Music Project: Making Marks

Today, I created several pieces of work to music, making marks on the page. Our teacher put on a music playlist, and using pens, Indian ink and a paintbrush, I made marks and drew symbols for what the music and the beat naturally made me think of creating.

Using my pieces of work, I scanned them into Illustrator and experimented with colour and placement.

I edited my designs on Illustrator. As I began designing, I was immediately reminded of two existing album covers: Self Titled, 5 Seconds of Summer, and RIOT!, Paramore. The two albums feature sketchy, thick lines, which inspired me to begin by colouring a few marks in red, to create an effective colour pop.

Initial Designs

Digitised Designs

(inspired by 5 Seconds of Summer and RIOT!)

(Coming soon!)

Creating an Album Cover from My Designs

My next task was to design an album cover using elements my designs. I decided to create an album cover for an exsiting band, Set It Off, but a fictional album I called Red. Here’s what I created!

Evaluation

I am really happy with the outcome of this work. I was particularly pleased that, through trial, error and instinct, I was able to discover how to make a sticker effect for the foreground designs. I overlaid a semi-opaque white to black gradient on my designs, and added a dark blue background behind them. This made the stickers look shiny, and made them look as if they'd been stuck onto the album cover.

However, with the shadow I added, I noticed that all the shadows aren't in the same position; some were quite far backward, and some just about popped out from the designs. Hopefully, I can revisit this design and edit the shadow.

I will definitely revisit the methods used to create the album cover. Mark making to music, and the mediums we used, was altogether such a fun experience! I love the mix between analogue and digital design making. And, I will certainly use the sticker effect again!