Instant album art 5

I am going to have to stop doing these! I have spent ages doing them now! This might be the last one I do for a while, but I have enjoyed making them none the less!



Right thats it for a while!

I'm going to cook dinner.
Michael

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Instant album art 4

Ok, this is a sickness!



Would this be more or less interesting if I included the original image aswell?

I need a shower!
Michael

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Instant album art 3

I have become obsessed with doing this! Meet number 3!



I wanted this one to feel a little abstract hip hop in style, kinda DJ Shadow or something to that effect? I don't know. The band name was M D Live Care, which is just incredible!

I think the best thing that has come from this has been learning about playing with text more and how to make it sit better.

Anyways, I should go to bed!
Michael

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Instant album art 2

I like doing these, it is an interesting challenge and it proves that you can stomp the cover of a CD in 45 minutes with a strong image and a clear vision! I know, I know, I spend way more time on things when I do them professionally as there is more concern to resolutions, visual representation....

So yeah, here is another.



With a band name like Crassispira Trimariana, it was great to have an image that involved stars, as it does sound like the name of a constellation!

Lie to Me is back on!
Michael

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Potential Shirt...

I wanted to do a design that one colour, simple and would be no problem to get printed in a hurry, so I did this, I have no idea if it will get used as I finished it and sent it with no consideration of whether or not it was going to be used!

It was my hope to make a design that would work as a dark colour on a light shirt and as a light colour on a dark shirt. Did I hit the mark?





and finally a better view of the artwork.



The band are on Bombed Out Records, hence the hand grenade. I hope they like it and it gets printed!

Right, back to work.
Michael

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Something different...

Another poster for The Croft, this was a weird one as I accidentally did something that would have been perfect for a venue I have never heard of! Strange really, it will have a great use elsewhere, so its no worries!

This poster was half looking at a tutorial and half doing my thing. I am trying to improve and do something different you see, it's called self improvement and I like it!

The headline band are called Dead to Me, so it seemed fairly obvious what I should do.



Any guesses what the tutorial was? We'll just say B Movie horror.

There is more to come.
Michael

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Instant album art 1

You know the drill, well if you don't where have you been? Random wiki, random quote, random flickr, piece it together, in an interesting fashion!

I had a lovely random photo, which was a great start!

My band name was, Juno Award, its an award to do with jazz, and my quote was "meet again in life".

I got lucky I guess.



Quite an easy task with the picture, it screamed arty indie, as did the name, so I did my thing to the photo to make it more interesting and then added the text. I think it went quite well!

Real work to do!
Michael

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Just about the biggest compliment...

I am fairly well tattooed as it happens, don't worry this is going somewhere, and the reason I get tattooed is to act as a positive reminder of great things from my life. Many of them are to do with my band and music experiences, but I have yet to get my own artwork done.

I have a band I played with's CD cover art on my arm, because I had an awesome weekend with them and we got to support Sick of it All, ok I have their cover art and a Sick of it All dragon...so I guess I can identify with what I have been getting at

I got sent this photo earlier.



And I must confess, my mind was blown! To get a message from a friend, who had my artwork tattooed on him, was a truly humbling gesture. Mike Borgia, I am with you for life now sucker!

With a thankful heart (for great friends), I bid you good night.
Michael

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Colouring stuff in....

AND not with crayons!

As I have mentioned (anyone who pays attention) my girlfriend is in a roller derby team, the team has 2 sub teams, The Merchants of Menance & The Bruise Birds, my other half is a Bird. (Great sentence)

There was some conversation, and someone sketched a logo, my girlfriend drew it up in Illustrator and she said she was going to colour it, but didn't get round to it, so I have spent an hour or two watching rubbish on BBC3 and colouring it.

Meet the outline:



Not bad, classic tattoo bird. So I did a stage one colour:



I wasn't sure if she wanted it shaded or not, I quite like it flat, but I thought I would shade it as well. Meet a shaded version:



Whilst shading it, I hit a few problems, I was torn between shading it in a light source style or a tattoo style. I went with a more tattoo style approach, as their were a few lines that didn't quite sit where I thought they should have been.

It was a strange experience to colour someone else's drawing, but not a bad one at all. In fact I rather enjoyed it!

Nearly time for bed...
Michael

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How do I class this?

I try to keep my tags well organised, I do, so anyone can see a specific aspect of what I do with ease, but 2 posts now that are tagless. Do I make one for 'hat' and 'magazine'? Who knows, there will be a few posts about this, so maybe I should give in on the magazine front...

I was put the challenge by Mike Borgia to make a magazine/booklet that was an alternative to releasing a CD. Great idea Mr. B! There were 5 songs and 5 artists/designers had generously offered/donated/create a piece for the magazine, it was my job to piece the whole thing together and make it look snazzy!

I have had to keep the files off my computer, because it is a massive folder, but I was sent a few pictures of the finished article the other day, which made me smile, so I thought I would share them with you.

















I am genuinely proud to have made that! I can't wait to get mine! A piece of mine that got reject a few years ago suited one of the songs so it is in there and it is tattooed on my left arm!

Night all.
Michael

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A response!

One of my friends passed comment that some of my posters were a little samey, I have no problem with this as it would seem I am developing a style of some description! I mean who knew?

But I can't take something that sounds like a challenge and not do anything about it! So I designed a poster that was a little different to my...what am I saying...it still looks like my work to me!



The awkward thing about this poster is that it couldn't be drastically different as it is for a release show for the artwork I have already completed!

Right, time to go...
Michael

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Press sheet...

What do you do when you need to get a van for free to transport a Virtua Fighter arcade cabinet? Offer to do someone in a band a favour in exchange for some design work! Yeah! You can't beat bartering! Ok, I DO NOT condone not paying for services, but it is ok when they are your friends!

I was given a photo, a blurb, logo and told to get it on one sheet of paper looking tidy.

I did this!



It's not rocket science, but it is purposeful clean design.

Mythbusters is on, so I am going to make the next post quick!

Sweet
Michael

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They Walk Among US Myspace

Christmas Present!

I haven't been able to post this as soon as I wanted, but it was a surprise for my girlfriend so I couldn't really post a picture of my girlfriend's surprise Christmas present in the public domain for all the world to see could I? Obviously not!

My girlfriend is in a roller derby team, and she had mentioned that she wanted to have trucker hats made for the team but they couldn't afford to get them made, so it just seemed logical didn't it! They are called the Tiger Bay Brawlers, and if you don't know Tiger Bay is a part of Cardiff that has been rebranded as Cardiff Bay, long and the long and the short of it is, its Cardiff dock area and was know as Tiger Bay for a long old time, oh, many moons ago, so I made something that looked old and shippy!

Artwork:



On the hat:



What the hell do I tag this as?

More posts a coming...
Michael

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A little different than usual

I saw someone screen printing onto old wallpaper recently, it was a cool effect! I don't have any wallpaper or any method of screen printing things, so I decided to cheat and make something that looked like it had been screen printed onto wall paper!



Again, its a poster for Dead Punk at The Croft, so I tried to keep it within the style they like, but mix it up a little.

Enjoy!
Michael

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