Last week I was commissioned to paint a birthday present for one of my guitar students parents. For me it was the perfect request of a painting in my style with a bit of a brief of what they wanted the vibe and the intent of the picture to be. After studying a few family photos and letting my imagination have an extreme wonder this is what I came up with. The result being some very happy customers….happy days.
The rest of my artwork can be found here
I also do illustration, logo design, merch, posters etc…many things creative. For those looking for an original present and like what you see drop me a message and we can talk more…
Jo x
Jo Bywater 
Hey Jo,
Loving the artwork. Soultree is a particular fave, but there’s lots of gorgeous images there. How much would you charge to do some album artwork, I’m thinking cover ( front / back ) plus some tie-in images inside. I have to say it’s purely hyperthetical at the minute, I’ve only just got into the Studio to record my first three tracks. If these tracks go ok, and I manage to magic some cash for the next little lot, then I guess I’m looking at 2nd half of next year when I’ll be thinking about putting it all together.
Hey., cheers for the feedback., glad you like. Yeah Soul Tree is one of my faves too. As for album artwork it would entirely depend on what you wanted doing, complexity etc. Would it be a painting you were after? Have a think and by all means throw some more questions by me and we can look into it. How are the tracks going?
Tracks are going very slowly. But steady. I only play keyboard, so Phil, the producer guy is doing some background stuff, and pulling in a few favours to get some drums, bass, and bits done. He’s pulled the tracks in from some MIDI files I sent him, and the last session was spent playing around with arrangements and ideas, as a lot of my stuff are just ideas, little snippets of tune. There’s one track, Going Home, that I’m having to really try and let go of, as I thought it was fairly complete music wise, but he’s stripped it back, and we’re now rebuilding it. It’s going to sound different, but I want to be open to the building process you know ?? – Next session is tomorrow, and hopefully he’s fleshed the songs out a little more now. Because my work is shift based AND I work most weekends, we’re only getting together once every two weeks at the minute, after my early shift. But it does save me money booking him out for a complete day. I’ve also never sung in front of anybody in my life, so I’m not sure I’ll be putting the vocals down. I may give it a go, and he says don’t give up the day job, I won’t be too offended 😉
Album cover wise I wasn’t thinking paintings, although how we got to the end product is fairly open I guess. I was thinking more just printed ( inked ) artwork that I can use for an album cover. Nothing too complex, I’m a simple kind of guy. But I don’t fancy my face on an album cover, but maybe my sillouette sneaked in a corner somewhere hehehe. I suppose I was thinking mainly just CD size artwork, but I guess it would be bigger and then scaled down ?? hey, I’m not an artist, so I know nothing about what’s involved. I just had CD artwork in my head, like a little booklet thing…you know ?? LOL 😀 – No idea yet what it would be based on either. That will depend on what comes out of the recording sessions, and what tracks are stronger……
Hey sounds like you have some good things going on there. As far as singing goes I wasn’t that good when I started out but it got a lot better by just doing it. That seems like a long time ago now! Good luck with the recording, its good fun and great for learning about your songs, also about things you don’t like too 🙂
As for the album artwork, I do all kinds of artwork so, I’m just in the process of doing some illustrations for a friend of mine’s book so i’m open to all kinds., i like the variety :).
Hope your sessions went well!
Last session was ok – Phil hadn’t done nearly as much as either of us were hoping for, to the point where the music hadn’t really moved on at all, but he’d done some lyrics ideas. We Played about with Going Home again, as the bridge piece Phil had written killed what little energy the song had each time it was played, and the flow was all wrong. Think we’ve at least sorted the arrangement of that one now. So again, it’s slow, but next session is on the 9th and I’m not being quite so expectant this time. I’ve never had to analyse my songs before, and I’m finding it hard to articulate exactly what I want, and how I feel about what Phil’s done. But I think I’m slowly getting better at it, and I’m sure it will all come good in the end. Once we get these tracks done, I’m hoping to engage him to help me with more songs so I can get an album together. Maybe when I’ve got a lot further down the road, I’ll come back and talk to you about some artwork. I’m also tempted to maybe record one or two more and maybe try and release some kind of EP type thing. But lets not run before I can walk. I’ll get these three tracks finished first eh ?? LOL 😉
good luck for your next session. It’s a bizarre concept when other people start to translate your songs (or artwork for that matter). I’ve not really done that so far, too stubborn 🙂 Keep at it though!