Building a Room

I showed off a piece of art I was working on last week for a band in Ireland. Part of the deal I made for the Angels and Airwaves merchandise in exchange for the Star Wars pin-up also included me helping them out with the art for their first EP album. I already liked the band a lot and had done some work for them before so I was happy to help out.

The idea the band had for the cover of the album, called "Seven Signs You're a Superhero," was to have a girl in a sweatshirt, zipping it up over a t-shirt with the band's Superman like logo on her chest. No problem. I did that art last week and will show you the colored version here soon.

The next thing they wanted was to have her in her bedroom. They wanted a slightly messy room, filled with posters, music gear, and all sorts of stuff. Now, that sounded like a lot of stuff to draw and a lot of work for a few pieces of band merchandise. So I thought about creative ways around me actually having to draw the room. It would simply take too much time. I needed something quick. I needed a ready made room, something I could photograph and turn into art for the background.

Luckily, I have a room just like the one they wanted right in my house.

I moved some stuff around, took out the keyboards that usually line one wall of the room (there are no piano parts in the band's songs so I was asked to take the keyboards out) and made the room just a touch messy. I took a series of photos as I stood at one point in the room and pivoted around, shooting photos from various angles. I then took those photos and sticthed them together in Photoshop.

After a bit of messing around with various filters I filled in some grays, added some textures and, voila, instant art of a messy bedroom with music gear in it.

I'm pretty sure, once I get all the lyrics, copyright info, and liner notes the band wants to put on the EP cover that the background itself will actually be a colored line to make it easier for the type to stand out. But, for now, here it is in glorious black and white.

Of course, once the band saw the room, even though they loved it, they had one more request.

Now the members of the band wanted to be in the room themselves.

Break out the Photoshop. It's time to go back to work.

Have a great day.