do you feel a chill at your back?
It's probably cold. Turn your heat up, but be sure to come back and gaze at this cover that I designed for Hi-Fructose, a fancy art magazine for fancy art people.
This edition? It's the “dark art” edition. I've long been obsessed with the drama and distinctness achievable through the chiaroscuro technique in oil painting, and I thought that the emphasis on shadows to create form lent itself well to darker themes; one might say I was engulfed by it.
The idea of a creepy figuring emerging from shadows combined with impossible space allowed me to bring the peanut butter of horror tropes together with the chocolate of chiaroscuro, with the added bonus of standing out well next to all the uncool magazines on the shelf.
The vibrant smiley face shows my love of juxtaposition. That juxtaposition, beyond satisfying my fancy, also adds uneasiness which reinforces the goals of the design.
In order to achieve the lighting effect that I wanted on a budget, I experimented with collimating light though a cracked door and using dark sheets to “catch” most of it so that it wouldn't bounce off of my white walls.
The face was made from a dramatically lit piece of kneaded eraser that I shaped into a sinister form. Then I brought it into Photoshop and carefully masked it such that it blended into the head.
Spooky fact of the day: initially I wanted to find a thin person to model for me, but couldn't find anyone who was available and/or willing to look like a horrible monster. Unfortunately, I was not thin enough, as I would totally love to look like a horrible monster.
Thinking on my feet, I used an old artist manikin as a stand-in and staged everything in my lightbox.
do you feel a chill at your back?
It's probably cold. Turn your heat up, but be sure to come back and gaze at this cover that I designed for Hi-Fructose, a fancy art magazine for fancy art people.
This edition? It's the “dark art” edition. I've long been obsessed with the drama and distinctness achievable through the chiaroscuro technique in oil painting, and I thought that the emphasis on shadows to create form lent itself well to darker themes; one might say I was engulfed by it.
The idea of a creepy figuring emerging from shadows combined with impossible space allowed me to bring the peanut butter of horror tropes together with the chocolate of chiaroscuro, with the added bonus of standing out well next to all the uncool magazines on the shelf.
The vibrant smiley face shows my love of juxtaposition. That juxtaposition, beyond satisfying my fancy, also adds uneasiness which reinforces the goals of the design.
In order to achieve the lighting effect that I wanted on a budget, I experimented with collimating light though a cracked door and using dark sheets to “catch” most of it so that it wouldn't bounce off of my white walls.
The face was made from a dramatically lit piece of kneaded eraser that I shaped into a sinister form. Then I brought it into Photoshop and carefully masked it such that it blended into the head.
Spooky fact of the day: initially I wanted to find a thin person to model for me, but couldn't find anyone who was available and/or willing to look like a horrible monster. Unfortunately, I was not thin enough, as I would totally love to look like a horrible monster.
Thinking on my feet, I used an old artist manikin as a stand-in and staged everything in my lightbox.