It's been a bit quiet round here, so I thought I'd show you some of the process behind the cover of Mamba No 5. It's not overly thorough but a little walkthrough of what went down. Ready? Here goes...
I had a bit of an idea of what I thought would work. I sketched a few thumbnails out (since lost in my house moving), and then made a few mock-ups using some new and old drawings I had lying around. I thinned out 3 options and sent them through to young Andy:
The above was my favourite. I 'doodled' it out in Illustrator. Supposed to look like a dude with his head open, worms coming out and chowing his neck/body! Rad!
This was a drawing I did a long time ago. I had it lying around and always wanted to do something with it. Check the hate, man!
This lady was part of a drawing I had up here not too long ago. I liked this layout quite a bit as well. And no, Andy, she's not puking!
Andy was digging the middle option, and it was starting to grow on me too. Direct and intriguing, right? Anyway, I drew a few more sketches - cleaning up the lines and then traced over that using my trusty nib pen, india ink and draughting vellum.
My idea was to have the face perfectly symmetrical. I thought it might be quite strong graphically. Or maybe I was too damned lazy to draw the whole face. You'll never know!
(Above) I scanned the linework in and cleaned it up all nicely in Photoshop. Lined up the two halves and start laying down some flat colour. Getting a bit abstract here..
(Above) I know, I'll add some orange and pink, and fill in the eyes so long... Nah, still not feeling this. At this point I'm thinking about all that beer in the fridge.
(Above) Getting upppity, I chuck out all the shading and lay down the law (flat orange). Add a gradient in from top and bottom, some skulls and stuff and suddenly it's looking OK. Ok?
(Above) It still needs a bit more punch. How about just a little shadow? Hmm.. I need to have a coffee and mull it over.
Ok, alright, I think it's working. Let's check it out in layout...
Should I go with a font or with handwritten type? That blue is kind of cool, but we're not there yet.
Andy's feeling the white option, and with the cover lines it all somehow looks OK. I added a halftone pattern vibe to the final version, which creates a little more depth.
Cool. About those beers....?
What do you think?
I had a bit of an idea of what I thought would work. I sketched a few thumbnails out (since lost in my house moving), and then made a few mock-ups using some new and old drawings I had lying around. I thinned out 3 options and sent them through to young Andy:
The above was my favourite. I 'doodled' it out in Illustrator. Supposed to look like a dude with his head open, worms coming out and chowing his neck/body! Rad!
This was a drawing I did a long time ago. I had it lying around and always wanted to do something with it. Check the hate, man!
This lady was part of a drawing I had up here not too long ago. I liked this layout quite a bit as well. And no, Andy, she's not puking!
Andy was digging the middle option, and it was starting to grow on me too. Direct and intriguing, right? Anyway, I drew a few more sketches - cleaning up the lines and then traced over that using my trusty nib pen, india ink and draughting vellum.
My idea was to have the face perfectly symmetrical. I thought it might be quite strong graphically. Or maybe I was too damned lazy to draw the whole face. You'll never know!
(Above) I scanned the linework in and cleaned it up all nicely in Photoshop. Lined up the two halves and start laying down some flat colour. Getting a bit abstract here..
(Above) I know, I'll add some orange and pink, and fill in the eyes so long... Nah, still not feeling this. At this point I'm thinking about all that beer in the fridge.
(Above) Getting upppity, I chuck out all the shading and lay down the law (flat orange). Add a gradient in from top and bottom, some skulls and stuff and suddenly it's looking OK. Ok?
(Above) It still needs a bit more punch. How about just a little shadow? Hmm.. I need to have a coffee and mull it over.
Ok, alright, I think it's working. Let's check it out in layout...
Should I go with a font or with handwritten type? That blue is kind of cool, but we're not there yet.
Andy's feeling the white option, and with the cover lines it all somehow looks OK. I added a halftone pattern vibe to the final version, which creates a little more depth.
Cool. About those beers....?
What do you think?
posted by Jason at 1:50 AM
2 Comments:
Great. More nightmares.
MAMBA5.JPG I dig. My only only crit is that the nose is a bit squonk to the right. And the little point inbetween his nostrils is a bit too pointy for my liking. Maybe just to beef up the left nostril a bit to flesh it out a bit more. I think that's all it needs. And put the nose bridge a bit straighter on his mug. The eyes and the gums and teeth are great. Nice one, brutha. These guys come from the 7th layer of Hell. You can tell by their skin.
(Maybe a little speech bubble from him tuning 'What, me worry?' Jokes)
nice one, jason. stops me in my tracks...and then i run away screaming "RUN AWAAAAY!!!"
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