When I was asked to design something trippy and unique as an EP cover for Harry Forbes, I couldn’t help but draw inspiration from (or completely knock off, in this case, let’s be honest) Salvador Dalí’s surrealistic work. Namely his creation called The Face of Mae West Which May Be Used As A Surrealist Apartment.
I think I came across that piece at school in art history class and it was like a breath of fresh air compared to the super detailed and realistic, yet absolutely boring paintings of literally every other artist we learned about. Finally something original and weird! He didn’t just record something he saw, but edited it and turned into something new and completely different. He was basically a graphic designer in the 1930s.
Luckily Harry always gives me a lot of creative freedom, so in this case I decided that I wanted to create my own version of Dalí’s apartment using elements that I surround myself with in real life: a statement piece of furniture, gold accents, a bit of velvet and pops of colour.
Harry also had to be included obviously, since this is his EP cover after all. I took the photo of him and he sent me a picture of his friend’s dog, Missy. They just had to be cropped out and blended in with the rest of the picture using several layers of shadows.
On a technical note, I remember the day when I discovered the different blending modes in Photoshop. What a game changer! It made life so much easier and it has improved my art massively. This is how I was able to create this amazing tapestry pattern. I found a great vintage pattern on Rawpixel and all I had to do was multiply it a few times, and then lay it over the walls using one of the blending modes.
You can listen to Don’t Wait right here. It’s an amazing song by an amazing artist!
art from scratch 