John Mayer, Born and Raised Album Cover art

[DAVE SMITH]

Hi everyone. Been out of the loop here for a while, just looked through the posts, great work I need to catch up with some of them. Sony Music asked me back in November to make the new Album cover art for John Mayer. At the time I was busy with other work , Sony would only give me 3 weeks to make the artwork so I at to turn it down especially when it comes to contract signing and deadlines. John Mayer had been suffering with throat problems so they cancelled the release date. 2 weeks later they emailed me and asked if I was still up for designing the cover art and I said yes. I hooked up with John on a regualar weekly call for 8 weeks, he was great and fun to deal with. Here is the front design, the back is also finished with all the song titles made from a font I put together and named it Mayer.
Hope you like it. all the litho dots were made by hand. It will come out on ITUNES and cd's in May 22nd.
Thanks

Dave

http://underthegunreview.net/wordpress/ ... 0x800.jpeg

[Jeff Lang]

Fantastic Dave!!! So much to see & atudy, brilliant.
I'm grateful you share these jobs here, keep up the wonderful work.
Jeff

[bob gamache]

Killer Dave! Thats a nice gig! Congratulations!

[Lee Littlewood]

Whuf! Very believable. Does the bunch of medals come from something in the music?

"...dots made by hand." Did you do this with paint and brushes?? What size did you work at?

Yr obdn't servnt,
(X............ his mark)

[DAVE SMITH]

Thanks very much you guy's. Lee it was all hand sketched and designed. John gave me a brief and I made 3 sketches for him he picked the third sketch and never changed it. He asked for a clock coins medals which all mean something to him. The dots were hand done with a felt tip pen to resemble litho dots, no hand painting ! I would of loved to paint this by hand. It was tricky to make. Actually probably harder than using a brush. I have an antique version that looks just like a trade card . This image was designed for instant downloads as I said for ITunes. They have all sorts coming out with this artwork on, it's actually very exciting and at the same time overwelming as I don't know what will come from this opportunity. The total amount of layers was 1556 at 300 dpi 2ft square, file size was 6 gig when i finished, all vector based over the pencil sketch. I'll keep you posted on what happens. My eye's have aged this last month, look forward to getting back to glass work......

Thanks again..
Dave

[Jerry Berg]

Wow, Beautiful stuff Dave. Thanks for posting!

[DAVE SMITH]

Thanks Jerry, here are few more links, they keep popping up daily.

http://underthegunreview.net/2012/02/28 ... cklisting/

http://underthegunreview.net/wordpress/ ... 0x800.jpeg

here is his website http://johnmayer.com/

[Mike Jackson]

Hi Dave,
Great job! Congratulations on many levels!

There is only one place they can get something like that. Rest your eyes, as you will probably get more requests.

Cheers,
Mike Jackson

[DAVE SMITH]

Thankyou very much Mike, real nice of you to say that. Your right, It's amazing how quick people find you..


Cheers Mike.

[pat mackle]

Dave you called down the thunder with this one! And the storm of job offers will be approaching like hail stones. Your working from the bonnet (garage) days may be over.
Now you've really gone an dunnit! lol! BOL
Pat

[Tony Segale]

When I grow up, I want to create an album cover like David Smith or Roger Dean.

Seriously, great work, David.
An excellent example of no matter what medium an artist works in,
or a sign maker, hand lettering or vinyl slapping,
the most important ingredient is design.

You are living proof of just how far an excellent designer can go.

Aho!

[erik winkler]

Congretulations Dave of finishing his illustration in time and it looks great.
6 gig is huge!
I think you made this button also?

That is the nice thing when working with layers, you can use the design in different orders?

By the way where did you put your signature?


Erik

[DAVE SMITH]

Thanks Pat Tony and Erik. Pat I plan to stay in my house and work from here, I don't want the huge overheads that I had back when I had the signshop. I'm not going to kill myself trying to take on every job, I've done that it gets me nowhere. It's always tempting and hard to say no to some lovely orders but I would work myself to an early grave if I said yes. I turned down several jobs recently that I have been working towards in my business for the last 25 years, can't beleive i said no to them. One guy was very understanding and has decided to wait until March 2013. Considering the state of the world and business I feel lucky that this work is landing on my doorstep, I also feel the harder you work the luckier you become, we all know how much as signpainters and glass artists how much passion we put into our work and how hard it is to make a good crust (money) . Pat your one person I know that certainly deserves the best work, thanks for your comment mate. Tony thanks very much mate, hopefully see you soon as a trip to LA is planned . Erik Yes I did the globe design for him, I plan to make that as a glass sign in a slumped circle, he's putting it in his studio in Los Angeles, so he told me. Not sure when I'm going to make it though.
Thanks all of you. it's appreciated.
Dave

[Doug Bernhardt]

Davey Boy....outstanding work (as always) and you deserve the accolades. Love the medals and has that real "trade card" flavour. Is amazing to se this appear on the doorstep of a "lowly" signpainter instead of a high end graphics shop. Well Done buddy. Would have replied earlier except my connection with the site was down for some strange reason.

