Depict the iconic Harley Quinn

Join Joshua Swaby as he shares how he creates this month’s stylish cover art, featuring the Joker’s right-hand woman

Joshua Swaby brings the anti-hero to life.

When editor Ian Dean emailed me, offering me the chance to do a cover for Imaginefx, I was flabbergasted. This is something I didn’t expect so early on in my career. After all, I only started freelancing a year ago.

I wanted to be in Imaginefx ever since high school. I used to buy it and learn from many of the featured professionals and illustrators, hoping one day I’d get my art in this leading magazine. And now here I am – my wish has come true.

For this workshop, I’m painting Harley Quinn. She’s fun to draw, because you can do so much with her. She’s a witty and vibrant ant-hero – even though she’s a psycho! For this cover I want to combine those traits, and add her unique punk style.

When I create digital art comic covers, I like to keep things fairly simple: sketch, line, flats and colour. I always start by finding reference that supports the idea I have in my mind, and to help me see where the concept is going. I then go on to do thumbnails of my concepts, trying to capture the feeling and mood I want to pursue in the final piece.

I like to keep my line-work loose, but well-defined. I achieve this by using a brush that has a traditionallike feel of a pencil or charcoal. Then for greys, I use mid- to dark tones to help me flat individual areas and avoid unwanted spots to help myself ease into my colouring phase.

For colouring, I use hard and soft brushes to help render certain areas and textures in the skin and fabrics. I’m able to work quickly with both of these brushes – ideal for meeting tight deadlines! Finally, editing the colours and using filters gives my art greater vibrancy and balance.

I’ve used this process for many of my covers, and I hope you’ll enjoy this ride that I’m taking you on…