Album merchandise

I thought of what my merchandises would be for the album cover project, thought of making a flip book and a flashy poster. Taking some research how to make a flip book myself but not wanting to use sticky notes as they can easily come off and little space to draw them. So, what I intend to do for the alternative is draw this out on my sketchbook by one page after the other, scan them in and print out to make a flip book.

Down below you can see the plans how my owl will fly and makes its landing. More towards a cartoon style but in a good animation. As for the flashy paper I need to find something called a iridescent paper to do that but not entirely easy finding.

Album cover illustrations

Gathered some examples of illustrated album covers and explain some I listened and research into to get a better idea for my own project.

Nightwish: Nightwish have wrote their songs close to mythological and fantasy themes . Some were a tribute to J.R.R. Tolkien and Walt Disney. They have a female league singer to add emotions to the lyrics. Whenever I listen to their songs I picture things in my head for ideas I come up with and stories.

Not all their songs are based on fantasy, they also tell about history like the American Civil war from a soldier's perspective, for 10th Man Down and the situation of Native Americans in the 19th century for Creak Mary's Blood. Despite having a dark meaning in their albums, they also produce less serious songs including the bonus track.

Skillet: Skillet is one of my favourite bands for their mix styles of rock, christian rock music and symphonic metal but more towards alternative rock. Two of their songs have been illustrated: Rise, as it says on the cover where in the music tells about a girl rounding up a few kids to rise up against a faceless horde which restrains them of their freedom. Another in a song called Not Gonna Die with the same character facing off a hydra with the help of a lion.

AFI Buries: I found this illustration from the band for research and the cover is really bizarre and more like a dream-like state, but with more horror from what I can describe from the two beside the elephant were tusks coming out of one man's mouth and both having huge buck teeth like rodents, wearing robes, a skull for a head gear and leaf crown,

Disturbed: One of the favourite rock bands, Disturbed was originally called Brawl until they changed it's name in 1996. The band write their lyrics based on real life experiences, making their lyrics more cryptic to send messages to their fans. Another Way to Die for example explains the situations all around the world with wars, climate change and terrorism accruing daily. Land of Confusion talks about governments merely arguing each other not taking the big picture of what's happening to their countries and some nazi-like group tries to take over and revolution starts. Usually shows greedy and selfish politicians which we seem to have in real life.

Album cover illustration

I started finding some research on artists and music of the albums so that I would illustrate one of the selected albums after some research and album covers, what represents their style of music and how to build up ideas of my own to concept illustrated album covers. The artist I chosen for this task is Agnus Obel, a musician who is into classical and relaxing music and I thought could work for the project and make sure it relates to the musician.

I would probably start my research on her first and listen to her music and write down the lyrics. Her style of music is more towards classical when using the piano, violin and other sorts of anxiliary instruments used for the lyrics. So far my target audience would be more towards people who find it more relaxing or prefer the classic theme then other types of music like rock and rap for example. Agnus has a soothing, intense and also angelic voice clearly shows talent and not always trying to rise the voice level high like most singers would. I actually find them relaxing myself and see she is really good.

So far from my research, Agnes is influenced by a few artists such as Roy Orbison, Joni Mitchell, french composers Claude Debussy, Erik Satie and Maurice Ravel.

The lyrics I chose to listen would help give me ideas to illustrate the poster.

Aventine

Will you go ahead to the Aventine

In the holly red in the night

Dint under my show from the old at heart

Right under you, grinning in the dark

You carried my heart in the night

To bury the wave in the tide

You carried me onto the fields

There is a grave, there is a plot

Deep in the snow, breaking your heart

One step ahead, a thousand miles

A trail ablaze to the Aventine

You carried my heart in the night

To marry the wave with the tide

You carried me onto the fields

You carried my heart in the night

To bury the wave in the tide

You carried me onto the fields

Play it down, down, down...

Play it down, down, down...

What I thought of illustrating an album is make it more a view of the natural landscape, taken a look at some photos of the landscapes in Scandinavia. Wanting to have a river, few trees and mountains in the artwork, seeing as how Agnus' music is rather more soothing and relaxing, so that's what I am aiming for my project.

I strongly belief it should relate to some folklore and myths, so I was given suggestions of leaving the idea of an earthly based-colour for the landscape and do some experimentation with water colour, pencil and digital before I move on to the next step. It will be a digital portrait but I thought it be a good idea to see how some of my experiments turn out first.

Illustrations of New Genesis

So ok I have done some drawings for my project series I'm writing, slowly but not wanting to rush anything to make it a good one. So I did some rough sketches of creatures, characters and aliens for the series. Down below you would see some sketches I've made awhile ago.

 Left: So here on both pages are two alien races I came up for the later series, on the left is the tentacled alien being I named the Ta'al Vex, not wanting my aliens being naked like many classic sci fi series would unless they don't need to by their biology. I took thought of the Ta'al having a few tentacles and a humanoid torso with a triangular head, also given it two pairs of eyes.

