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BEHOLD! We are absolutely overjoyed that we found somebody not only to create our artwork, however, to do so in a manner that completely compliments the songs and the message we are hoping to convey. The artwork is predominantly drawn and has been finished off by applying the image to a digitised background in order to create an old school 'feel' without compromising the drawing itself. We actually have the original in our possession and there was absolutely no way we were staining it with tea bags and chucking it about to achieve the result we wanted. No way. Graham Bradshaw, quite clearly, is an artistic genius and yes . . . he drew every last dot of the centre image that you can see. The process began rather messily (on our part) because we couldn't quite decide on what we wanted due to being so overloaded with recording and touring. We met a couple of times (in the pub, of course) to chat about our ideas and they ranged from everything from focussing on tree branches, guitars and daisies and then eventually, after some back and forth between the two of us, we came up with something. Below you will see the very first sketch followed by Graham's own explanation of how he came up with the final result!
Here are a few words from the man himself about he put everything together from here!
"The idea was to put together all of the instruments used to make the album and create a kind of cool instrumental montage of images. I went away and created a rough, semi-detailed sketch to give us an idea of how the concept would work, look and feel. The placement of all the instruments was completely freehand and when adding the daisies I thought it would be cool if they were placed as if they were supporting the instruments somehow. This concept was to emphasise the daisies' strength and willingness to grow and survive no matter how many times life cuts them down. This was focussed towards anyone suffering with mental health issues trying to send out the message that you’re stronger than you think and like a daisy . . . you can be strong, overcome and grow again. Once we had decided our direction I then got to work on the real thing."
"Starting with a very hard 5H pencil I used free-handing for the outline of the entire artwork; the planning stage as I like to call it. This took some time and, in any drawing, this is the most crucial part; the perspective needs to be precise and on point and if this stage is wrong then the entire drawing will be wrong."
"The next step was to begin the details and shading. I started with the fretboards as this was the hardest and most detailed area. The biggest challenge I had was making sure I had every fret and every string on each instrument exact; this wasn’t a must or stated that this needs to be done . . . it was simply my own personal challenge I set myself to push the boundaries of artistic perfection. Although perfection does not exist and if it did an artist would seize to be an artist, this doesn’t mean we shouldn’t set ourselves goals and at least try."
"For the shading, I used both a 2B and 8B Faber-Castell 9000 Series graphite pencils. The 2B is a soft midrange pencil which offers lots of depth depending on the pressure you apply to it. The 8B is a very, very soft pencil and is used for the darker shades and, when pressed very hard, you get an almost black depth . . . very cool! I also use a variety of blending tools to smudge the pencil which ranged from cotton wool buds to tightly rolled up paper which we artists call blending stumps. This is how I get the airbrush and realistic effect with the graphite."
"Once the artwork was complete the next challenge was to photograph the artwork which is very difficult with pencil as it shines and reflects light, a lot like a mirror. We invited Andrew Currie along with his expert camera equipment to photograph the image. We used special lighting to defuse the light and took multiple photographs from which we would then create the final digital version to be used for the album."
So there it is. An in-depth account of how our artwork came about! If you would like to be teased a tiny, tiny amount . . . you can head to our website if you click the player below. You'll be taken to our online store where you can view the products that will soon be available and also, listen to a snippet of two of the tracks via our media player! Enjoy folks!
Lynzy & Vivienne The Coaltown Daisies
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