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Recently I was hired to illustrate and design some cd packaging and a tour poster for Great Gods of Greed upcoming debut album. They are a Heavy Metal band in the tradition of Metallica, Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath and feature Mike Clark from Suicidal Tendencies on guitar.
The themes the band plays with revolve mostly around greed and exploitation. Their message is right on point with much of the general unrest most people are feeling today so there were a lot of timely concepts to play with.
It was important for the band to stick to the traditional metal ethos and as a result they wanted to create a recognizable mascot character. Much the same way Derek Riggs did for Iron Maiden with Eddie the Head. The band came up with a character they call Greedy and his main feature is his skull head with features that kind if spell out the band’s name. Two capital “G’s” for the eye sockets, a dollar sign for the nose cavity and teeth spelling out the word “greed”.
I did numerous sketches of the skull an Greedy in various situations as well as played around with the symbolism associated with wealth and corporations. The final result for the cover was a wrap around that features Greedy in his corporate headquarters basking in his wealth while brokers plummet past his window a la stock market crash in 29. It’s a brutal and unsettling image that serves as a commentary on the current state of wealth and the economy…it also helps that the music is pretty darn good too.
Ruben Diaz hired me to create a cover for an upcoming Chikara bout and DVD staring two wrestlers; Bodie Lee vs. Sugar Dunkerton. For those of you unfamiliar with Chikara, it’s a Professional Wrestling League whose characters straddle the worlds of traditional American Pro Wrestling, Mexican Lucha Libre and Japanese Chikara. The film “The Wrestler” used many of the Chikara locations and wrestlers as a backdrop.
In the past Chikara DVD covers have all been homages to famous comic book covers, replacing super heroes with their line up of wrestlers. This time around Ruben thought a departure from a comic book cover to an album cover would really make the event stand out. His choice of using Storm Thorgerson’s cover for Pink Floyd’s Division Bell as the source fit perfectly for the event.
This isn’t the first time I painted something of Thorgerson’s, or Pink Floyd’s. In High School I had a business painting album covers on the back of denim jackets. Back then I painted just about every Pink Floyd album cover out there, and even made a few up. I’ll post some pictures sometime when dig out the photo albums from my Mom’s.
An illustrated logo design for the soon to be released band The Great Gods of Greed. The original concept is by my old friend and bass player for the band Edward Jucius.
In an earlier post I mentioned that I did some key frame animation work for Patrick Arrasmith for an undisclosed client. Patrick was hired by Psyop, an animation a digital effects studio in New York’s Lower East Side. We both thought the commercial would not air, but much to our surprise this AT&T spot showed up on TV last weekend. Patrick did the animation of the whale smashing the ship while I worked on Ahab.
Patrick Arrasmith asked me to create some key frame animation art for a top secret television commercial he has been working on for a big time client. What we have here is a reaction shot of Captain Ahab after witnessing Moby Dick destroy a ship. At the moment it’s unknown whether or not this will make the final cut. Or if the commercial will even happen. It would be a shame if it doesn’t get used, but that’s the nature of the advertising world.
Kiss “Destroyer” was my first record ever. I actually got it on 8 Track, believe it or not. I had older cousins that introduced me to Kiss and when I saw that cover I was enthralled. I spent hours listening to that record and staring deeply into the art. I was especially drawn to Gene Simmons boots. I still want a pair of those. So you can imagine how happy I was to stumble across this interview with illustrator Ken Kelly, who created not one but two painting of this iconic image. Thanks Ken, for this epic cover. And thanks to my cousin’s Greg and Doug for setting me on the path.
