CIARAN SHARP FILMAKING
Digital Media Production
In this project, we have to create a piece of digital media, such as an album cover. Due to this project coinciding with our music video production, I decided to work with the same artists we are producing a music video for.
Album Cover Analysis
Here I analysed 3 different album covers that appeal to me, seeing how they use different mediums like graphics and photography to create an eye-catching cover, I can break down the core concepts of these album covers and apply them to my design.
Design Rationale
Here is my design rationale, this helped me narrow down how I will draw my inspiration, I can use it to help inform me how different target audiences will respond to different graphic designs.
Mind Map
Shown below is my mindmap where I came up with possible inspiration for the album because the track we are working on is chill hip hop/ indie, I included those as elements in the mindmap and some common connotations like breakdancing and graffiti. From this, I think my strongest inspirations are graffiti, tarot cards and collages.
Mood Board
This is my mood board, I used album covers that I like and collected them onto one page, this is so I can draw inspiration from them and present my intended aesthetic. I tried to find album covers that use a mix of mediums and have good use of colour theory , a lot of overs I collected are rap albums as this applies to my chosen artist.
2 Idea Sketches
With this design concept I incorporated heavy use of digital art, after talking to the artists they expressed their wants for a witchy-fantasy aesthetic, so I worked up the courage to design a composition myself, incorporating styles of neo-tribalism and experimenting with contrasting colours and a clear side for each of the artists to help catch the viewers eye and keep each of the artist's styles separate.
With this idea sketch, I had the idea to combine photography with graffiti-like digital art, I planned to use photography from the bristol area, as this applies to where my artists live, graffiti is a big part of hip hop culture, as well as being prominent in bristol. For this reason, I thought this mix of mediums would be appealing to the artist's target audience, as it is connected to them living in the bristol area and incorporates parts of the city's culture.
3 Draft Designs
After choosing the first idea sketch I created, I produced 3 more draft designs, building on my idea sketch, experimenting with composition, colour and elements to include such as swords and tribal designs. Although some aspects of my design stayed the same, such as the composition of my two artists staying at the front. This is because my artists expressed their wants for a tarot card design, this is communicated in the white border included in each design.
Editing Process
Whilst creating my design in procreate, I utilized many layers, such as reference images, and sketches, which I could overlay on top of my layer and draw on top to reference things aspects like composition and basic outlines. The above shows how I built up my art, starting from basic outlines. filling them in and working to add detail to them, before finally adding my artists and title. After creating my basic composition I thought carefully about my use of colour, trying to use 2 different contrasting colours on either side of the image. I chose to draw the two artists in the centre of the foreground, originally I planned to use a photo of the two artists, after not being able to get my hands on one i decided a drawing of them would blend nicely with the aesthetic of the background.
Final Work
Evaluation
Overall, I think I excelled at this unit, as I enjoy digital art as a hobby. I found, working by myself, I could communicate with the artists easily. We established a general aesthetic they were aiming for and they were open to lots of my ideas, giving me a lot of creative control/ This was great as it allowed me to experiment with different influences, such as tarot cards, graffiti and Bristol. From that conversation, I created a mood board, that helped me narrow down my vision. I was able to incorporate my drawing styles into the final piece whilst also working within the guidelines my artists set. I wish I was able to experiment more with collages, something I feel would appeal to Bristol locals and make the album cover more appealing, this is something I will experiment with in my second draft. Planning for my second draft I think I need to declutter my art, it looks very messy around the artists and slightly confusing, I think this is because of the use of hectic composition which also contains lots of bright contrasting colours. To improve this I could either slightly change my composition, or slightly darken the background colours, to make the artists pop. I also need to add some shading to the artists, to make them look more realistic. However I could go the other way with the artist's design and make them look more like caricatures, this is something I will play around with and see which works best. One reoccurring problem I found within this and other units is a general lack of preparation, as stated earlier I had planned to use a photo of the two artists, which I had planned to take during my music video shoot. However, after getting wrapped up in shooting I have had to make do with a drawing of the two artists, where a photo of them would be preferable. Overall this unit has taught me when starting a unit I need to make a conscious effort to be plan ahead , to make sure I encounter less problems.
Reworked Final Design
