This is a cover I just finshed for Boom! Studios and Labyrinth’s 30th anniversary. Specifically the cover will be on Jim Henson’s Labyrinth: Artist Tribute book. There’s an article at Entertainment Weekly that has details.

It was a very exciting opportunity to create this Labyrinth cover, which in itself also felt like a tribute to David Bowie, with his passing so soon before I received the assignment. I did a number of sketches, mainly exploring the dynamic between Sarah, Jareth and the labyrinth…a few contained other characters, but I think the best choice was keeping the focus on the main two. Since the composition was fairly cluttered, I used a limited pallet of colors and relied on tone and contrast to separate the shapes and create a sense of atmospheric perspective.

I was aiming for a dreamy atmosphere, and added the fuzzy dust orbs as the finishing diffused gauze. Jareth's glass spheres were a point of debate for me, as to whether they should be hollow or solid because of the way each refracts light. I eventually chose to make them hollow because solid glass spheres refract by flipping (what's behind them) vertically and horizontally…which made the spheres feel overly complicated and pulled attention from the characters.

Overall, I wanted as many elements represented as possible, while having them feel harmonious together and without losing focus on Jareth and Sarah.