Scandinavian folk tales

As Agnes Obel said that she likes to focus on the sound of her music rather than the lyrics i decided not to create a lyric based illustration and instead decided to focus on Scandinavian folk tales especially ones from Denmark as it fits in with Obels influences and heritage as she comes from Denmark.  

I decided to do some research into a few tales to get some ideas to base my illustrations off. Here are some stories that I found and my thoughts about them. 

Illustration By John Bauer 

Tales of Cats 

There was a man in Jutland who had made a good deal of money by improper means. When he died he left his property equally among his three sons. The youngest, when he got his share, thought to himself—

"What comes with sin goes with sorrow," and he resolved to submit his money to the water-ordeal, thinking that the ill-got money would sink to the bottom, and what was honestly acquired swim on the top. He accordingly cast all his money into the water, and only one solitary farthing swam. With this he bought a cat, and he went to sea and visited foreign parts. At length he chanced to come to a place where the people were sadly plagued by an enormous number of rats and mice, and as his cat had had kittens by this time, he acquired great wealth by selling them. So he came home to Jutland, and built himself a house, which he called Katholm.

(story found on 

http://www.worldoftales.com/European_folktales/Scandinavian_folktale_3.html)

I really like this story as it is quite light hearted and happy plus i just really like cats. I think it would also fit in with the vibe of the album as it is really calm and relaxing and I always associate cats with being calm, elegant and relaxing.

The hill-man invited to the christening 

The hill-people are excessively frightened during thunder. When, therefore, they see bad weather coming on, they lose no time in getting to the shelter of their hills. This terror is also the cause of their not being able to endure the beating of a drum. They take it to be the rolling of thunder. It is, therefore, a good recipe for banishing them to beat a drum every day in the neighbourhood of their hills, for they immediately pack up, and depart to some quieter residence.

A farmer lived once in great friendship and concord with a hill-man, whose hill was in his lands. One time when his wife was about to have a child, it gave him great perplexity to think that he could not well avoid inviting the hill-man to the christening, which might, not improbably, bring him into ill repute with the priest and the other people of the village. He was going about pondering deeply, but in vain, how he might get out of this dilemma, when it came into his head to ask the advice of the boy that kept his pigs, who had a great head-piece, and had often helped him before. The pig-boy instantly undertook to arrange the matter with the hill-man in such a manner that he should not only stay away without being offended, but, moreover, give a good christening present.

Accordingly, when it was night, he took a sack on his shoulder, went to the hill-man's hill, knocked, and was admitted. He delivered his message, gave his master's compliments, and requested the honour of his company at the christening. The hill-man thanked him, and said—

"I think it is but right I should give you a christening present."

With these words he opened his money-chests, bidding the boy hold up his sack while he poured money into it.

"Is there enough now?" said he, when he had put a good quantity into it.

"Many give more, few give less," replied the boy.

The hill-man once more fell to filling the sack, and again asked—

"Is there enough now?"

The boy lifted the sack a little off the ground to see if he was able to carry any more, and then answered—

"It is about what most people give."

Upon this the hill-man emptied the whole chest into the bag, and once more asked—

"Is there enough now?"

The guardian of the pigs now saw that there was as much in the sack as he would be able to carry, so he answered—

"No one gives more, most people give less."

"Come now," said the hill-man, "let us hear who else is to be at the christening."

"Ah," said the boy, "we are to have a great many strangers and great people. First and foremost, we are to have three priests and a bishop."

"Hem!" muttered the hill-man; "however, those gentlemen usually look only after the eating and drinking; they will never take any notice of me. Well, who else?"

"Then we have asked St. Peter and St. Paul."

"Hem! hem! However, there will be a bye-place for me behind the stove. Well, and what then?"

"Then Our Lady herself is coming."

"Hem! hem! hem! However, guests of such high rank come late and go away early. But tell me, my lad, what sort of music is it you are to have?"

"Music," said the boy, "why, we are to have drums."

"Drums!" repeated the troll, quite terrified. "No, no! Thank you. I shall stay at home in that case. Give my best respects to your master, and I thank him for the invitation, but I cannot come. I did but once go out to take a little walk, and some people began to beat a drum. I hurried home, and was but just got to my door when they flung the drum-stick after me, and broke one of my shins. I have been lame of that leg ever since, and I shall take good care in future to avoid that sort of music."

So saying he helped the boy to put the sack on his back, once more charging him to present his best respects to his master.

