"Up Seems So Down" Album Cover- Part 2

 I worked on the album cover some more today.  I decided to change the font, so I took the words out for now and made the sky a darker red for more contrast with the moon.  I also added some trees to make the landscape more obvious. Pine trees have an obvious direction, almost like arrows, so I think they work best for this kind of alternate up idea.

 

Here it is after I played with some fonts on PhotoScape.  I love the double image.  

"Up Seems So Down" Album Cover

I started working on a painting for an album cover today.  Robb McCormick (aka Some Guy Named Robb) is releasing a new album in December called "Up Seems So Down".   I'm really excited about working on this.  The theme of the album is based on confusion.  The moon is mentioned in some of the lyrics so I wanted to use it on the cover.  The idea I had was to have the sun and moon swap positions in the sky.  Moon at dawn, sun at night.  Hopefully it will translate to canvas like I am picturing it!

Bordeaux Horse Fountain Painting

My husband got his own office a couple of weeks ago, so I thought I would make him a painting for the walls.  We took a trip together back in 2004 to Bordeaux and Paris, France.  There was an amazing statue in Bordeaux of horses/seacreatures.  I have always wanted to paint something from the photos we took.  So I figured this would be a good subject for his office, especially since he works for a French company.  And horses are much more manly than butterflies!

Here is the initial sketch with the background blocked in and details started.

And here it is with a bit more detail painted in.

I decided to change the angle of the legs.  The photo I am working from cut off the legs, so it is tricky getting the correct angle worked out from other photos.

I love how the hair is coming along.  I am going to change up the angle of the neck.  I think it is too narrow.  The head seems out of proportion somehow.  So I am going to fiddle with it some also.  And I am going to thicken up the leg muscles, they are really bulging in the statue photos.

I made some subtle changes.  Mostly in the face and legs.  I like it much better now.  I love the lines in the hair.  And the colors are looking good too.  I may add some washes of color here and there.  My 8 year old says it looks "really cool".  So far so good.

There are splashes of water in the photo and the fountain has water shooting out of the horse's nostrils.  I think I might add that after I finish.  I don't want it to detract from the finished look though.

 Here is the completed painting.  I added some rough patches with a palette knife to give it the aged metal look and deepened some of the shadows.  I also added splashes of white at the bottom to indicate water from the fountain.  I really like how it turned out.