Project: CD Cover

I was asked by a friend to design a CD cover for one of the bands he plays with.

Brief

·         Context

To illustrate the cover for the new CD by local blues band Mr Groovy and the Blue Heads (title as yet undecided)

·         Content

New Orleans feel but in Andalucia, voodoo, skulls, blues band, street party, Mardi Gras, pin up style femme fatale (long, dark hair, possibly tattooed). Undecided as to whether text will be included in or around the image

·         Role of Image

To represent the band and their music in an anti-crisis, good time way

A black and white version (cheaper to print) may also be used for t-shirts

·         Audience

Blues fans of any age

·         Stylistic aspects

Bright colours, masculine, pin up

Hand written text with ‘Arabic curls’

·         Effects

Image to be hand painted and the band’s name and CD title hand written around the image

·         Tools and Materials

Pen and guache original to be scanned and made into a printable format

·         Size

To fit CD case 13.8x12.5cm

Generating Ideas

As first the brief was less specific so I consulted with a band member over my choice of mood board images and initial sketch 

which needed to be less Mexican and more voodoo/ Andalucian

I made a spider diagram and mood boards

and made a line visual to scale while listening to the band’s first album.

I have drawn Cadiz in the background and represented the band by voodoo style skull sticks, drawing them at different angles to the frame to give them more energy.

I experimented with different crops (see second mood board above) and roughly coloured one version with pencil.

The band approved the image, preferring the full version and the lighter sky and at this stage they decided to include the band name and title around the image. They gave me an unmixed version of the recording to listen to while I was working.

I wasn’t entirely happy with the composition of the band/skulls because the drummer ‘jarred’ with the buildings and there was a boring area of building behind the bassist’s head.. I tried different variations via collage and photoshop before tracing the elements of the initial drawing to a heavy weight flat paper.

I outlined it in Indian ink but had a smudging accident at the end so redrew it in pen.

The pen lacks the intensity of the ink but it’s safer. I used the smudged outline as a colour trial, but I mistakenly washed the palette before starting on the new version, losing the flesh tone which I wasn’t able to reproduce.

I will add black in blocks digitally to the black and white outline so that it can be printed more easily.

I chose to use gouache as the colours are clear and bright but more intense than watercolour.

The hierarchy of the image in colours:

·         Black blocks for the woman’s hair, the singer’s hat and the band’s eyes and mouths.

·         Hot red used for the flower, lips and breasts.

·         Hot red used for the singer’s hat band, scarf and the guitarist’s feather

·         Hot yellow used for the woman’s harmonica earring, also used on the hat/drum, warm brownish/yellow tones on the guitars

·         Warm blue tones used for the skulls

·         Darker tones used for the palm which frames the woman

·         Lighter but still warm yellow tone used for cathedral roof. The eye is drawn here from the yellow harmonica and yellow drum skin.

·         Cooler lighter tones used for the sky, water and buildings making them recede

I used photoshop to make the colours more intense, to smooth out some of my rougher
brush marks and to improve the skin tone. 

I then set to work designing the text 

which I then scanned and manipulated in photoshop

before adding it to the image and sending it to the band again for approval....

They're really happy with it, but suggested that the background was a little flat and the skin

tone a little irregular so I worked with masks and layer multiplication in photoshop to give

the image more depth and to flatten the skin tone.  

I also changed the o’s slightly and added the title.

The finished cover has had a great reception from the band and their fans, relief...