Cover Art for an Indie Rock album

My roommate asked me to do some potential cover art for the re-issue of his latest album. The art for the original version was under negotiation withthe artists, and they wanted something to fall back on in case the original art work fell through. Here is what the original looked like:

Alex asked for a cover that featured a brightly-colored girl with a round, blank face staring back at the viewer, in the center of a white cover, with some script in black with the band name above. Ultimately, they were able to get the rights to the original art, so they're going with that.

Here is what I came up with nonetheless:

Animation! Sorta! :/

I have started working with animation a little bit. I'd like to move up to music videos at some point, but since I just downloaded Adobe After Effects a few hours ago and haven't started watching the tutorials really yet, this is all I have.

It's not even proper animation, or even a new image. I keep reusing images from earlier in the blog, which is a little sad and repetitive, but it was the most fully realized drawing I was willing to share at this point.

Still. Now I know I can do this.

Music by my roommate.

UPDATE: The YouTube embedding option doesn't seem to work too well with my blog. Which is weird, because Blogger and YouTube are both owned by Google.

"They said don't touch the idol!"

(click for larger)

I've been working on a splash page for either a mini-comic or a new opening to my comic submission. I'm undecided. Here is the incomplete drawing, still in need of some touching up and eventually a word bubble, with Martin saying "They said don't touch the idol!"

The color is a little janky because I switched it from CMYK to RGB, I think.

All-In

I'm doing touch-ups on work that I did a while ago, finishing up the first issue. At some point I decided to switch from empty dots to more normal eye representation. It's been an interesting transition from comic strip art to comic book art. I've also grown more aggressive with the coloring. To reference a post from months ago (but only a few posts ago), here is how things have changed.

Black & White, no pupils.

Color, no pupils.

Color, pupils, more shading.

I think it looks a lot better. It's hard to tell on the small images that Blogger lets me post. Anyway, I'm running around doing touch-ups now. I hope this thing gets done soon.

Easter Island

There's no story to accompany this cover art yet. I just really like the way it turned out. I kind of wanted it to look like the cover of a children's book, or a poster you'd see in a library.

coloring

I've started coloring now, and it's a bizarre process. Coloring is boring and tedious, and the main problem is that I know enough to know that I don't really know what I'm doing. I have a vague idea of what colors I want to use, and even less of an idea of how shadows work. So I muddle through at a pace of about two pages of coloring a day. I'd rather be writing or drawing.

Colors make a very real difference, mainly because I drew the comic with colors in mind. For example, here the heroes have entered an inn/tavern.

That looks alright, but as usual, it seems like I had trouble deciding on intriguing angles or a complex background design.

Looks pretty flat. But when you add the intended color, those lines in the background attain their true purpose.

When you pull back, the whole scene becomes richer.

The color really makes the scene, but it's a pain to put in there because I feel like someone else could do a better job. and do it more quickly.

Pacing Problems

I stepped away from the comic for a few days. When I came back I noticed a pacing problem. Things started out fine at four panels per page. Nice, relaxed, calm. Room to breath.

The last page I'd drawn before leaving, though?

That's nine panels. Yikes. Much too fast. Short, quick panels should be for comedic or action moments set around punchlines and impacts, not for the introduction of a major character. Part of the problem was that I was drawing at a size larger than the comic will be reproduced at, and I just forgot that this will all be smaller in the end.

I slowed the pace up in the following pages. I don't know how to fit the amount of story I want into the number of pages I am aiming for, but there's only one way to learn.

-10 pages penciled/inked