I had fun doing this cover for the Ryukyu Star. I used the knowledge I gained from the last cover and quickly finished this one. The hardest part about this project was deciding the colors. It’s a good thing I let the colors speak for themselves.

I penciled, inked, and scanned the base image.

I made several layers in Photoshop and colored the image. I usually start with a base color–in this case, warm colors–and work my way from the body to the rest of the image.

After I apply a base color, I put in dark layers, light layers, darker layers, and finally, the lightest highlights if needed.

The final image has warm colors (autumn) and cool colors (winter) to show how one season goes into another.