As a graphic designer, one of the things I’ve always wanted to work on was an album cover. Thankfully, I also happen to make music, which allowed me to work on my own album covers. This way, I can create the perfect visual representation of my music with ease. Today I would like to take you through the process behind the cover of my EP Le Duc.
Le Duc was an instrumental Hip-Hop EP that I released through Bandcamp in 2017. The beats on the release where the first ones I made using samples. This changed my way of making music for some time and still influences my process, depending on what I am working on.
Once I had the tracks and the tracklisting, I needed an artwork that would match my vibe and visual universe. I also wanted the artwork to reference the samples somehow, and one way to do that was to sample the artwork.
I sampled tracks from Miles Davis’ 1957 Miles Ahead album – released on Columbia records – and wanted to sample the original cover. Because my songs were a bit more rigid than the original material, I decided to create an illustrated version of the cover using solid colours and rectangles. However, that didn’t really work for the Miles Ahead artwork because of the lack of contrast and the minimal colour palette at my disposal.
(Miles Ahead)
I then decided to only reference Miles Davis and not the actual album I sampled. I went with E.S.P. My favourite Miles Davis album – released in 1965 on Columbia records. The photograph is more colourful and has a better composition, making the illustration a lot more interesting.
E.S.P (left) & Le Duc (right)
For this illustration, I worked in Photoshop and made sure that every colour was on a different layer. I then grouped all the colours to scale down the image in one go and add a background colour that fits well with the colour palette I have. Also, my canvas size is by default at 1600 px x 1600 px at 150 PPI. That way, I am sure that my artwork will look good on any device.
If you wish to listen to the whole thing, you can do so by clicking here and if you wish to see more posts like that one, let me know. I’ll be happy to share with you my process and how I’ve designed some of the covers I worked on.
The last time I wrote about making music, I mentioned how I started thanks to rap. I started making music on my mom’s Windows Pentium 4 computer in the early 2000s with a loop arranger called Hip-Hop EJay. I loved making beats. Sure all the loops were in the software and all I needed to do was pick and mix them to get the beat I wanted. Later on, I used FL Studio. FL is today’s number software for beatmaking and Trap producers. As much as I love that, I do not really enjoy making that type of beats. Sure, every once in a while I’ll make one for the laugh, but that’s pretty much it.
When it comes to beats, I really dig the Boom Bap isht. If you don’t know what Boom Bap is, think of it as what rap beats sounded like in the mid-’90s. A lot of low end, some swing and a lot of Jazz samples. That’s where I’m at. Jazz samples, knocking drums and horns. I even worked on a project with just horn samples that I named So Horny. I’ve never released it. There are a lot of things that I haven’t released. Yet, I enjoy making beats, even though it is not my main focus. However, things have changed.
Thanks to discussions with my colleagues at work, I felt the need to get back into making beats. So I did. That same night, I ended up making three beats with Cookin Soul’s Lo-Bap Life Vol.3 sound pack. I have to say that it was pretty inspiring working with that sample pack. The drums are good and so are the chops and vocals. Plus it has some cool little horn samples which are hard to come by. Overall, it has a very jazzy vibe. Now, do you need to buy that sample pack per see to make beats? No, but if you want to make some proper Boom Bap isht, it is definitely worth it. If you don’t believe me, you can check the video above with Marlow Digs playing around with some of the chops from the pack. You can also take a listen to my latest release: Bap Life. It features the 3 beats that I made with the Lo-Bap Life Vol.3 sample pack.
The last time that I wrote about designing an album cover, I focused on photography. I intended to show how easy it is to design an album cover. Things are going to be a little bit more tricky this time, as I am going to ask you to do something that – perhaps – you haven’t done in a while: draw.
Drawing can seem a bit daunting even more when you haven’t drawn anything since you were a little kid. However, I am a firm believer that drawings don’t have to be perfect. Drawing can be therapeutic. It can also be meditative. It depends on what you wish to accomplish from drawing. But enough about what I think about drawing.
The first thing you want to do before drawing is choosing your tools. Do you want to use a rollerball pen, a pencil, markers, perhaps a fountain pen or chalk? You might want to consider the type of paper you want to work with too. Do you want to use the very basic, super affordable, crispy white printer paper? Or do you want to go with something that is a bit more pricey and has more texture like etching paper?
Asking yourself these questions will help you define the overall feel and aesthetic of your drawing. But these are optional and can be skipped if you don’t want to think about that and just want to get drawing.
If you are still too nervous about drawing perhaps asking someone else to draw might be your best bet. For instance, if you have kids, or have friends with kids, you can take a photograph of one of their drawings. This works particularly well if your music is intimate and DIY.
Gonna B Ok by MNDSGN
As you can see, the cover above isn’t perfect. The drawing is weirdly cropped with some weird shadowing happening in the bottom-right corner, and we can notice the wrinkles on the paper on the left-hand side. Regardless of that, the cover works as a whole and is very fitting for both the artist and his music.
The other option you have if you want to have a drawn album cover but can’t draw at all is to screengrab a scene from your favourite childhood cartoons. This technique is trendy within the Lofi HipHop scene.
Japanese Disco Edits by Yung Bae (left), What Made The Red Man Red by Frank Waln (middle), Memory Tape by Desired (right)
Now let’s get you drawing! The easiest kind of drawing you can do is abstract. It is the easiest way to draw because you do not have to think about it too much. You can, but you don’t have to. All you need to do is grab your favourite colour markers or pencils, some paper and get drawing. Obviously, if you want to use more tools – such as rulers and such – you can.
Gizèle by Lawani
Above is a cover I did for one of my songs, Gizèle. All I did was cut a piece of paper in a small square – 5cm x 5cm – and draw on it using colour pencils. I didn’t have any specific idea in mind. I just listened to my track on repeat and started drawing. Once finished, I snapped a picture with my phone and cropped the drawing. I found this to be the easiest and most immediate way of producing an album cover without any design skills.
Below is a more high-grade example of what a drawn cover might look like. Portland-based illustrator Theo Ellsworth drew a simple yet detailed portrait for the cover of Flying Lotus’ Pattern + Grid World EP – which I featured not long ago in the Loving Covers series.
In an interview for Redefine Mag regarding the process of making the illustration, Ellsworth explains that after a few phone calls, Fly Lo sent over links to some of Theo’s art “that reminded him of what he was picturing”. He then says that Warp Records sent him a copy of the unmastered EP that he played a lot while working, which gave him “the sense that the music was the atmosphere that dictated the imagery”.
If you wish to paint rather than draw, the principles explained above are similar. The main difference will be the materials as you will need a canvas, some brushes and paint. If you don’t have a canvas, you can use watercolour paper. You will also need to allow for some drying time before photographing the painting. But the results can be really cool with a lot of textures and washes.
Telefone by Noname (left) & Hoe Cakes by MF Doom (right)
Now you’re probably wondering how to get a super realistic drawing for your cover and are probably upset that I didn’t cover that. The fact of the matter is that you have two options here: either draw it yourself or request help from an artist. In any case, don’t worry about the standards and expectations that surround you. Just make what feels right for you and have fun with it.
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