Binarpilot / B-Sides

A few posts ago, I mentioned I was working on a project for the Norwegian musician, Binärpilot (Alexander Støver). Well, I can finally reveal the artwork for the said project. Hooray!

In the previous post (link above) I had a lot of sketches and possible ideas, which I narrowed down to this idea (and a few others that weren't used).

I really liked the idea of the albums as part of a map, so I sketched concerning that idea.

Once I had my idea down, I started going to town on it. First, I did mock-ups by hand, took pictures to put it into the computer, and then messed with it in GIMP. When I was satisfied, I converted everything into vector in Inkscape so it would be easier to manage.
At first I made the map rectangular, and colored, but then it was suggested by Alexander that I should do it in black and white--which was the technique I had used in his forums, and what a lot of the fans really liked.

I'm so glad that I went with his advice; it looks so good. I also reformatted it so that it was rectangular, like an actual album cover.

While I was creating the above image, I intrigued myself with the image of the ship (presumed to belong to Binärpilot). As you can see, I started sketching it early, and my mind latched onto it.

 Instead of deluging Alexander with tons of alternative art covers, I decided to combine two: the ship above, and the ambigram of "Binärpilot". That last image is me practicing with ink, as I didn't like how it looked when I did it purely digitally. The reward for my efforts lies below.

So, now that you see the album artwork, now you just have to await the album's arrival from go get it from Binärpilot on his website.

You are more than welcome to grab either of the two covers to use in your iTunes (and any other music program that displays album art).

New Art

I've been super busy this quarter. I've still been creating and sketching, and just got done with a bigger project (as well as started two others), but here's a little taste of what I've been up to.

The finished project I won't be able to show until it drops. Here's a hint.

I've messed around with stencils a little bit.

Had some printer stickers, so I created a stencil and transferred it to the sticker, then my notebook.

My friend asked for a tattoo design. Most times I just straight out say no because whoever is asking usually just wants me to draw a generic bird or tree because I'm artistic. I tell them the tattoo artist can do that. Occasionally though, my friends will ask for a specific, Alex Kramer original. This time my friend asked for Mjolnir (Thor's hammer) that would go on her wrist or ankle, so it had to be small, and she didn't want it to look like every other Mjolnir tattoo.

My friend's initials, LKC, make up the shape of the hammer. I think the color and flow really fits with the Norse theme. I sketched a rough version in GIMP, and then drew this version entirely in Inkscape with the other as a reference. I love how precise you can get this way.


Tonight I decided to stay up (since I have nothing planned for tomorrow--no finals) and ended up getting started on a piece I've been thinking about for a while. The following pictures are the work in progress inspired by my Ancient Greek literature class, after hearing the myth of Prometheus creating humans from mud dolls and butterflies. This is the image that's been in my mind all quarter.

 After completing a sketch on a smaller sheet, I grabbed this watercolor paper and lightly sketched the drawing and boundary lines.

Inked the pencil lines with a 50/50 ink and water mix to get more definition. Then used watered down acrylic mixes as watercolor paints. Here I was filling in the wing with non-watered black acrylic.

Added a darker layer on the mud doll, as well as acrylic-ed the opposite wing. Notice that the wings are different.

Bam, color! I got so into the mixing of colors and blending that I forgot to step back and catalog the process better. I'm still not sure what will happen with the background, but this isn't done yet.

Some macros for detail:

You can see where the 50/50 watered down ink still shows along the wings. I liked the texture and look of it, so I kept it partially revealed.

More to come.