Grotto - Album Cover

I played around with the idea of using the pyramids at Giza and a phoenix, but the design felt a bit too much like Katy Perry's Dark Horse video.

I liked the idea of contrasting manmade objects with the natural world. One of my album concepts was to put a series of escalators between clouds. I still like the idea, but didn't bring it through fruition.

I also thought about putting merry-go-round/circus tent/tops in orbit around the sun. Who wouldn't want to be a groupie for this band?

I struggled to think of 6+ images in one, but worked with the grotto concept until I felt it worked without feeling forced. 

Grotto - disturbance

I decided to design an album cover for a heavy metal band. Using more than six images requires filling the space and avoiding minimalism, so I felt as though the hyperbole of the design approach would most appropriately mirror the music of a band that is over-the-top itself - think jarring guitar riffs and big hair. I named the band grotto because of the hard consonant sounds of the guttural "g" and the double "t." I imagined my clients to be interested in promoting their fierce masculinity, so I used a roaring bear image with a gaping mouth. I set the image slightly to the right and raised so that the fangs, which I wanted to feature prominently, would fall according to the rule of thirds. I superimposed human eyes over the bear's sockets to create a discordant and disarming effect. It feels as though the bear is locking eyes with the viewer and challenging him/her. I created the illusion of depth by sliding a subway tunnel, shot in 1 pt. perspective,  into the bear's mouth. I liked the idea of creating light where the viewer anticipates shadow. To emphasize struggle and individuality, as well as to play with scale and contrast in shape and space, I merged a rock climber's silhouette along the bear's fang. The lower portion of the bear's mouth is fused with a photograph of rapids, more in scale with the rock climber and creating a natural landscape juxtaposed with the manmade subway tunnel. I wanted to add a unifying feeling to the piece, so I added a layer of an outer space background and added an ocean ripple effect. I also wrote the name of the band vertically along the left margin, using the eye-drop tool to match its hue to that of the fangs. I have never used photoshop before, so this project took me an inordinate amount of time. I loved discovering the background eraser tool and manipulating the opacity of the images. The online tutorials, while informative, are hard for me to watch, so I learned more from the process of creating the cover.  

There are some visible issues with the album cover. There is still a white line around the periphery of the silhouette. The edges of the human iris' should blend in better with the bear's face. I also lifted all of these images off the internet, so the piece doesn't feel as original as I'd like. I can't find the url for the waterfall picture. I foolishly didn't record them as I worked, so I had to look them all up again later.

Original Draft

In my new draft of the project, I started over and recomposed my image from the bottom up. I switched out the eyes and waterfall for different photos and I downloaded a new edgier looking font to fit with the heavy metal vibe. I played with the scale of the climber a bit and used some of the techniques suggested by the professor to select and incorporate images to try to increase the harmony of the overall image. I tried to select higher resolution photos, but I do like the slightly blurred effect of the bear's fur. Overall, I am less in love with my concept, but more skilled with some of the photoshop tools. I completed the second draft in about half the time of the first.

Revised Project

Works Cited

"A Silent Space." Serendip Studio. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 June 2014.

"Animals and Birds Pictures." » Brown Bear Open His Mouth. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 May 2014."Atlantic Avenue Subway Tunnel." , Brooklyn, New York. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 May 2014.

"Outer-space-stars." Left off the Tracks. N.p., n.d. Web. 28 May 2014.
Presse, Agence France. "Climber Dies Falling From Britain's Largest Mountain." Business Insider. Business Insider, Inc, 27 Jan. 2013. Web. 28 May 2014.

"River Rapids." - 1024 X 768. N.p., n.d. Web. 05 June 2014.

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