Beneath the Fold (Acoustic) Process

I'm back to break down another illustration, this time the album art for the acoustic version of Beneath the Fold, in step with the release of the track over at the Dogs of Winter site. It's phenomenal in my humble opinion - as well as free - so do your ears a solid and go grab it!

I wanted this image to be more airy and illustrative, a bit of a departure from the rest of the artwork since the song has quite a different tone than the rest of the album. Here goes:

Step 1:



This is the first thumbnail I came up with. I tried some other things (it's always good to explore your options) but, as often happens, the first thing that comes to mind has the most potential.

Step 2:



I decided to tilt the viewpoint and changed the man to a bird, in order to work in the bird from the artwork from the original version, but making the tone of the illustration match the spare, atmospheric feel of the acoustic version.

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Step 3:



The final tonal sketch.

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Step 4:



I've cleaned up the drawing and started to work on the texture of the background, overlaying different values with a splatter brush I made in Photoshop.

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Step 5:



Next I fill in the solid shapes of the trees and shadows, keeping in mind the values in my tonal sketch.

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Step 6:



I give the trees some texture with the splatter brush, then mask off areas and add lighter values for the highlights.

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Step 7:



Finally, I add a little more atmospheric light to push the background back, and give it the same yellow cast as the rest of the images.

So that's that... now move it along to Dogs of Winter dot com for your free song!

From Soil to Shale process

Dogs of Winter are releasing an acoustic version of Beneath the Fold from their latest album From Soil to Shale next week... it's beautiful and haunting, and you can download it free from their website! Ryan asked me to do a process post to go with the release, so here's how I came up with the cover.

Step 1:

At the beginning of the project, Ryan gave me the 9 tracks to use as a guideline, plus the title From Soil to Shale. I used the title and the imagery it suggests as a base, keeping it in mind as I listened to the songs over and over, jotting down ideas as they came into my head. I came up with a few dozen thumbnails, which I edited down and sent the ones I was happiest with to Ryan. This one was the most iconic, and seemed to work best as the cover:



I imagined the top and bottom as 2 separate images that the viewer's mind would connect. The top image is straightforward, a gnarled tree, but where the ground would be is a separate image of shattered shale, in which the crack doubles as a visual representation of the roots.

Step 2:



Loose tonal structure to see how the composition would work.

Step 3:



Here's a preliminary version of the final image. Tonally it's working, but the linework isn't there yet.

Step 4:



More detail added to the crack, the bottom is finished. For the top half I did the final tree drawing in pencil, scanned and overlayed it on a neutral background.

Step 5:



Shading added to the tree in Photoshop

Step 6:



Different values are layered in the background of the top image using a large spatter brush in Photoshop. I used this brush throughout the series as a unifying element.

Step 7:



In the final step, I added a slight yellowish cast to the image.