2000 AD Covers Uncovered: Toby Willsmer’s Dredd for Prog 2481 – ‘I never knew painting a sewer could be so much fun!’

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sixth May 2026

Every week, 2000 AD brings you the galaxy’s best paintings and 2000 AD Covers Uncovered takes you behind-the-scenes with the headline artists chargeable for our high cowl artwork – be part of bloggers Richard Bruton and Pete Wells as they uncover the best covers from 2000 AD!

Borag Thungg, Earthlets. Welcome to Covers Uncovered the place, this week, we get to gaze in surprise at Dredd navigating the sewerage programs of the Big Meg, courtesy of artwork droid extraordinaire Toby Willsmer…

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This one’s a testomony to holding maintain of all these random concepts that fill an artist’s head, as Toby will let you know in a second. It’s one more iconic Dredd pose from the Willsmer droid, one thing he’s turn into one thing of an professional at within the 5 years since he first appeared on Tharg’s radar. As is common with a Willsmer cowl, there’s kinetic motion a-plenty, superb painted stuff, and simply Dredd trying like one of the best Dredd. And all this from just a little concept that simply wouldn’t depart his head…

TOBY WILLSMER: So, I had an outdated tunnel concept that I’d handed on as a consequence of it simply not working on the time. Fast ahead a few years, and this pose got here out of a type of scribble excessive of it with a number of arms and weapons, and see what comes out of it doodles…

I knew this pose would work for the tunnel thought I initially had, and will see loads of motion in it. At this stage, I believed the setting might be fairly darkish, with Dredd framed in some type of gentle supply.

I’ve no thought why I preserve sketching these doodles so bloody small although!

I wished a very over-the-top chaotic second, caught with dramatic lighting. So I used the unique confined tunnel thought to comprise/body all of it and deliberate utilizing the Lawgiver blast as a lightweight supply. I imply, who doesn’t love Dredd stomping about in sewer juice while blazing away at these pesky perps!

I despatched the concept over to Matt, and he was into it too.

My thought was to comprise the principle gentle on one facet and preserve the background fairly darkish, with a second gentle supply highlighting one other Judge within the scene.

As I’d do all this on the colouring stage, I solely wanted to deal with Dredd’s shadowing right here. Keeping it heavy within the foreground and blocking primary shadows for the second determine.

With the color scheme already found out, I stripped it again and cleaned up the bottom colors as my start line. I discover getting the foreground and background depths necessary at this stage. As it helps afterward when giving the principle half just a little additional oompf.

Now the enjoyable stuff. I wished it excessive, with bullets flying previous Dredd, ricocheting off the partitions, splashing within the sewer juice at his toes.

Just stuff occurring in every single place to attempt to seize the chaos within the second.

Was I tempted so as to add in just a few floaters right here and there?…in fact I used to be!

From an thought I’d binned years in the past to one thing I used to be lastly proud of. I by no means knew portray a sewer might be a lot enjoyable! (Don’t fear there’s no floaters!)

See, that’s why you need to by no means trash an thought fully. You by no means know when, one evening of doodling, it is going to flip into the most recent zarzaj thought for an amazing Dredd cowl. Of course, it does assist if you happen to’re Toby Willsmer and your covers are the type of issues that simply leap off the cabinets demanding you purchase them.

Thanks a lot to Toby for sending that one alongside to us. Another absolute cracker that’s accessible proper now wherever the Galaxy’s Greatest is offered, together with the 2000 AD webshop.

Since first busting into a few of Tharg’s favorite cowl droids, Toby’s constructed up a good gallery of labor so that you can ooh and ahh over, proper from his very first look within the Prog because the winner of a 2021 Art Stars entry (and you may see that right here.) Since then, we’ve had the pleasure of exhibiting you Covers Uncovered items for these great Willsmer Prog covers – Prog 2240, Prog 2262, Prog 2269, Prog 2318, Prog 2332, Prog 2352, Prog 2389, Prog 2345, Prog 2449, and Prog 2465.

If you need to know extra and see extra of his work, head to his web site here.

Now, Toby despatched over his artwork as enormous information, which is rather like we prefer it, because it offers us the possibility to blow-up all that placing paintings and offer you bits of element…

From that very first sketch/doodle…

To the insane quantity of element on that tough despatched to Tharg…

And as soon as that was permitted, time to get into the quilt correctly… pencils/inks…

And then the including of the paints and colors, and all of the issues that make this one pop prefer it does…