Whilst looking for examples of realism based album covers, I stumbled upon the band Birthcontrol. After doing a bit of investigating into the rest of their album covers I found a clear motif for the realism style. Pictured above are 3 of their album covers which all use the realism art style in a unique way.
Image 1, the cover for the album Plastic People.
This album features a long line of people coming off of what appears to be earth. Each of these individuals of which we can see are different. The first person has a clock for a face, the 2nd looks normal, the 3rd has his gas mask and further down the line is a religious figure. Perhaps the title "Plastic People" is reference to how when people take on a profession they become absorbed into it and that becomes what personifies them.
The realism style is clear from the face of the first character. The everyday item of a clock has been morphed into a person to create an image which doesn't show reality. Realism is also used in terms of the planet that the line of people are coming off. It could be Earth, but its not the Earth that we know. Instead it is a distorted perception of our reality.
The image of the band members coming out of the sand dunes has gone down the same route.
Abstract
After finding some examples of abstract album covers online, I wanted to investigate how I could go about making something of a similar nature.
To create an image such as this, I would have to draw the image first, and then manipulate after in photoshop to get the desired effect. However, I am not too good at drawing so I feel as if this style would limit my production.
This image was created through dropping ink into a bowl of water. I had a go at making a similar image using paint but the desired effect wasn't achieved. I liked this idea however, one of my group members is already using it so I can't really copy it. Which gave me the idea to create an abstract image similar to this one but by using a different technique that will give the image its own originality |
| The self titled album from Factory Floor |
With the bands name being "Tempesst" and a tempest being a violent storm, it would connote the chaos which is associated with the word.
Similarly to the above image, it would not be too difficult to create this image. However, that factor doesn't take away from the quality of the image. The colours here really highlight the psychedelic nature of the band tempest, and I feel as if the simplicity of the image helps create a professional finish. Not too much is going on, and sometimes that can take away from the image quality.
I found the above images on the Mirror80 blog. The blog focuses on the combination of retro ideas and styles with a modern twist to them. The first image, the sand pineapple, is an image that I really like. It isn't of a contemporary style and its really out there. I haven't seen any pieces like this before and I would like to create an image of a similar type and see how it could be incorporated into my print production. The image also has the flavours of surrealism thrown in as well with the image not being representative of anything realistic. There is a clear motif developing on how I would like my work to look. I want to use abstract ideas whilst maintaining a minimalist style.
The second image of the rock uses contrasting colours effectively to create a soothing image. I really like the colour schemes used here and am thinking of incorporating a contrasting colour scheme into my print production.
