Aliens has always been one of my favourite movies, so when I discovered it had just celebrated 30 years since it's release, I knew I had to do something to mark the occasion!

So below is my poster illustration, with as many characters and elements as I could fit in. Also probably the first successful colour poster art piece I've done. Very happy with it.

Below are some of the steps I took in making this piece. After spending a while collecting the large amount of reference I was going to need, I chose the ones that worked with my idea and traced the basics of each, before putting together the rough layout:

Next stage is the 'black line' stage where I draw up everything in it's final position (I've added a couple more characters I was missing at this stage):

Then I begin to build up the values and textures behind the black line, adjusting value to make sure it all gels well and nothing gets lost:

Then comes the 'white line' stage where I go back over everything adding highlights, edge lights and more detail in white. Also here I've dropped in the title and text. Then what's left is to overlay the colour and add finishing touched like the flame and lighting adjustments, and overlay a texture to give it the final look.

Here are a few close up looks at some of the details:

I really hope you like it, thanks for checking it out!