Arjen Lucassen - "Lost in the New Real" Cover Art

Oh yeah, boys and girls!

I am allowed to show you now some of the process behind the creation of the cover of "Lost in The New Real", the upcoming solo album by Arjen Lucassen. 

It was an interesting journey for sure...  one that neither Arjen nor I anticipated.  A journey filled with fierce battles, time anomalies, alien diplomacy, strange communications and weird visions!    It began around June 2011; I decided to establish communications with Mr. L's outpost to express my interest in a possible collaboration.  At first, Mr. L was somewhat reluctant to the idea... he didn't fully trust this new life form so he put my abilities to the test.  He told me about this new concept he was developing; I found the storyline extremely cool and reminded me of an old Gene Roddenberry TV movie called "Genesis II".   So between Star Trek quotations through email and countless days of non-sleeping I came up with some sketches featuring a William Shatner-like character, not knowing that the main character was Mr. L himself!   

After looking at my sketches, Arjen made clear that he didn't want a cold digital-looking cover and this was deffinetelly not the right approach.  Instead, he wanted an old fashioned illustration in the style of the old sci-fi movies of the 50s and 60s.  "Forbidden Planet", "The Day The Earth Stood Still", "Fight To Mars" and "The Time Travelers" (to name a few) were some of the posters we analized to be used as reference for our project.  Again, a very cool idea, but one no easy to create as we would find out soon enough.   At first, I wanted to pay tribute "by the book" to that style and imitate the 50s illustration style to perfection but as I started showing advances to Arjen, he pointed out that some of the elements looked cheap!   I said, "well of course it looks cheap!  everything about those old movies was cheap and cheesy.  It's part of the style!".   He then went on by saying that maybe people won't understand that kind of obscure graphic tribute and will simply see a cheap-crappy-illustration.  It took me a couple of days to process this but ultimatelly I agreed to this logic.  This basically opened up a whole new universe of possibilities since we were paying tribute to classic sci-fi with modern tools.   So the new aproach was, what if 50s illustrators of movie posters would have had Photoshop!  What would they have done!?

The final product of this concept is a very eerie but interesting looking scene.  One that was the result of two weird minds clashing together through space-time continuum.  Mr. L and Mr. C going to where no artist has gone before!

The image itself shows a troubled Mr. L inside a holodeck (those of you who are familiar with Star Trek TNG will know of what I'm talking about - if not, shame on you!) simulating a very colourful alien landscape (somewhat inspired by the movie Forbidden Planet).  In the far distance, the Dream Sequencer can be seen; tying in the whole concept with the Ayeron universe in a way that remains a mistery!  (yes, I know).    Outside the holodeck room and consciously overseeing everything,  we can see the excentric scientist Voight-Kampff, who is also operating the holodeck's master controls.  The whole scene is framed in a very cool space setting that adds just a little bit more oddity to everything.

So there you go!  The cover explained!   

Just wait to see the rest of the art I made for the record.  At least 6 of the songs have individual illustrations, turning the booklet almost into a nice little graphic novel.   And that story shall also be told!

Live long and prosper!

Arjen on the Cover Art:

 

Click on each image to enlarge.

THE COVER

 Poster Version

Album Version

Holodeck Landscape (with Dream Sequencer)

BEHIND THE SCENES MATERIAL

Unused Landscape Illustration

(with alternative outpost)

Mock-Up sketch #1

Mock-Up sketch #2

 Landscape Pencil Sketch

Original Concept Sketch

Feat. William Shatner

(idea rejected by Arjen)
 

Original Concept Sketch

(idea rejected by Arjen)

 Mr. L showing off his Star Trek toys

 Mr. C showing off his Star Trek toys

  Mr. C showing off his Star Trek toys

 Mr. L facing danger in an unknown planet!

Arjen Lucassen + Rutger Hauer.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen. 

None other than Rutger Hauer, the legendary actor, will be taking the rol of scientist Voight-Kampff in the production I recently completed all artwork for: Arjen Lucassen's solo album. Here's a greeting and sneak peek of that big release!

