Letter No. 45 [making album cover art]
Dear Friend,
It’s month two in the challenge, and this is how I made the cover art for my single, “Watch Over You.”
This song is about caring for one another and being there for each other during these hard times (or any time), so I wanted the cover art to convey that, and to tell a story, if I could get it to do that much.
Creating the Art:
I started by making some sketches in my art book. I keep this book for all of the drawing ideas I have—they might be weird, a lot of them are ugly—but no one really sees them except me (so I’m used to it).
I started with some drawings of squares and really liked them, but then I did a one-line drawing that I really REALLY liked, so I stuck with that one. First I created it with an ink pen, and then I filled it in with gouache paint.
Digitalizing the Art:
Next, I scanned the painting in at 300 dpi. Dpi stands for “dots per inch” and the amount dictates how clear the image will be when it’s digitalized. 300 dpi is pretty standard for a lot of artists.
Then I went into Photoshop and made a blank, square canvas. I pulled up the scanned art, and I used the lasso tool to select the painting part. Then I pulled that part onto the blank canvas and started editing it.
I brightened the colors and started experimenting with different looks. On a whim, I hit the “invert” button and loved how it looked, so I kept it.
I added the title (trying to choose a color and font that went with my brand and the feel of the song) and my name, and I was almost done!
This is the final cover art. It’s funny looking at it now, but I see all of the mistakes. There are a few things I would change if I went back, but I’ll learn from them and incorporate them into my next album cover art. :)
Finalizing the Art:
I saved the art in two forms:
the original scan
the final cover art (JPEG)
I like to keep all of my album cover art in a folder so they stay organized and I know exactly where they are when I need them for other reasons (like if I’m adding the song to SoundCloud or BandCamp).
On a fun side note, I posted several process videos of me creating this piece, and someone saw the original and wanted to buy it for their office, so I shipped that off last week, even before my single has come out!
She wanted a third piece to finish a collection she had started!
And that was everything I did! I know everyone doesn’t like making their own cover art, but for me, I love to be creative from this new angle, and it makes me a little tingly inside with happiness that I get to complete a project start to finish.
P.S. If you’re releasing your own music, you have to have your cover art finished before you put your song on distribution platforms (at least I’ve found that in my experience), so I would have it ready as soon as possible or have it scheduled into your timeline to be finished about the time your song is done being mastered.
If you want to hear the song, it’s going to be released February 12th (the pre-save date is February 5th!)
Thanks for coming along with me—I love sharing about this kind of stuff,
Tara