Jim Henson's Storyteller: Fairies #1 variant process

[Steve Hubbell]

Jim Henson's Storyteller: Fairies #1 from Archaia came out this week. I did a variant cover for it. Here's a very detailed look at its creation.

Ink and watercolor on 4-ply, 500 series Strathmore Bristol.



I submitted two concepts. There were certain things I wanted done with the coloring so opted to color it myself.



Detailed pencil art drawn with .5mm HB mechanical pencil.



Inked with Koh-i-Noor ArtPen and Platinum Carbon Black ink. Characters, some foreground elements and borders were masked then the flat background was painted on.



I wanted an autumn feel to it because the changing leaves and the berries would make for a much more interesting look. However, I wanted to limit my palette to avoid it looking too garish.

I stripped off the mask on the foreground leaves and berries for painting.









The mask on the fairies are peeled off.









The finished art.

[Maka]

That is so awesome! Thanks for posting! Peace, maka

[maichan]

This is neat! I really enjoy this non-Usagi-themed work of art.