Planning my album cover

Planning an album cover

For my lesson next week, I will be making an album cover for a new artist that I have created. I wanted to make sure I had plenty of time to create something, so I had a go at it early. I decided to take the rolls of taking the photo, and being in the photo Aswell as editing it. After looking at quite a few album covers in the classic rock genre, I decided on a closeup of my face, which is important as the record studio would be trying to create a star image, and get the musician known to the public.

I was inspired by a photo of John Lennon, and one of George Harrison for this effect, and I think it creates a really cool atmosphere. I also wanted to do a makeup and hair look inspired by 1930's Hollywood starlets, to show the femininity of the artist.  

I wanted it to look a little dark and moody, so I turned all the lights off in my room and placed a lamp next to one side of my face, to create a half shadow. Then I just took a selfie with my phone, and to add to the tone, I put the image in black and white, which I think made it look a little vintage and dramatic.

I added some shadows and highlights to make the dark parts darker and the light parts lighter. I really loved how this turned out but after cropping it to the right size, I felt it was a little simple and was missing something. I decided on adding a kaleidoscope effect on an app called Crystaliq, which I thought looked pretty cool. Then I put on another more warmed tone vintage filter, and the title at the bottom, just to see what it would look like all together.  

However, I'm not complety thrilled with the end result as I think it's a little dull and doesn't get across much about the artist or the genre. Next time I'll probably keep the idea of a close up image, but make it more colourful and expressive.