On the right is the H'hindau (Pronounced: Ha-Hin-dau) are a large serpantine species, their faces would have a armoured face with six holes and hair growing from the heads and neck. I pictured it having six limbs also which I'm still working on for another drawing to make sure it looks right and able to move as its important to know how their bodies would move.

Above: Slit-mouth Kuchisake is one of the of my ideas for the series where she is some sort of alien assassin who can appear as a harmless and attractive woman and then turns into a deformed freak, she's clearly based on the slit mouth folklore and I thought that could work for this and give her a row of sharp teeth, lips crack further to the back the jar joints. Wanting to make her skin look stretch and almost turning into something else during her transformation.

Another race for the series would be one of the inhabitants of Earth, they are called the Djinn, clearly  a race evolved from dinosaurs who were originally moved to another planet before the comet hit the Earth 65 million years ago and one of the species evolved into what they would look in the sketch. They are more based on the common Reptilian myths living beneath the earth but in the New Genesis verse they are more advance with technology almost described as magic and have no interest in conquering humans. I pictured them having some form of culture similar to the Arabian fashion but with armour and have feathers in some parts of their bodies similar to human hair. 

I was doing some sketches and doodles, working out how one of the aliens I pictured to look advance and ancient but thought, maybe they would have organic looking bodies. I drew the side view of the creature, gave it some tentacles running down from the head and a crown-shaped crest protruding from the back of the head. Didn't want to give it a mouth but sort of a vertical mouth but they wouldn't be needed to speak since they would be telepathic most of the time. The two circles on the side were where it's arms would be located. I think it would need more work but the head looks good so far, just a bit more of a touch to work on the body.

Here is one of the type of species I am working called the Kronan Ree and wanted them to have the human/animal hybrid appearance and divided by groups from which tribes they are from; canines, arthropods, fish, bird, monkey and reptiles. They are more genetically diverse then humans and able to change between human and animal-like creatures. Not wanting them all to have a human appearance but more of a creature and have. The one above is one of these I was working on and thought how a human-insect hybrid would look like. Would still have the human 'mouth' but with some extra mandibles. 

New Genesis illustration: Votao Shen

So its been awhile since I last uploaded anything on my blog and been having a relaxing summer but been on the net just to look at some art work to get some ideas. Been building up ideas of my own for my New Genesis universe and thought, if I was to make a series full of aliens I need planets and maps where they are. So I decided to use what I learned from CCAD and put it to some use to make planet realistic as they can be then what I previously created in my Deviantart account.

The planet I created is called Votao Shen, fourth planet in the Finbiri system, Perseus Arm. Gave it an earth like atmopshere and slightly heavier gravity. Wanting to make the continents have rough edges even from an orbital view like Earth's continents.

Been drawing a few maps of the planets to get the idea, all I did was look at a few maps, either real or fictional to know what continents should have when making my own. I scanned the map and made a new line over the original, that way when I add the texture it would make things easier on the next step. Made some arrangements on the countries until I find the right places for them. Made a few small islands as it they can't all be large.

What I did next was to find a few textures, small, big or large but needed to cut some out and put each piece of texture until I'm satisfied. Once this was done I turned the colour using greyscale and then clone stamped the edges to blend the texture in together using whatever texture I thought would be useful but not too much otherwise there would be repeated patterns. Used some texturse for the ice caps but needed them to be snow.

Finally, I have my own planet with an ocean, green forests and deserts. Although not all perfect but wasn't expecting it to be. Had to do some final adjustment by making some of the countries a little bigger and make some shallow seas by the edges. Wanting to leave some textures about to give some mountainous feature but maybe do more here. So I hope you all like it and more to come!

Traci "Ulario" Vermeesch

Traci Vermeesch, also known by her nickname "Ulario" is a science fiction and fantasy artist who illustrates creatures, anthropomorphic characters, dragons and superheroes. She is also the creator of Azure Wheel universe. I find her art well coloured and well drawn, although I find most of the races she has drawn seem more from a fantasy verse but I don't want to judge even if some aliens could look like animals on earth or genetically engineered.

She clearly has thought out a lot of the series an can see a lot more to come. The series takes place in the distant future in another galaxy where in hundreds of thousands of years time, humanity would be extinct. Not just characters and creatures, but also star systems and planets that tell the information about them, along with the history, including references of the race, character and creature for readers to know about them which can be very useful.

http://ulario.deviantart.com

http://tracivermeesch.com

Wayne Barlow

Wayne Barlow is one of my favourite science fiction and fantasy author/illustrators as he took part in many projects like Hellboy, Avatar, Alien Planet, Babylon 5: Thirdspace, Harry Potter and other movies his work is recognised. I find his sketches really well drawn and the level of tone for the shading and his surreal view on fantasies such as his version of Hell. He also made novels God's Demon and The Heart of Hell. 


Worked on the details from his earlier sketches of creatures for projects, making them truly alien and monstrous to fit in with the world he creates for them. Much like the early designs of the Banshees and the Great Leonopteryx.