[DAVE SMITH]

Thanks so much Doug. I think i'm aloud to share close ups but I better c heck before I go posting. The effects used were sandstone ,spatter ,and grain on the final image with alot of adjustment etc with multiply and other effects like this. I also have a file with the antique creased paper over the top which makes it look great for an LP cover, I'll see if I can post that one up also. got to be careful due to rights but it is in the public domain now.

Thanks Dougy do da.

[Rick Janzen]

Hi John, love your design. Just wondering the process you used, and also the software. Thanks

[bob gamache]

Master Dave! Are you on a MAC or PC?

[DAVE SMITH]

Rick. I used a pencil to sketch the artwork out, will post that at some point but need to wait for album release on some of the elements.

After the pencil it was on to Omega 4.0 to vector the sketch, All the faces were hand drawn and the coins. once the vectors were finished they were brought into Photoshop where it was all coloured. It was all done on a PC Master Bob. no different to a Mac I guess.

Doug Thanks mate.


Thanks

[Rick Janzen]

Dave, thanks for information. I look forward to seeing the sketches.

[DAVE SMITH]

Thanks Rick.

[rockstarberlin]

hi dave,

your art work is amazing! i found it on steampunk.com and loved it immediately!

you wrote you´ve drawn everything by hand. did you draw the lettering born raised as well? it´s awesome!

cheers

[Doug Bernhardt]

Well Rockstar....If Dave doesn't chime in (he will) it is ALL hand done. Lettering is Dave's specialty and happens to be as good as they get at it. Sorry if I'm braggin' n ya Davers.

[DAVE SMITH]

Thank you Doug. Hi Rockstarberlin. Yes it was all hand drawn with a pencil, I made a few rough sketches and then made a final version for John to view. Glad you like it. Will post some sketches soon on here.
Thanks
Dave

[Roderick Treece]

As always Dave very impressive !

[DAVE SMITH]

Thanks Rod.

[Dan Seese]

Dave,

Well it's been a while since I visited the forum and, as usual, there are some gems I've missed out on - this one being the crown jewel!

A a teenager back in 1968 when I saw Jimi Hendrix perform I felt like going home and burning my guitar. It wasn't in order to emulate Hendrix's signature performance gimmic but because his musicality and abilities were so beyond my own that I felt it was useless for me to continue.

Well, I got over it and went on to improve my guitar skills by copying licks from him, Clapton & other musicians while I eventually developed a style of my own.

Lo, these many years later I find my breath being taken away in a similar way whenever I encounter a new work you've done, Dave. And it's still just as difficult to slap myself to come around and say, "OK, I'll never be able to do THAT, but I can be inspired and learn from it and become just that much better in my own little pond."

It's a privilege to know you & be able to have some of your stuff rub off on me. I know you won't let it go to your head. There are innate God-given talents and abilities involved here, but frankly, a heck of a lot of study, development and work as well. We can all do that.

Thanks for sharing, mate.

[DAVE SMITH]

Gosh thats a nice comment from you Dan, appreciate that very much mate, to be honest i really don't know what to say to that. Very kind of you.
I find myself always learning from the people on here, seeing all the work posted gives me ideas in my work, I guess it goes round in circles. Nice to be part of such a creative bunch of people. I get alot of emails daily from people asking questions ,it's hard to keep up with replies. made alot of nice friends through this trade and through this site.
Just lately I have not had the time to take alot of photos of work going out plus I need a new camera as mine has come to the end of it's life. Great to see you back here Dan. Here is part of the sketch I made for the cover..
Thanks again Dan

Dave

701.jpg (117.63 KiB) Viewed 54427 times

700.jpg (110.09 KiB) Viewed 54137 times

702.jpg (147.94 KiB) Viewed 54253 times

[erik winkler]

All that work all those hours.
Your focus and results are very impressive.
I wander if I am able to bring that commitment.
Probably not because you are one of a few.

Erik

[Tony Segale]

you see there...

Well, Davey, the finished art is real nice and all,
thank you very much for posting the original drawings/sketch...
to me, that is the priceless element of the whole darn project.
Those photos are the best!

Cheers!

[Kelly Thorson]

Stunningly beautiful Dave! Like Tony said, those initial drawings are priceless. I think you may have just made a whole lot of work for yourself.