This run of The High Republic Adventures has brought back the stunning variant covers we all love, with some brand new artists to collaborate with the team. Sketchbooks and Scratchpads had the honor of getting to chat with the brilliant illustrator who created the THRA Variant cover for Issue #3, and get you guys an inside look at the process of drawing a comic cover for Star Wars!
Sketchbooks and Scratchpads: Hi Ella, welcome to the team! First, how about you introduce yourself to everyone?
ELLA: I'm Ella (professionally known as cherriielle), and I'm a 23-year-old digital illustrator from Alberta, Canada. I do cover work in publishing and most recently, The High Republic! I'm a fairly recent Star Wars fan who feels like a life-long one, but I've been drawing for as long as I can remember. Best known for bringing up Cohmac Vitus whenever the opportunity arises.
S&S: As you should! Your cover for THRA was, of course, jaw-dropping but also so unique! If you could describe your art style in one sentence, what would you say?
ELLA: Probably "Vivid, lineless, and edible"? Quite a few folks say my art looks edible and at this point I should probably embrace it.
S&S: That’s pretty accurate—your art would totally be tasty. On your cover you drew a fan favorite characters, Zeen Mrala, but brought such different energy and beauty to them than we’ve seen before. It’s one of our favorite aspects of creating comics—the process is inherently collaborative so you get so many perspectives on the same characters. It really brings depth and life to the story and characters that you can’t get with prose. But what made you want to pursue illustrating for comic covers?
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