The List Album Cover

With a new entry in the Sages of Future Soul’s discography, I was asked to provide the artwork for another album cover. As a first for me, the concept of the original was expanded into a growing mythology that encompassed the music; that being the fictionalized characters and story behind the real life band,The Sages of Future Soul.

While once again being allowed a lot of freedom, I began my process by adapting the band leader’s rough outline into sketches. Upon being approved, the art was digitized and I began the process of digital painting. Of the sketch that was used, it was decided that a new background would work best to differentiate it from the previous entry. Thus a new background of ancient ruins was drawn in its place.

In contrast to the more cartoon style of the previous cover, I chose a more naturalistic shading style to render this scene. Additional layers were used to create a better depth of field effect (such as through fog and dramatic shading). A change to standard procedure was drawing the composition in a widescreen aspect ratio optimized for 4K. While the previous cover had to be painstakingly expanded to fill the screen, this new design ensured that a full composition existed from the start. For instances where a traditional square cover was needed, the design accommodates the sides being cropped into a square.

As a cover, most of the objects were in close proximity to create a very busy composition, however the figures are arranged in such a way to create a strong focal point in the center towards the floating scroll. The Sages on either side and the front, as well as the moon encircle the scroll. This is further emphasized by the subtle lighting and glow effects. While the statues on the side are directly on the thirds, they do not occupy more attention than needed due to the subdued lighting and lesser lens focus.