Sneak Peek - Album Art

As promised, I'm shedding some light on one of my projects I am currently working on. I'm not going to give too much away since it's still far from being done, but I can still let you stare at sketches, concepts, drafts, and thoughts & segues.

This project is for the wonderful musician, Binärpilot (aka Alexander Støver), and an upcoming release. If you haven't already seen, I've been sketching on the forums on his site and have gotten positive responses from fans--So much so that Alexander asked me if I would be interested doing art for him in the future. As you can tell, I said yes.

Below are sketches from mid-December when I was first approached to create for a specific, upcoming release. I centered my ideas about things very much Binärpilot--parts of songs andreferences from the forums--while also putting my own steampunk / retrolution feel on the images. These three pages were created in rapid succession as the ideas were literally flowing through me.

As you can see, things such as billowing clouds / smoke, typewriters, maps, and record players intrigued me at the time. The original of the Kraken-fighting Robot can be seen here. I also tried playing around with different ways to represent Binärpilot.

By this time I was absolutely locked down on two different versions of the cover art. One pertaining to a map, and the other with the word Binärpilot as an ambigram. An ambigram is a word written / stylized in a way that you can read it from a different angle. A common way is so that you can still read the same word upside-down. A few examples can be found on Wikipedia, as well as in Dan Brown's Angels & Demons.

There are many ways to create an ambigram. When I try to create one, I spend a lot of time playing around how the word is composed. I superimpose all the letters against each other from two angles to try and see shapes that take form. At times it is a long, arduous process; but it can be fun as well. Below is the practice page, where you can see how I messed around with different variations.

I find it easiest to create ambigrams using stylized letters because I can bend and twist the forms into usable shapes, while still allowing readers to identify the letters. While playing around, I circle and box the forms and combinations that look the best to me. Then, I take a separate piece of paper and draw out a clean version. Once I'm satisfied, I'll put it into the computer and have fun with it.

I think this is a good place to close the curtain again on my process. Not too much revealed, but just enough to keep you interested. More soon!

Thread Art, Part Two

A continuation from my first thread art post. All of these drawings are done on a chat-draw program called Napkin, and on the threads for Binärpilot's Community--also, I use a 8x6 Genius tablet.

I'm just going to throw these up without specifying which thread they came from, since I've already spent enough time not putting these up as often as I should.

Some late-night doodles referencing images on a computer. Never done that before.

Some quick art for my bro's mix of Binärpilot's songs aXXo and Acrodysostosis.

You can hear the "clash-mix" here.

Some retrolutionary/steampunk images for everyone to enjoy.

Trying different styles of shading and drawing on the chat-draw.

Drawing of Binärpilot hanging out with Deadmu5. 

This has yet to happen, but one can hope.

New style/challenge: Don't use the "undo" (z) option on the chat-draw. Had me thinking in a new way.

Well, you all know what this was for. Sorry, Londoners for the crappy Big Ben.

For my friend, Rachael, who adores Friends and wishes the Norwegian title was just like this.

A teaser-map for the Binärpilot fans awaiting the new release. More later.

I was requested to draw "a t-rex with wings, grabbing some ancient aqua-dino out of a river with its giant foot-talons."I didn't like the first version, so I redrew it as below...

...and added in another side of the battle! The left side was created in Napkin and then spliced together with GIMP offline. The full pic above is actually hosted on my DeviantArt page.

Some sketches

A little late for last week, but I'll still upload more later this week. Some look at the contour sketches I do all the time. These types of sketches are done without looking at the paper, only the subject. It really helps your hands (and muscles within) learn the minute control needed to draw, as well as your mind to get used to creating specific shapes, lines, and details. You'd be surprised what few lines are needed to impress an image upon a viewer.

New Year, New Order

Now that 2010 is gone, we can talk behind its back! I can't think of anything to say, so I'll just let everyone know what my ideal schedule looks like with presenting stuff on here:

• Sneak peaks of projects at least once a month
• Host at least two other Art Share events
• Attempt to launch Secret Art Awareness Project (more later)
• Throw up some pages from my sketch books weekly

I really wanted this blog to be about art, sharing creativity, and promoting these activities everywhere. So, I'll try to inspire more people by showing more stuff.

Have a Good NYE Recovery Day!