(Story found on 

http://www.worldoftales.com/European_folktales/Scandinavian_folktale_5.html)

I think this story is really nice and i think the idea of the people living in the hills gives me a nice idea for an image of the peoples homes in pods  underneath the hills. This concept would also fit in with the name of the album as Aventine is a hill that rome was built on. 

I think that both of these stories give me good but very different ideas for imagery so the next step for me is to probably draw some initial idea sketches based on my ideas and see how they work out, then go from there.  

Editorial Research: Company Magazine

As we have been asked to create an editorial piece as well as the album cover I decided to do some research into editorial illustrations to get some ideas of what I can do in the future. When i thought about editorial illustrations immediately thought of company magazine as they often include illustrations and hand drawn typography with their articles. I really love the look of Company magazines as they are designed a lot nicer than a lot of other fashion magazines, they are more fin and interesting to look at. 

Looking at the illustrations throughout company magazines pages it is clear that they are often fashion and beauty related and they all have a similar aesthetic to them to fit in with the magazines look. An artist called 'Mydeadpony' creates a lot of editorial style illustrations that are very modern and use a mixed range of media. He created a piece for Company magazine that included a girl and around the girl was drawings of things that link to the article that the image would go with. I like the idea of using the little drawings around the girl because it gives you an insight into what the article is about rather than having to guess. I also really like the round composition of the image I think it works well and gives contrast to the blocky columns of text on the opposite page. I have included an image of this illustration as it would have been sent in to the magazine and also how it looks with the finished article. 

Company magazine also include illustrations to demonstrate different make-up looks on their beauty page. I really like this idea because it is unique compared to a photo that might be in a normal magazine, I haven't seen this kind of thing done in any other magazine before but I prefer it. Natalie Lines is an illustrator from Birmingham that creates fashion illustrations that are often found in magazines. She created a make up page for Company magazine where she drew eye make up looks based off different fashion designers styles. I really like how she has kept the drawings pencil and just added hints of colour where needed, I think this really balances out the drawings. I think my favourite thing about this illustration is the subtle colour in the pupils of the eyes. The composition fits perfectly with the text and it flows really well. I think I would like to create an image with the same composition idea of just illustrating a little corner of the article as I think it draws the eye in a really good way. I also have included images of the original illustration as well as the finished page. 

Research: Folk album covers

As my concept for this module is based on folk tales I decided to look at some Folk album covers and see if I can relate it to my work in any way at all. 
A lot of the album covers that I have found feature the same recycled look CD case, this is the look that I hope to achieve with my CD case. Another main feature that I have noticed is a lot of them include pencil drawings and very rich colours, they look slightly DIY. I love the effect that they have they look very warm and nostalgic, a bit like what folk music itself represents. I hope to create an album cover that evokes the same feelings as these folk albums because I feel like they are very interesting and pretty to look at. Overall I feel as though they link to my work very well and I would like to create something like these. Here are the ones that I think work best.

Aventine

I conducted some research on the album name to find out the meaning of it, what i found out was very interesting. I Found out that Aventine is actually the name of one of the seven hills that Rome was built on. This Hill has a lot of Roman mythology linked to it this is the story that is linked to Aventine: 
The Aventine was a significant site in Roman mythology. In Virgil's Aeneid, a cave on the Aventine's rocky slope next the river is home to the monstrous Cacus, killed by Hercules for stealing Geryon's cattle. In Rome's founding myth, the divinely fathered twins Romulus and Remus hold a contest of augury, whose outcome determines the right to found, name and lead a new city, and to determine its site. In most versions of the story, Remus sets up his augural tent on the Aventine; Romulus sets his up on the Palatine. ^{(i found the above story on wikipedia i tried to use the original sources but unfortunately none of the web pages were English so i am going to have to trust wikipedia just this once.)} 

Aventine Hill

Im not sure yet if i will use this information to create my album cover concept but it is really interesting and gives me more to think about. 

More CD packaging ideas

I wanted to gather more ideas about how i could package my CD so i decided to collect a few different images and put them in a post so i can look back and see what ideas that i like. Here are some of the most interesting ones that i found. 

CD Cover by Hannah Leonard.

CD Case by Lauren Harvill 

CD Design research

There are so many things that can be done with a cd case so I decided to do some research on some really interesting CD case designs as I would like to create something a bit unique if it is possible. 

The case below is very pretty and when opened it has 2 different compartments for booklets and extra things that are included with the album I really like the amount of space that this case has for illustrations. This would be great if I wanted to create extra content to include with the cd.

