Today was an art day:

Milky Way Galaxy

Milky way Galaxy II

Here’s another attempt at the CD cover game:

Eryx Elegans, 'Run Away From Life'

I actually edited the photo in question this time; if you look at the original you will see a woman in the photo which really distracted from the composition:

Original Photo

Edited Photo

Yes – it is quite easy to see the photo was edited, but after all this is not an exercise in forging photographic evidence :-)

To critique my own work, the speech bubble is probably a little too dominant and the “band name” logo colors might not mesh perfectly with the rest of the image.

Original photo: Feliz 2009, by murilocardoso. Licensed cc-by-nc-sa.

I am now using DevianArt to host an art gallery / portfolio sort of thing. I will still post images here, but it’s nice to have a community on DeviantArt. It’s also nice to have a simple, art focussed URL that I can give people who are just interested in the art aspect.

My works can be found at http://nilsjeppe.deviantart.com/ – I’d love it if you drop by.

I haven’t spent enough time drawing lately. Today, I had the idea of attempting to create a reflection in a lake with Inkscape. This is the result:

Lake

I personally am happy with how this one came out. It took me 10-15 minutes, I would say.

I am still experimenting with drawing planets. This time, with Inkscape instead of The Gimp.

Planet drawn with Inkscape

This was a really quick design, and for that I think it works rather well.

I found a nice tutorial on creating very basic planets with The Gimp. My first attempt:

Planet

Well… it’s a start, but this isn’t really too useful yet.

I needed another music group to refer to in my NaNoWriMo novel. It had to be something beachy, and hence, Kryoneri was born.

Kryoneri, 'Pleased with Themselves'

I cheated on the CD Cover game, and used one of my own photos. Searching flickr for a cc-licensed photo simply seemed like a waste of my time when I had a couple of appropriate photos sitting around. The one I used was taken on Bali.

Here’s the – admittedly fairly random – track list for the album:

1. Legends of Bora Bora
2. California Beach Queen
3. Sand and Sun
4. Memories of Coral Reef
5. Sailing through Paradise
6. Spanish Main
7. Land of a Million Islands
8. Surfing the Waves
9. Torchlight Tranquility
10. Bali Sunset
11. Moon over Waikiki

Update: Version 2 of the cover.

Kryoneri, 'Pleased with Themselves' - Version 2

I like this 2nd one better, I think.

I needed a band to refer to in my NaNoWriMo novel, and none of the ones I “created” for the CD Cover Game so far seemed to be appropriate. So I cheated a little on #5, and repeated the Wikipedia random thing until I had a band name that sounded like an alternative rock group.

Brockville Park, 'Even My Own Mother'

I kind of like the basic design. Someone should start making crossword puzzles based on hexagons.

“Even My Own Mother” is the debut album of local newcomer band Brockville Park’s, and its catchy beat has catapulted it top the top of the charts. Tracks:

1. Voyage of the Navigator
2. Saint Brendan City Blues
3. When Worlds Collide
4. Slaver – Hero
5. Forbidden Candy
6. Ballad of the Apple
7. Even My Own Mother
8. Go! (Away!)
9. Melon Tree
10. Sheltered
11. M Stands For Witten
12. The Price of Admiralty
13. Fall Out Four The Rest Of Us (Bonus)

Original photo by Ecstaticist, cc-by-nc-sa.

Kolonia Zerechowa, the Polish African American rap group known for its biting social commentary, has released their latest album: Steal with good Judgment.

Kolonia Zerechowa, 'Steal with good Judgment'

The controversial album contains tracks critical of the Church, making numerous references to recent scandals and the Church’s violent history in the middle ages. The track “Wallet Salvation” openly attacks American television preachers. Religious groups across America have condemned the album as “lies” and its many sexual references as “sinful”. The band has reacted cooly to the complaints, stating that “the truth always hurts such people the most”.

Original photo by mikedefiant, cc-by-nc-sa.

Quick Inkscape drawing appropriate to the season:

Jack o' Lantern

Happy Halloween, everybody.

Here are the revised rules to the CD-Cover game. I found it originally on Pedro’s blog, but I had to change them slightly. If anybody else wants to play, let me know – I’d love to see your creations!

The rules:

1. Go to the Wikipedia random article page (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random). The title of the article is your band name. (For a twist, use the Special:Random page of an alternate language version of Wikipedia.)

2. Go to the very last quote on random quotations (www.quotationspage.com/random.php3). The last four words of the last quote are your album title. You may opt to use only three words, if that improves the quote. (For example, I got the quote “To sway an audience, you must watch them as you speak.”, by C. Kent Wright. “Them as you speak” sounds pretty stupid. “As you speak” makes for a much better album title!) You are not allowed to use more than four or less than three words, and you may not change any of them.

3. Go to Flickr’s “interesting photos from the last seven days” page (www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days/). Use the first photo that allows you to legally use and modify it (”All rights reserved” is out!). You may have to reload this page multiple times.

Flickr does provide a page that filters for a Creative Commons license (www.flickr.com/creativecommons/), but for our purpose this isn’t very useful: There is little randomness, and the photos include completely useless ones like photos of text. The method in rule#3 is much better, even if it takes a while to find a photo under an appropriate license.

My covers so far:

• CD Cover Game #1: Silver Creek Township
• CD Cover Game #2: Duke of Bourbon
• CD Cover Game #3: Genesis Group

You’ll find new covers under the CD Covers tag.

My third stab at the CD cover game:

Genesis Group, 'Chance At Being Incompetent'

Original photo by .Bala, cc-by.

Alright, since I was told to “put both up”, here’s the first cover I made for the CD cover game, the one I originally posted to my personal blog:

Silver Creek Township, 'A Pound of Cleverness'

Again the world-building angle is that this is a popular music group in the world Terra.

The photo is by Calliyan, cc-by-sa.

Months ago I saw the CD cover game on Pedro’s blog. I had posted my first cover to my personal blog, but since I have moved all my arts and design stuff here, I figured I’d include this here, too. Especially since I can easily get away with saying that these are album covers from the world Terra, and not our own. Hey – instant world design.

Duke of Bourbon, 'As Possible, All Things'

I actually do like the CD cover game. It’s a quick thing to do (the above took me about ten minutes including looking for a photo on flickr that I was actually allowed to use) and you gotta come up with something based on pre-made elements, which is always a nice exercise in creativity.

Original photo by Thomas Hawk, cc-by-nc.

Some Arnâron art:

City in the Desert

A city poking through the dust of the desert world. Painted with Inkscape.