It's been almost 4 years since the release of Marble Hunting, and I figured it was about time to publish some high resolution wallpapers that fit screens of all sizes (at the bottom of this post!)
I also wanted to take some time to write up the process that went into the design. The biggest challenge with designing album art for any artist is matching the vibe and emotions behind the music. Tipper has so much depth packed into each tune, I knew this was going to be a complex and difficult vibe to match. With a project like this, I typically would make dozens of hand drawn "thumbnails" just to block out a concept without worrying about refining it. However with a fairly short deadline I had to fast track a lot of my standard process. This originally started as only 3 or 4 rough designs, with the winning concept of the eye/marble selected for further exploration. Below are two early iterations of the Iris Marble.
From here, multiple iterations were explored before settling on the final composition and color palette. The final design utilized several assets that were modeled, textured and rendered in blender, as well as many design motifs and patterns that were pulled from real life, and rendered by hand in adobe illustrator. Finally, all pieces were composited in photoshop where final coloring and adjustments were added. Below is an in-depth look at how the design elements were rendered and added to the final composition.
I also wanted to show a breakdown of the layer hierarchy inside of photoshop. Much of the complexity, layering and lighting is all done by adding gradient overlays, masking and manually painting in lighting. Ultimately I wanted to combine 3D renders and 2D design to create an intricate and cohesive "space", which is only attainable through meticulous attention to color theory and details.
If you have any questions, feel free to drop them in the comments!