The case below is very simple as it is just two pieces of card put together and sown around the edges. Although this design is undoubtedly simple i really like it as i think the seams are a lovely effective little detail. this album cover wouldn't be too good if i wanted to include a booklet but if I decided against the idea of a booklet I would definitely consider this option. 

This house shaped album casing is an absolutely bizarre idea for a CD case and iv'e seen nothing like it before. I love this idea but i think its a bit over the top and decadent, although it would definitely make me want to go and buy the album if I liked the artist rather than downloading the music. I think if this idea fit the concept of an illustration it would be amazing to create an idea similar to this although I don't think I will be.   

These are just of the few of the many things that can be done with the packaging of a CD when I create my CD cover I will think about all of the different things that I can do to make the case more interesting so someone would be more likely to buy it, because that is an important factor within the music industry at the moment. 

CD or Vinyl?

In the brief it states that we can either design a CD cover or a vinyl cover so i have decided to weigh up my options before making a decision by collection information on both of these options.

Vinyl

With the option of Vinyl there is a considerable amount of blank space to fill compared to CD so I would have to consider how big I would like my illustration to. I would also have to consider if I wanted  my cover to have any holes or slots cut out of the middle which a few vinyl covers do have to show off the art work that is on the actual record. Looking at the dimension diagram of a record cover I would have to remember to include  the tabs to assemble the record cover together so it would function correctly. The last thing that I can think of that might raise a problem is creating the physical product, as vinyl covers are quite large and the printing might be quite hard if I couldn't find somewhere with a printer large enough to print the cover. 

Tubelord Single vinyl Covers Artwork, by Jack Teagle

CD

When thinking about creating a CD there is lots of things to consider for example the small size because you couldn't put something too detailed on a small CD cover because the smaller details would get lost in the image. There is also the spine of the CD case to remember because vinyl does not have this but Cd's have a spine that usually has the artists name and the record label printed on to it and it will occasionally have a tiny piece of art on it that links to the front cover. I think that CD's are are also a lot more versatile than vinyl covers as a lot more can be done with them, for example you could create a cardboard wrap around protector for your CD. You could also include a booklet with the CD case. 

Overall I feel like there is a lot more that you could do with a CD case to make it a lot more interesting and visually more exiting than a vinyl case so I am going to decide on the option of creating a CD case. 

Illustrated Album cover research

As I was a bit worried about how I was going to illustrate an album cover I decided to have a look at and evaluate different illustrated album covers have been done in the past. I selected a few different styles of covers to get an idea of what I liked more and what I didn't really like to help me work out how I would like to approach this brief. 

1. Keanes "Under the Iron Sea" (by Sanna Annukka)

This album cover was created by an illustrator named Sanna Annukka who also created a vinyl version and a book to go alongside the album. The theme of the album art was to create an underlying narrative, this is revealed as the booklet that comes with the CD is unfolded, and within the book that the band also released.
  
Keane's album Under the Iron Sea has a really bold eye catching cover, I really love the colours and composition as they work so well together. The simplicity of this cover is probably what draws me most to it because it makes me want to look closer to workout what is happening amongst the shapes. Another thing that I really like about the album is the fact that you get a pull out booklet that unfolds to reveal more beautiful art work. I love it when music comes with things like that because it makes it feel like you are getting a lot for your money, it also makes the album feel more special as it has something extra. I think ideas such as this will make the album sell more because at the moment people don't often go to shops to perchance an album because tit is so easy to just download the music from the internet. 

2. Architecture in Helsinki "Places like this" (By Will Sweeney)

This album cover was created for use as the CD and the vinyl cover, the illustration was also used on a picture disk vinyl. It was created by Will Sweeney in 2007, Sweeney has also illustrated album and vinyl covers for many other bands throughout the years. 

I decided to look at this album cover because unfortunately i'm not too fond of it and I wanted to make note of what I disliked about it so i know what to avoid when creating my album cover illustration. The main thing that dislike about this album cover is the simple fact that there is too much going on in it and I don't quite know where my eyes are drawn when I look at it. Along with the busy imagery the colours are also very bright which I thing brings more confusion and gives my eyes a bit of a head ache, although this might have been the intention of the cover its just not for me personally. The last thing that  I noticed when looking at this cover is that I couldn't easily make out what the title is and I think if you are going to include the title on the front of a cover it should be pretty clear so that the consumer will know if they are buying the right thing. Some albums don't have a title or band name on the front so i feel like this album could have got away with leaving the title off instead of creating a confusing, hard to read title. 

