I was recently hired by Twin Cities-based musician, Al Subola, to create a CD cover for his band The Bad Companions (formerly Al's Rockabilly Trio or Quartet -- depending). I was given several possible scenarios and went with this clueless couple driving their hot rod off a cliff. Below is the first draft black and white line art for the piece. The car is based on a photo I took at a Twin Cities car show -- cartooned up a bit for the illustration. The rockabilly couple is straight out of my head. This was drawn using the inking tools in Manga Studio -- all digital.
Here it is with color and copy. I had initially thought I'd do retro "big dot" comic book color -- but tried it and felt it didn't look as good as this version. I did keep the "tanned newsprint" background from that version -- lending it a bit of a vintage/aged look -- there's no pure white here at all. I was quite pleased with this -- but Al pointed out (rightly) that it could be seen as the car flying, rather than hurtling off the cliff. He also felt the warm colors were bit too cheery. So, some changes were made.
A darker background color, the car pointed down and a revised background made for this approved version. The copy may still change, as the band may be supplying a new logo -- so if there are additional changes, I'll post those here when done -- along with ordering info for the CD -- as it'll be well worth getting -- even if it didn't have my art on the cover!!! I thoroughly enjoyed this project and would love to do more like it.
1 comment:
Thanks for your outstanding work on this Terry. Cool as all get-out & done ahead of schedule!! I think some folks are buying it just for the art, hope they like the music just as much.
Best wishes,
Al Subola
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