My 8th Al Rio commission is also the 2nd since he regrettably passed away: Robert E. Howard’s Red Sonja, She-devil with a Sword, a first for me character-wise. My 48th job from client Michael Rankins, he again sent me a 8.5X13 prelim piece on paper to a later finished work. This meant that this art was looser, or done with ‘breakdowns’ instead of tight pencils, meaning that it would require ‘finishes’, or more enhancing/elaborating with the drawing, to complete it in ink. I researched and found the file of the finished pencil work by Al himself at his art rep/agent Terry Maltos’ site ‘Al Rio Art’ as reference. As requested, I converted the file to a blueline and enlarged it, transferring it to 11X17 2-ply board. I found myself trying to mostly recapture what Al had intended, leaving only a few areas that were different as clients usually don’t want an exact replica of an original work. But even so, I was mostly faithful to the source material. Ironically it turns out Michael would have preferred more of my interpretation without the reference….although he absolutely loved the result he got. Used all of my usual tools as well as drybrush with white and black ink and spatter with white (for the blood effect). I completed this recreation on 9/21/12.

Al Rio Art: http://www.alrioart.com/

Al’s prelim

Al’s final pencil work

My blueline ink recreation