Looking at these two album covers it has became clear that they are very different and that album illustrations can vary greatly. I also have learned that a lot of the time the art usually fits in with the music that is on the album so I will have to greatly consider the album whilst creating the cover.  It has also became known to me what I would prefer to buy if I saw it in a shop based on the cover alone. Throughout my research I will keep looking at different illustrated album covers to help me with ideas and compositions. 

Agnes Obel- General Research

After deciding to create my work based off Agnes Obels album I decided to do some research into the singer to get more of a background and an idea about her and her music. I found a lot of useful information by just typing her name into google and seeing what came up, also the BBC music website that will helped me learn about her music career. This information will hopefully help me in the future with designing my illustrations. 

Agnes Obel is a Danish singer song writer that was born in Copenhagen. Her mother and father were very musical so she picked music up from an early age learning to play classical piano. She was very inspired by European folk tunes since a young age. Obel has also been inspired by many other influences from Edgar Allan Poe to Alfred Hitchcock. In an interview Obel commented that she 'likes Autumn the best.' This is interesting to me because when I first heard her music i thought of autumn leaves, I think her music gives off a very autumnal feel. 

Obel is a contemporary artist as she has only been on the music scene since 2009. Her first album entitled 'Philharmonics' was released in 2010 in Europe this album went on to a few different awards throughout the Scandinavian countries. Her second album 'Aventine' (the album that I will be creating artwork for) was released in 2013, the same year Obel played the I Tunes festival in London.   

Illustrated album cover research

I came across an illustrated album cover for foster the peoples album and when I researched into it, it seems that the same illustrators (young & sick illustration) do a lot if not all of their art work I think the bold black line work works really well against the bright white background. The yellow pop of colour that a lot of their album art features also makes the image really visually interesting. This is not the style of illustration that i'd like to do for my album cover, but the central composition that they seem to use a lot is something that I would like to do with my album cover. 
I think their more recent covers apply a bit more to my work as they use more colours and prettier imagery rather then simplistic line drawings they are more detailed and have a more interesting look to them.  

Level 5 introduction: Non-Narrative Illustration- Choosing an album

The first brief of second year is based on the topic of Non-Narrative Illustration and the task we have been given to do is to create an album cover, poster and some form of merchandise for an artist from a list we have been given.  

When I was presented with the first brief of second year I became slightly worried because I couldn't really imagine my illustrations fitting in with album covers. When I heard the album suggestions i became even more apprehensive because they were quite strange and a lot of them would not have suited me at all, For example I could never imagine illustrating an album cover for a rapper or an electronic group.  After listening to a few of the bands that I was interested in I began to think about what would work for my drawings, after a while I realised that it would be nice to work with a calm pretty sounding artist as I like my drawings to have a happy, calming feel to them. I looked at my list again and managed to narrow it down to two options, First Aid Kit and Agnes Obel. I gave these two a re listen to weigh up my options. I then decided to go with Agnes Obel as I liked how much music rather than singing that she had within her songs, it made the songs feel more beautiful and whimsical.  

Considering how worried I was about this brief when we first got it I have became a lot more comfortable with the idea of creating art linked with music because I think I have found an artist that could work well alongside my drawings and aesthetics.  

Agnes Obels current albums

I decided that as a starting point it would help me out if i looked at Agnes Obels existing album covers to get some idea of her current style and see how i could change and add my own style to it. One thing that I have noticed with her album covers is they all feature photographs of her face, this seems very typical for singers to feature a photo of themselves rather than bands which usually have artwork for their covers. Obel's newest album (the one I am illustrating for) features her profile with very ambient, creepy red lighting all the way around it. The cover doesn't even feature a name or any other writing so all focus is on her and the image, I feel as though these CD cases are very boring and lifeless. She also released a box set style package with her album release featuring the CD, Vinyl, a book of some sort and a few other things. 

I think I want to change the stereotype of featuring the artists face on the album cover and instead create an illustrated scene that includes aspects from the lyrics in her music and elements of the artists background and inspirations. What I want to create is very different to what the artist already has on her CD covers.

Summer Brief - Fib

For my summer brief i decided to create a collection of zine style images as i have been looking at a lot of zines over the summer and i really love the home made look that they have to them. To me it makes the images feel a lot more personal rather than a sterile look that a lot of books have. I created these images from ideas that i had and some of them are based off things that really happened in my summer break.