The Album is another masterpiece by the mad-scientist-hippie-rocker Lucassen; it's an amazing collection of sci-fi stories accompanied by an equal variety of cool artwork (turning the booklet in a quasi-graphic novel!).  It was one of most demanding an challenging projects I've ever taken place in...  can't wait to share it with the world!

It will be released in April through Inside Out Records. 

More info here:

Interview on Rovok (in spanish)

Greetings humans!

Here's a new interview in which I talk about influences, recent work, processes, geeks, pop culture, music, art (and the lack of it) and of course my graphic novel!

To read the interview CLICK HERE (in spanish!!!)

Live long and prosper!!!!

=)

The Unholy Trinity

I've recently produced several images about the Illuminati mythos. In this one, we actually get to see one of them.

The unholy trinity of powers of the world: Economy and his two bitches, war and religion. I am very aware this image might upset some people but is just the way it is, the way it has always been.

You are probably wandering just who are the people depicted in the portraits on the far wall.  Well, they're very relevant personalities related to this concept, you may like to check on each of them:  Issac Newton, Leonardo DaVinci, Jacques de Molay,  Alister Crowley and Sir William Sinclair.

Suggested reading and media to complement this picture's subject:  Any book by David Icke, Zeitgeist (documentary), Inside Job (documentary), The Shock Doctrine (documentary) and of course ultimate Illuminati documentary: watch here.

I can't even tell you how much work I put into every little detail of this one... it was a graphic nightmare.  

If you live in Europe you might spot the vinyl edition in your local metal music store: It was produced for a very cool progressive metal band from germany; The Outside.

http://www.the-outside.net/

cheers!

Click on each image to enlarge

 

Cover (poster version)

 

Cover Art (vinyl version)

 

The Bank Corporations

 

The Military

 

The Catholic Church

 

Concept Sketch

 

Concept Sketch (alternate)

Halford - Live At Saitama Super Arena

Making a cover for the Metal God is obviously a true privilege, whatever be the style required for the project. For this release, I originally proposed something very dramatic and elaborated in the line of the fantasy genre (something more in "Bergamin style"), but ultimatelly Mr. Halford and his management decided to go for something much more simple and straight forward... which I think is very reasonable.

The image featured behind Rob Halford is the Saitama Super Arena Building (Japan). Photo material of the arena from that angle at nightime were unavailable so I have to paint it from scratch using small res pictures as reference.  This was a very important directive; they wanted the arena in the cover.

Click on image to enlarge

Enciende Tu Mente (Turn On Your Mind)

The concept for this one is kind of elusive. As the band originally explained, it was about expressing yourself against a hostile society. Projecting your inner self energetically. "Enciende tu Mente" is spanish for "Turn On Your Mind" so that may deliver some clues.   The TV sets are just a way to represent a hostile social environment; envy, prejudice and worse.

For me, this is X-Men meets Carrie.

Click on each image to enarge

Cover Art

 Cover Art with logo and title

 Concept Sketch

"True Gods", Animated Video

This is one of those opportunities in which you end up doing something you never knew it would get bigger and bigger and bigger...  I landed in the chair of Director before even considering directing anything!

One day my good friend Ubaldo asked me "can you make me an animated video for my song True Gods???   I foolishly replied "of course!", without even imagining what I was getting into.   Very early in the process I realized I wasn't going to get the job done all by myself so I recruited a very talented young illustrator called Jonathan Larenas to help me with all the characters.  Of course since I don't have a clue about animation software I relied on the talents of Altair Films, a very prolific special effects company.  With this assemble, "True Gods" eventually became a reality.

The Plot:

In ancient times, the Anunnaki arrived on Earth to enslave humans and put them at work mining precious minerals. This however didn't past unnoticed by the cosmic forces...  in a remote planet called Parramon, someone is watching...

The Song:

True Gods is a song from the album "Dead People", by british band Parramon. 

The Crew:

Directed By Claudio Bergamin
Produced by Altair Films
Script by Ubaldo Esteban and Claudio Bergamin
Illustrations by Jonathan Larenas, Claudio Bergamin and Luis Saavedra
Animation by Jose M. Del Solar and Cristian Cristallini

THE VIDEO

 

CONCEPT SKETCHES

(blue sketches by Jonathan Larenas)

 STILLS

 PROMO IMAGES