Lots of Updates

June has been a crazy month of lots of art (woohoo!).  The album art I created for The Grand St. Stompers is now available here. Take a moment and listen to the crazy talented Orleans-style swinging hot jazz band. My friend Brandon (who is also a talented musician AND multi-media artist) and I have been working on creating limited edition prints to be sent out very soon.


Working on my second fanart piece: The Dampiel and the Three Sisters while also figuring out livestreaming. Not much to see yet, but my livestreaming channel can be found at livestream.com/darksunrose. The first go around, I had a random movie playing and ridiculous Pandora music (with ads - gaah!) in the background (sorry about that!).

The first completed Fanart: Dark Side of the Moon (tribute piece to the Sailor Moon series), is up on my Deviantart account (along with a WIP that shows the progress of how it was created). THAT was pure pleasure in creating - rare time in which everything went smoothly.

And lastly (and what I am exited about) is a sketch showing my next art doll sculpture! Many years back I did a commission of a priestess. Her design stayed with me and now I'd like to revisit her and update the idea through sculpture:

~cheers~

Grand St. Stompers, part 2

Continuation of the album cover, working with color! I have times where I need to scrap color I've been working from and just start from the beginning.  Hard to do but necessary.

I am including this piece in Illustration Friday as the coloring has definitely been a "journey" as well as all grand adventures should include a train ride -cheers-

 

 

Frenchmen St. Parade

At last! I have received my copy the album I helped do the layout work for. -dance-

Check out the artwork done by Tim Trapolin, isn't it beautiful? Makes you want to dance with all the vibrant colors he used. And here is the page I love most (there is my name, yeah-ha!):

Feels pretty great to be part of a project where everything comes together and you get to see the final result of everyone's hardwork. And the MUSIC! If you haven't heard of the New Orleans Moonshiners  yet you can check out their facebook page here. You'll love 'em!

What was fun with this project was working with Tim's artwork and finding ways use it around different parts of the CD layout. To do so, I selected a few of the musicians and edited them into different positions to keep the consistency of the style flowing. Added a splash of color to match the original and presto! It's amazing what you can do with one art piece and how you can recreate it to make fun layouts.  Take a look inside:

 

~yay~

Grand St. Stompers

The end of March already? Time sure does fly. And I'll tell you I've been a busy bee. Much to share, many plans in the works,  and it's all a matter of kicking my butt and posting it now.

I'm in the middle of working on another album, this time for The Grand St. Stompers. Working with layout is an interesting back and forth process between working with a band's vision and melding it with your own artistic input. I try very hard to bring what they have in mind to light. Sometimes this means having to get over my own stubburness of direction, sometimes this means finding ways to work with my limitations of what I can draw - And boy, album works gets you to draw things and expand on content I never thought I'd draw. Happy that I have! Pushes me a lot and I need that.

Trains are pretty awesome, but it was certainly something I've never drawn before. Thankfully they provided reference pictures for me to work from  - an epic looking toy train. Not only did they want a train, but they showed me posters of Mucha and I KNEW I was going to have fun.  Panel time with whimsical lines.

Here is the evolution of where I started and where I am at now:

Layout version 1

Layout version 2

Layout version 3

Album Cover - sketches

LOVE this time of the year in California. The air is crisp,  the leaves are changing colors, AND you get to wear scarves! It's a feeling of change.

Been working on an album cover, creating many many sketches. These were the initial ideas for the font and back cover (not sure they will be used):