Original Art - Magnus Robot Fighter #5 cover prelim

Yet another original art post. What can I say, there have been a lot of great original art finds lately and it helps that original art makes for quick and easy posts.

Today we have the preliminary pencil outline for the cover of Magnus Robot Fighter #5 (Magnus side cover of the flip-book) by Art Nichols. This is the rough pencil drawing done by the artist for the editor to approve and shows the general composition, body shapes etc. These are very rare as most of them are tossed out after the final cover is completed.

And here is the published cover for comparison.

Notice how the composition stays relatively the same, shifting only to show a wider breath of Slagger's destruction and higher to avoid a possible Magnus up-skirt. The figures also stay as they were with the exception of Magnus' arms. I think the position of his arms in the prelim are more dynamic and focus the image on the struggle between them as opposed to just avoiding the spinning blades. I guess, the prelim makes shows Magnus in less danger as he has Slagger in hand where as in the publishing cover he narrowly and awkwardly misses the blades giving the feeling of jeopardy and showing Slagger in the position of power.