As I have announced in a former post, I’m working on the sleeve design and illustration for the forthcoming CD release by experimental musician Kimara Sajn: “Life Stories”. So this is the first post of a series where I’m starting sharing with you my creativity journey to complete it. The album will be released in December and I expect to see the sleeve design finished during the fall. I hope you enjoy this journey with me!
First I have to say that I’ve been listening to some pre-mixes form the album and I feel really honored and excited to take part of this project. Such wonderful, inventive and creative music! It could be described like a sort of very personal vocal improvisational jazz rock with a strong childhood vibe and very very fun.
I’ve first started working in the album cover. My concept proposal is based on some of the images from the album’s lyrics, which feature the character of a little girl and an otter. For me, the most important was to capture the overall feeling from the music. It all has a lot to do with magic, nature, water, supernatural energies, and a little bit of mystery. I have to say that Kimara and wife B. Sue got the inspiration for this album in their grandkids, so the whole thing has a children oriented flavor.
For the final work, we have decided to work with a dark background and electric lights. when I did it I was thinking of the fabulous Black Light Theater from Prague, which I had the pleasure to see several times. I feel that this album has a similar surrealist feeling of magic electric objects floating in the dark.
Here are a few sketches that I’ve done for the otter. I wanted to capture the essence of the otter in a very childish way. Sometimes, when I’m not familiarized with an animal, I like to draw it quite a lot until I start getting into his personality features and then I slowly slide into a more simplified childish drawing.
Here are some other concepts that I did for the cover and we’ve discharged. They’re based on the iconic image of Dadaist poet Hugo Ball dressed up as a magician, which I’ve always loved. You may be asking ourselves why… Well, all the works from Kimara and B. Sue have a strong Dadaist component and I thought I could introduce this character. It’s possible that we still use it for the inner sleeve of the album, it’s something that we will have to decide.
We’ll see what’s next thing to happen…
i love the ideas you’re coming up with. as usual, your animals are precious, and that coloring with back-lit illustrations is beautiful.
i really like the hugo ball image–i’m always fascinated by the “adult” mysterious characters you create–i hope it can be included,it has a great atmosphere, even in a sketched stage!
The otter faces are brilliant! I love the floaty, dreamy feeling with the jellyfish, the way they glow from the ocean-blue background. But I think my favorite thing is the warm, comforting feeling of the otter holding the wee little girl. Really lovely!
these are beautiful. I, too, love the little otter holding the little child. I love that there are no back legs, just a tail. The bottom left one is my favorite expression on the otter’s face. I look forward to more developments of this character.
–steven
Thank you all! The Hugo Ball image I think we’ll find a way to slip it somewhere, but probably something different than this.
Naomi and I love otters, it was a surprise for me to find out that the album had a song about one. A nice surprise!