Calm Her

Every once in a while a strangely wonderful opportunity finds you; something you really want just sort of, falls into your hands. Earlier this spring, my friend Sonia Rao asked me if I would make an illustration for the cover of her upcoming album: Calm Her. In the beginning she sent me the demos of all of her songs and I sketched out my thoughts and ideas, my feelings about the music. And also what I thought would just make a visually assertive composition.

Thumbnails searching for visually striking compositions

More, broader-themed sketches

Sketches from 'Summer & Wine'

Sketches with varied themes

Sketches from 'Calm Her'

Sketches mostly inspired by 'She' but also the album itself as a whole

In the end this last concept was Both Sonia's and my favorite. I feel it succinctly illustrates the narrative of the album, and simultaneously my own views on creativity, talent, and success.

Finished photoshop sketch & value study

Creativity is a strange creature. It is fueled, to me at least, by profound experience. It is always some concoction of both exhilarating and tragic experience that motivates us to create. And this same energy that can lift us up and express our inner thoughts and dreams to the world can coil tightly around us and drag us down into dark silence. In the case of this piece I envisioned the female figure, be it represtentative of Sonia, the Artistic Spirit, or perhaps the Female Spirit, firing out from this darkness of obscurity, wreathed in the billowing coils of her own talents and creative energy, soaring high towards light, gasping a cathartic breath. The unfurling trail of motely-colored fabric is the fabric her dreams, hopes, and ideas heaving her up high into the air. I felt that it was a powerful idea, and it made for a visually striking composition. one that would also be easily interesting from far away or in small formats.

An earlier color scheme, eventually dropped in favor of more earth-tone scheme

    So, after refining the lines, and planning the actual layout of each sheet of fabric, I began to work in Illustrator.
Here is an mid-stage rendering, all of the basic shapes and tonality is there, but there are no fine-details. Also, the color is radically different. While ultimately we didn't stay with this direction, I still really like this one, the colors are weirder, more eccentric but they work. 

In addition to the cover art however; I also designed the disc label, and it matches too!

In the end, Sonia and I agreed that a more Earth-tone palette was more fitting of the album's aesthetic. So, After a few more weeks, the art was done, and we shipped off to the printers.

I'm really proud of how this one turned out, and it is really rewarding to hold the album in my hands,
and to see it on iTunes. It's also a bit of an honor to have my artwork affiliated to Sonia's work.

Final album artwork, three panels: unfolded.
(click to see it larger)

    It's a peculiar experience to know someone before they make it big. It was a privilege working on this project, and I deeply enjoyed it. The creative freedom I possessed on this project is something a commercial artist seldom gets to have and it was incredibly rewarding.

Sonia Rao's album, Calm her is currently available on iTunes! Give it a listen!