Cat, Skunk, WAR!

I was asked in the early spring of this year by a good friend of mine--who also happens to be a very talented musician, currently studying Electroacoustics--to make a little album cover for his latest upcoming demo/ EP. (Here is his soundcloud - check it out!!)

This friend wanted the cover to feature a "dystopian" scene based on an interesting part of Montreal he has frequented, full of crumbling, smoking, noisy factories; cement and graffiti, abandoned buildings and buildings with unkown or mysterious purposes; and of course some plywood shacks (or "jamspaces") and old factory lofts where some or all of this music was inspired and composed.

I decided the scene was fairly dystopian enough without my adding anything to it, so I just drew the scene directly from a photograph of this area, thinking also it was appropriate because of this place's significance to the music.

Based on the CD sleeves we wanted to use, I decided that printing using lino blocks and ink would be the easiest (though perhaps not the fastest) way to go about it, and set about making it happen.

First I scanned the drawing, colored it digitally to break it into simple colors and forms--making it easier to create a linocut--then printed it out backwards, traced it onto my lino (two colors, two blocks for the cover image; then one for the words on the back, and another for the title), carved the lino blocks, and printed them. I am pretty happy with the results, though of course each cover is unique, as each one is printed by hand...therefore some are better than others! Here are some images from the process.

original sketch

 

 digital rendering

 

 

 carving

 

printing

 

two-color 5" square EP cover!

 

 

front & back