page to finished cover. It’s always so good to see the magic unfold before your eyes…
And thanks so much to Toby for sending all of that along to us to put before your eyes! You can find 2000 AD Prog 2317 wherever you pick up your weekly dose of Ghafflebette comics, including the 2000 AD web shop from 8 February.
And for more of Toby’s incredible covers, do have a look at what he’s done previously – Prog 2240, Prog 2262, Prog 2269, Prog 2299, all of them stunning pieces!