Album Cover Development #3 (Refining Concepts)

In this blog I will be further progressing in my album cover concepts.

I have recently discovered the possibility of using a theme of nature as part of the final album cover since Kate seems to have an etherial theme with her music, and a lot of her lyrics/songs reflect upon nature.

A lot of the songs found on the album 'Hounds of Love', contain themes of nature.
I will list them below.

• Hounds of love
• The Big Sky
• Cloudbusting
• And Dream of Sheep
• Under Ice
• Waking the Witch
• Hello Earth
• The Morning Fog

There is a lyric featured in the song, 'Hounds of Love', that involves Kate singing, 'It's coming for me through the trees'.
To me, trees are a big part of the theme in the song, and since the album is called 'Hounds of Love', it can be thought of as a big theme for the album.
The trees also seem to have a connection to fear, which I may look into.

I like the idea of experimenting with the use of natural forms, and I have done so in a few of my album concepts from a previous blog.

I have been doodling a lot of leaves, because over the past few days whilst listening to 'hounds of love', the lyric "coming for me though the trees",  has really stood out to me. 

I love drawing natural forms, so I thought it would be a possibility to have some element of natural forms as a part of my album cover.
Perhaps I could experiment with trees as they seem to have a strong meaning particularly in the song 'Hounds of love'.
I could maybe use leaves as a background, arranged into shapes, perhaps even for other illustrations or typography to be placed onto.

Raw pen doodles of various different leaves.

I think that it is a good idea that has a chance of working well, and this theme can be used on both the front, and the back designs, as I would prefer a matching design.

Since it is currently autumn, I have collected a few fallen leaves that I have came across, so I have them on hand for reference. I have also taken a few photos of leaves, trees and some other related natural forms. You can find these below.

Some leaves that I have collected to study.

I have also been looking at this book, as my cover has to consist of a contemporary design. I must stay inline with this, and not venture off course.

Here are some illustrations of plants and natural forms, in a contemporary fashion. These will pose very useful to me.

Love the colours and style.

I love this illustration, with its 'scratchy' style.

Kate refers to flowers in 'Waking the Witch', with the line "Red red roses, pinks and posies".

I am using this great book as a reference, keeping my work within the contemporary genre.

I have also thought about using the theme of paranoia, in particular the theme of being watched.
This theme is based on one of the lyrics in the song 'Hounds of Love', which I have mentioned several times. 

"It's coming for me through the trees".

I have been experimenting with this theme, by creating some concepts revolving around the theme of paranoia, usually tying in with the theme of natural forms.
This can be seen in a lot of my concepts.

I like the rough style of this doodle, it appears very contemporary which I really like.

I took inspiration with the line choice used on the eyes page, from the contemporary design above. I love this style a lot, and its a style that I enjoy working in.

Above is an illustration I created,  that came to me whilst working on my concepts, and also going back over my brainstorming book, as well as thinking about symbolism.

The contemporary design featured above combines a few of my concept ideas together using a assortment of different eyes arranged into the shape that resembles a leaf, looking at the viewer.
Due to the eyes already defining the edges, there is no need to add an outline to the leaf, as the shape can easily be made out.

I have had a few compliments off some classmates on this idea which has pleased me, and motivated me to perhaps take this idea further.

Above is a slightly manipulated version of the illustration that has been edited using Adobe Photoshop CC.
I tweaked the CYMK settings of the image.

I love the 'cool blue' tone of this concept trial, makes me think of the song 'Under Ice'.

I will be experimenting more with photoshop in the next stage of the album cover concept development.

Thomas.