Bringing Drawings to Life: Music Cover Art Designs
“Education isn't just about feeding the brain. Art and music feed the heart and soul.” - Julie Garwood
About a year ago, I was approached by a friend who was interested in creating a new aesthetic for a Swedish DJ that he represents. They were searching for a new look for the music and needed some artistic input to push them in the right direction. The opportunity was flattering yet intimidating since this project was so far out of my comfort zone and because of this, I agreed to it.
During the process of redesigning Olwik's overall vibe, I was only working with his main headshot and his music on SoundCloud. I listened to nothing else for a whole day in order to get an understanding of how his music made me feel and perceive the things around me. I analyzed his photo for about 30 minutes while listening to the music and decided to get working.
I immediately pulled out cool blue and grey colors from my palettes because those are the colors I saw when I sat down with his music on and closed my eyes.
I sketched a few different pieces and when I laid them side by side, everyone agreed that the angular look was 'the one'. I created multiple angled portraits because this style stood out to me the most when listening to his songs. His music and this style reflect individually unique fragments that make a whole in a linear fashion, thus, I felt that this look best represented his songs in a visual format.
Creating the image in my head is always a challenge, however, managing to put that image onto paper is more difficult than sitting in front of a blank sheet without a design in mind yet. Once I had the overall idea ready to go, I started playing around with the angles and lines before filling them in with different shades.
We eventually found that the best way to go about creating the design was to sketch out the angles, go over the pencil in waterproof pen, photograph it, fill in with watercolors or markers, photograph it again and then work some Photoshop magic. The image above then turned into the watercolor portrait below.
I'd like to take a moment to thank Photoshop and my sketchbook. Without their help and support, the final look wouldn't be what it is today.
Once the new aesthetic was established, we began working on incorporating it into his new music and let me tell you, once I started angling these images I started angling the rest of my drawings for months.
Moral of the story: Escape your comfort zone and follow your intuition for artistic inspiration.
xoxo,
lauren amigo
