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!

Art Share: November!

So, at the beginning of November I had a request for art and creativity from people I knew, as well as people that read my blogs. I used my birthday as a guilt trip for art, but in the future I won't use such a tactic.

Here's what people contributed during this round. Please note I do not own any of the artwork, except for where I note that it's my piece. Any copyright infringement/art theft is responsible by the person that submitted the work.

Mike Larsen

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Rafael Villapando

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Nicholas Ferguson

The sea is calm,
Making a lite shhh as it softly cascades up and down the rocky beach.
The wind begins to pick up,
Whistling as it moves between the blades of the grass that lies further up the bank.
The rain starts,
...Beating a slow tap tap taptaptap on the surface of the water.
Lightening peals down the sky,
Thunder starts a slow, rolling growl.
The wind becomes a gale,
Whistling turns to howling as wind passes between everything.
The waves become swells,
Crashing against the rocks, sounding like a ferocious onslaught of symbols smashing together.
The rain becomes hail,
And the tempo of falling ice increases.
Lightning flashes everywhere,
Thunder rapidly crescendos.
And then, all at once,
Energy seems to dissipate and everything becomes calm and serene once more.

-

A line scrawled across a page,
It's meaning lost ages ago.
A sentence stopped dead,
With words unsaid.
A painting full of color,
...Yet still lacking.
A song full of words,
But devoid of emotion.
A dusty camera,
With a burned out bulb.
A sculpture,
Missing it's final touches.
A poem that lies unwritten.
The things Artists suffer from,
The things that Artists strive for,
Are what makes an Artist stronger.

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Sandy Stokes:

Editor and Co-Publisher of La Conner Weekly News

the grass froze last night
sun sparkles in white crystals
crunching under shoes

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Danni Wilkins

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Starr Arens

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Candace Feingold,  with Kelly and Tara Gilkey

There once were two medium sized monsters named Zebo and Stonkerston. They were the outcasts in their home of Stronkstonville because they weren’t part of the Big or Small monster club. They were medium monsters. The leaders of the big and ...small monster club bullied poor Zebo and Stonkerston. It was sad. One day the MT&T started a contest for the monsters to create an advertisement for MT&T. The winner got a remodel of their school. The big and little monsters had ideas but nothing connected them. They wanted to create an ad to show the bars for the company. However, they had a medium sized problem; they didn’t have a medium bar. Just then they realized that they needed the medium monsters Zebo and Stonkerston. The Big and Littles went to Zebo and Stonkerston to ask them to help with the advertisement. Zebo and Stonkerston agreed to help only if the Big and Littles would stop bullying them. The Big and Littles agreed to stop and shook hands with each other. All of the monsters won the contest and Zebo and Stonkerston were never bullied again.

THE END

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And of course, my own work that I did between the time the event started and ended (even though it wasn't a Requirement).

Music Art

I've been doing some music-related art for some awesome people, primarily my roommate Rtist, and awesome Norwegian musician, Binärpilot.

Here is some of the artwork I've been doing for both of them, as well as some links to their stuff.

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Below is the base artwork for Rtist's "University on Fire" for the project he's called Soul Searching. Being his roommate, I'm constantly hearing the mixes and work that goes into it, so I'm a little biased, but I like it. I also get to work with someone on creating art. Doubleplus!

You can find the download site through this shortened link: http://dft.ba/-3Tz
For now this is a temporary link, and he hopes to allow the downloads on a more "stable" site. Being his roommate, I should have the replacement link before anyone notices it's down.

This was using GIMP once again, and my tablet. The lens flare was added the very last on my end, (on GIMP, if you can believe it), and I dig it a whole bunch.
Here's the version he put out with the song (which is downloaded with the song in the link above).

I also did an alternative version, which was more of my vision than my roommate's. If you prefer this version, then when you download the song you can grab this one and swap it out on iTunes. I think with all of the covers I'll do at least two versions, unless both of our visions are one.

I sketched out the emblem on GIMP, but then built the whole image in Inkscape.

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These are "bumper cards" for Binärpilot's music video of "Underground" off of his new album, Nordland. I've been pretty active about spreading the album, so I did a review for it, and he asked me to do artwork for him on the music video. Also, you can order a hardcopy of the album here.

First off, here's the video for the song:



And below is the artwork:

If you've seen some of my latest posts, especially this one, then you know I'm really into black-and-white graphics at the moment (while still dabbling with color).

Both of these were sketched and worked out in GIMP, and then touched up in Inkscape, especially the word and "record-ball" in Underground, and the screen on the monitor.

Have a great Sunday!

Art Sharing Challenge!

My birthday is coming up in the next few weeks, and people keep asking me what I want for my birthday. Honestly, a lot of things for this list, but one thing I thought would be really interesting is to ask a lot of people to draw/create something and put it out into the world.

So, I'm using my birthday as more leverage to get people to do something creative and share it with the world. it may sound narcissistic and selfish, but it's for the Greater Creative Community!

So, pick up your pencils, pens, paintbrushes, and any other instruments of Awesome, and create something. It can be a poem, a dance routine, video, sculpture, sketch, doodle, painting, etc. Anything! The emphasis is on Creating and Creativity!

Post a link to your creation here as a comment, or on the Facebook event (but please not both).

All submissions must be posted/linked by the end of November 21st (wherever you live), and sometime in the following week I will have a post (or a series of them) showcasing everyone's creativity!

Just remember that the response time to share the posts is directly related to the volume of said posts.

Go forth and Create, and spread the news!
The shortened link is: http://dft.ba/-ArtShare

Have an awesome end of week!