This is part five in a series showing the progress of a recreation of an X-Men cover.To see the previous posts, view: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4.

Since we last saw our heroes and villian, a lot of work has been done. The first step was adding in the background color. I kept with the red gradient that was established in the original color. I wanted it to be white in the middle of the page because I know that this is where Cyclops’ optic beam hits Magneto’s shield. This is actually achieved with two layers. A red to white radial gradient. This was covered by a darker red to transparent radial gradient. The next step was laying down the flat color. This sounds easy, but it was a time consuming process.

After this, I started working on Magneto’s shield. Though his powers are usually represented by purple “energy” someone in 1981 determined that this image would show green light. Probably to separate it from the red background. You can’t have a red and purple figure on a red background surrounded by purple light.

I drew in some of the green energy effect, but I thought that it was missing something. I created a new folder for layers that would sit on top of the ink lines. For this I used a white brush and drew scribbled lines. I duplicated this layer and added a green outline filter. I then added a gausian blur to this layer. This gave the effect that the white lines have a green glow.

Though this part isn’t finished yet, I moved over to start work on Cyclops’ optic beam. This is going to be the primary source of light for the entire image. After a couple of failed attempts, I determined that the main part of the beam should be white and have a red glow. There were two other effects that I hoped to include. I wanted to show the energy of the beam exploding out of his visor. Plus I really wanted to show the impact and reflection of the beam off of Magneto’s shield. Getting these three effects to work well together has been a difficult feat.

This drawing is nowhere near finished, but working on the special effects is a lot more interesting than adding the flat color.