Josh Middleton On His Supergirl #50 Cover

We get a little'behind the scene' glimpse at the creation of the variant cover for Supergirl #50 over Josh Middleton's blog. Here is the link and the blurb:
http://joshuamiddleton.blogspot.com/2010/02/supergirl-50.html

Here is my cover for Supergirl 50. I started this one by coloring an extremely rough pencil sketch for editorial approval, thinking I would redraw the line art for a cleaner foundation to color later, but kept working on the original color sketch so much that it wound up being the final cover. Supergirl is imprisoned in amber, which was quite difficult to render and have look right without obscuring too much of the figure or her colors. I didn't do much with the background either since it is largely covered by the logo and other type. I'm still not sure if I quite pulled it off, but I ran out of time and had to call the cover done.

I used both Photoshop and Painter for this one; Painter primarily for hair and washes of color on the figure, and Photoshop for everything else. I probably could have done it all in Photoshop with the same end result, but I do enjoy coloring looser drawings in Painter.

I think the cover is great. I think Supergirl's expression really shows just how afraid she is in the amber.

I found it interesting that Middleton states that this was created from the rough pencil sketch and that is was hammered into this final piece.

One thing I like is how the parts of Supergirl that are embedded in the amber are slightly blurry or obscured. This accentuates the fact that the viewer is looking through a translucent material.


This close up of the cover shows it dramatically. Supergirl's hand is outside of the amber and much more distinct while her forearm appears hazy.

I preferred this cover to the Turner one and thought a variant cover was a nice bonus for this landmark issue.