// although Buffy's rendering is a little smoother (airbrushed looking) than I like...It seemed right at the time, but later on I wished I had made her less polished. //



The design reminds me superficially of Phil Noto's cover for S9 #10 in terms of emphasizing Buffy's problems and the circular composition but your's is a more lighthearted design and very much in keeping with the tone of the season. "the barrier" here is a fragile one, the implication being it's one that Buffy and her friends will be able to break through or climb over.A bit more textured? I hadn't thought of it until you mentioned it but now I can see that yes, she has somewhat the quality of a statue here herself, carved of the same marble as the tracery, but that's also because she slightly resembles a pre-Raphaelite angel or Madonna.BTW I recently saw your cover of S10 volume 5 on buffythecomicsslayer's tumblr and this is one of my favorite depictions of Buffy on any of the comics covers so far: buffythecomicslayer.tumblr.com… I love the detail of her tearing up a little.