Del Rey Cowardly Lion

Michael Herring takes us into the sky, in the Flyaboutabus, in this cover painting for the Del Rey edition of The Cowardly Lion of Oz. He's taken elements from a couple different John R. Neill drawings, and combined them into a dramatic image with a real sense of soaring through the air. Herring's paintings all have a very theatrical appearance, very much like a stage tableau.

This is another large (2' x 3') painting, and the detail on the small figures is quite nice. The cropping on the printed version of this piece clips the tail feathers and removes some of the sense of open sky - but the effect is still good.