Black and White Boy- The Album Art Commission

Hi guys and gals,

I know I've been terribly inconsistent of late posting in my blog, but I felt that this was a perfect opportunity to make a new post!

I have been very busy of the last two months working on a few rather challenging, interesting and different commissions! The one I've just finished (and the one I'm blogging about today) is the album art for "Black and White Boy's" new album "Fragile". This was an amazing opportunity that came about after Andrew- the genius behind Black and White Boy- saw my chalkboard drawings in the Beanscene and thought my work had real potential for his album cover.

This was obvious very, very flattering and also such a great chance to try something completely different. It was also a chance to let my inner illustrator out to play, since I have quite an illustrative streak in my current style of work.

So to start with, when doing a commission it's always a good idea to draw up a creative contract. Nothing scary, no small print, just something simple and easy to understand for both client and artist. Cover the basics such as copyright, time scale to completion and payment. If you guys let me know I'll do a proper post on the ins and outs of creative contracts, but not in this post :P

After all the boring (but necessary) paperwork malarkey was done the first stage is to play about in the sketchbook! Something I love doing, and I always have a little sketchbook in my handbag! Here are some of the basic first ideas I had:

 You'll obviously notice I stuck to a similar sort of idea. This is because the client gives you a rough idea of what they are looking for, inspired by and think would look good. When you take it to sketchbook you have to work with both your own ideas and the clients to create a symbiosis of the two concepts.

These sketches were sent to Andrew and he loved them, then giving me further ideas and more refined criticism so that I could narrow the scope in development. The umbrella was particularly liked, as was the tea staining and so I pulled these two elements forward to the development stage.

The development stage

So the development stage was more refined, and I asked again what the client thought. He loved the vibe, thankfully I was pretty close to the mark, but he questioned whither the character could be a child rather than an adult.
Personally I have rarely drawn children, but I loved the concept! It worked well to truly hammer home the concept of a fragile, vulnerable character. And so I took my development and concept sketches and reworked one or two other options:

Option 1

Option 2 and Wild-Card Option 3

AND it was back to the sketchbook. Three options were given, two from the original idea, and one wild-card, because you never know!
Andrew was very quick to decide that he wanted option two and so the final piece began!

And here it is!

"Fragile" album art commission by Kimberly Hagen. Copyright 2013

The final piece is now finished and being picked up tomorrow. I am very proud of it, as it was such a fun, and different project! I particularly enjoyed being able to continue tea staining, which I loved doing for the group exhibition I was part of in May. 

Thank you Black and White Boy for the opportunity! For those of you who are curious to hear the music of this very talented gentleman clicky HERE. The website is full of great info so please do check it out! 

Thanks and keep checking to see if I've updated ;) 

Kim. XX

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