Comics

2000 AD Covers Uncovered – Toby Willsmer Delivers The Dredd For Prog 2269

21st February 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!

Borag Thungg to you all! This week, it’s the return of one of 2000 AD’s newer art droids, Toby Willsmer for a stunner of a Dredd cover for 2000 AD Prog 2269 – out wherever you get your weekly dose of all things Thrill Powered on 16 February.

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Okay then, over to Toby to talk Dredd coming out of the shadows…

TOBY WILLSMER: I had an idea to do a mostly black piece with good ol’ Dredd, smoking Lawgiver in hand, emerging from the shadows into the rain-drenched light.

For this, I already had a pose in mind, so I came up with a couple of different versions for the smoking Lawgiver and sent them over to Matt to choose from.

Well, you’d be grumpy if you’d forgotten your raincoat as well.

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Even though the background was going to be mostly black I still wanted to have some shapes in it. These would show through subtly enough to give the viewer some depth against the rain I planned to add later in the foreground. Messy always wins for this type of thing so I drew in some vertical scribbles as a starting point. I also added in some spray textures to parts of Dredd to plot out where the shadows would start to sit and blend into the background.

Today the weather will be cloudy with a case of … squiggles?
Dear Weather Control – WTF?

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I had decided to use a light source above Dredd for direction. I then added all the shadows, textures and blacks. Deciding which parts to leave in the light and which parts to sink back into the shadows.


And then the lights go out.
What’s the betting that electrician doesn’t keep Dredd waiting when they get that call-out?

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From here I added the base colours detailing some areas that will be the focal parts. I did add some ambient lighting defining the torso and outer glove but decided to paint it out as I wanted Dredd to disappear into the shadows rather than have his shape defined with reflective light in the dark areas.

Lights back on. You’d think he’d be happier wouldn’t you?

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At the final details stage, it’s almost done. With light, highlights, smoke, rain and drips all added to give it some movement and pop. For me, this is the most satisfying part of every painting, when the piece comes alive.

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And that’s it! Let’s all agree that this one pops! Thanks so much to Toby for sending that one along. He might only have been an art droid for a little while, but the Willsmer droid is proving he’s an exciting talent for the future!

You can find 2000 AD Prog 2269 wherever the Galaxy’s greatest is sold, including the 2000 AD web shop.