One of the very best things about working all day in my own studio is that I get to keep my miniature schnauzer Penny with me all day. She’s such a great dog and friend that I never don’t want her around. I’ve even taken her to multiple recording sessions at other people’s studios, and she’s always been really chilled out and well-behaved. Actually, people often like having a dog around, as having a small furry friend to pet can sometimes diffuse any tensions that may arise in the creative process. If you want to see photographs of Penny at these sessions, you can find them on my Instagram.
Earlier in the week, I snapped this picture of her waiting patiently in the dark under my studio desk.
The photograph ended up being my most popular picture on Instagram, and I jokingly suggested I may make it a future album cover.
This got me thinking about what makes great album cover art?
Two of my all-time favourite album covers are With The Beatles and Red by King Crimson. The Red cover is obviously inspired by Robert Freeman’s photograph of The Beatles, which, in turn, had been inspired by Astrid Kirchherr’s earlier photographs of The Beatles during their Hamburg years.
The strong contrast between light and dark in the photograph I took of Penny reminded me a little of those covers, so I thought I would have a little fun with my terrible photoshop technique.
By this point, I was starting to enjoy myself way too much and began to think of other great album covers with strongly contrasting black and white art.
At this point, I just got really carried away and started fooling around with colour cover art, as well.
I also got a couple of requests from friends who were enjoying the photographs on Instagram.
A couple of these requests were from fans of Black Metal and made a lot of sense, as Penny’s black and white markings aren’t that dissimilar to the corpse paint worn by many Black Metal musicians.
Thanks for reading! Feel free to get in touch if you have more ideas to add to my list. Your suggestions are welcome!
Have fun, and stay safe, everyone.