OUGD503 // Secret 7" // Laura Marling

After looking at the secret 7" on talenthouse and looking at the artists, there were two which i was interested in doing; Laura Marling and Nick Drake. I choose these two because i thought i would be able to create some artwork best for these songs and artist.

After listening to the Laura Marling song and looking at the lyrics the main part that stood out to me was:

"Instead I got the beast
And tonight he lies with me
Tonight he lies with me
Tonight he lies with me
And here comes to beast"

This gave me some idea on the imagery that i could create to represent the song.
- silhouette of a beast - 'Instead I got the beast'

- silhouette of a beast over looking a bed - 'Tonight he lies with me'

- small beast in the background with a big shadow forwards showing that it is coming in - 'And here comes to beast'

For the design of these vinyl covers i wanted to take on a illustrated imagery and collage style. Using certain imagery of things which represent ideas and building that up with textures, colours and scans etc to create artwork which has a context and explains an idea visually through the imagery involved in it.
I have researched in some artist with the kind of style i want this to look like.

DESIGNS
Initial ideas of how the artwork could work, obviously alot more work needs to go into these but some quick mock ups of the visuals towards the artwork and how it could be.

The beast being the main focus of the song and the first things to represent what it could be. Here i have positioned it to look like it is looking into something, like it would be overlooking a person or building or something. 

The artwork is simple but has a clear message. 

This is working in the idea of the the beast overlooking the bed that she lies in. 

'Tonight he lies with me'. 

Using the same imagery as above but adding in the bed. To make this more realistic the background of the artwork would need to look more like a room. But i dont think i really like this idea. 

With both of the artwork i don't like how the beast is looking into the design, i think this puts the audience in the wrong view and sort of secludes them out of it. If i have the beast facing outwards, it would then be presenting itself to the audience backing up the lyrics within the song - "And here comes to beast".

I think this as the artwork, works much better, it is now in the audiences view and they are more invited into the artwork to see it. The positioning of the beast with the shadow makes it look like it is coming out / towards you, which is the idea that i wanted it to have. 

Using this as the main image I will add to it with textures and colours and some other imagery to build the image up and make it ore contextualised have a bit more meaning to it. 

This is the final design for the Laura Marling artwork. 

From the image above i have continued to add more texture and colour into the background and give it a distorted look, highlighting the scraps and messiness to it as this is the sort of imagery i had when thinking of a beast. 

I didnt want to add anything more the basis of the beast imagery because i thought that it is pretty strong as it is, i wanted to keep it simple as there is no words or anything to be added to the artwork, it is to represent the song, so having the beast in its entirety shows the song is about the beast.