END OF SUMMER
This week I've wrapped up a ton of artwork for Maine's own Outbreak, a band that I've been fortunate to work with a lot over the last few years. Early in the summer, Ryan from the band asked me if I'd be interested in doing the album art for the new LP, and I jumped at the chance, as that is what I'd been dreaming of ever since I started doing album art for bands. Outbreak has had a rich history of supporting up-and-coming illustrators in the hardcore community, from Sam V to Mike Bukowski to Florian and on and on. Basically I was really psyched. Since it took forever to put this cover together, I figured I'd stick a few process shots down below.
Here's the original rough draft. I drew it up with a ballpoint pen in the backroom of my job on my break. The plan was to show the ills of society, but without just ripping the Age of Quarrel censored cover or stepping on Florian's toes to much in regards to his recent, awesome art for Agoraphobic Nosebleed. Colorful chaos was the goal. I drew it section by section, making fixes as I went along.
Here are the finished inks. About 2 weeks of overnight work went into this.
The color was laid down on top of a gray layer, then filled in section by section. I'm new to "digital painting", so things are kind of rough in some areas but I'm happy that it all gels relatively well. In the final stages my 6 year old Dell was chugging pretty hard.
This will be hitting the shelves on CD (with a slipcase), LP (assorted colors) and, a first for both me and the band, a limited Picture Disc LP, which is pretty cool. Preorders launched at Think Fast! earlier today: http://www.webstore.thinkfastrecords.com/ This is also being distributed with aide from Trustkill and UMGD, so hopefully it'll be pretty easy to spot on store shelves (Hot Topic, local indie retailers, maybe even Best Buy...?)
THE RUNDOWN
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+ Ashlee bough me a pinhole camera kit, which we built together and shot a roll with. Very cool stuff.
+ Pygmy Lush's slow jams have been my summer soundtrack
+ Trying to get a comic zine thing rolling.
+ Doing push ups for the first time in my life.
+ Taco Bell dollar menu to counter-act the push ups.
+ Saw Suicide File with Ben, great time was had!
+ District 9 was pretty cool.
- Summer winding down
- New Brand New LP might be 65% shitty. Still deciding how I feel about it.
- Growing up still sucks. Going to be 26 in January. Fuck this shit.
Hurray!
~ Ryan