This is probably the most extravagant idea I've ever translated into graphic reality... and it's all Arjen's "fault"!
As all of you probably already know, this image is the cover of a song from the "Lost in The New Real" album. The song is about a music service in the far future; they'd be able to create perfect virtual bands for you! Let's say you love all the crunchy riffs of Black Sabbath and all the majestic operatic vocal arrangements of Queen... No problem! They'll blend these two elements together for you and create a new band: Queen Sabbath!
At first, I thought the concept was just too abstract to actually come up with some solid type of scene... what could I do? A computer with musical controls and some technitians working around it? A collage containing all the bands in history? I couldn't exactly visualize it graphically until Arjen said: "...no man, let's do it exactly as the title!" "...what?" "yeah, let's do some pink beatles flying in the sky on purple zeppelins" "wow, that is so crazy that it might actually work!". I just loved the idea; it's so different from what I normally do.
I immediatelly knew we would need some special techinque for this; my usual fantasy painting technique wouldn't be the most perfect solution for this theme. The song was also very old school and slightly hippie. So I thought nothing would accomplished better this than a trippy 60s image in the style of Hipgnosis!
I used my own photo material as a starting point to create the composition; except the zeppelins, which I took from historical photographs. The colors are the result of endless experiments but the gold was obviously an LSD extravaganza! I went back in time to possess the mind of a graphic artist living in 1969!!!
So... enjoy the trip!
The Song
The Art
The Cover Art
Arjen's Discography!
Wallpaper!
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