Hollows: Visually

New studio, new space, new toys, lots of new things. New album, new artwork. I've been doing some final edits, as per request from Vanessa, on Ash and Wish I Were Here. We've also been sorting out the artwork for Hollows, which is also getting very near to being done. We made a final decision on the cover a couple of weeks ago and I've been doing some work on the (what at this point will be) 12 page booklet. That's more paper for your money. What you've got on the left there is the final cover. The photo is a self-portrait, of and by Vanessa. I've put it against a photo of a photo of my computer monitor which at the time was displaying the original version of the headstone angel from the Serpent book. Got it? Yeah! Overlay, opacity changes, naughty naughty contrast adjustments, some text and there it is! I think Vanessa looks almost bruised, which is not too cool, but she didn't seem to mind. The chances of anyone really thinking it's her are possibly quite thin anyway.

The cover idea here here was what happened when Vanessa and I got a bit too carried away after multiple coffees and accepting odd gifts from her children (such as seed pods and sandwich crusts). As you can tell I'd not long since had Sin City in the DVD player; I love the design of that film but it doesn't suit Manzuma. We're not a comic book, er, graphic novel, nor are we ever going to be as much as I'd like. Anyhow, this is what we did between the other one and the final one. As I think I mentioned before, I would have liked to have had several more options, but I know now that Vanessa and I like our art like we like our music: We know it when we see it.

Just to talk about music for a moment... It seems we have a bass player, and someone keen to play drums who owns an electronic kit. It seems very promising. It's hopefully heading towards inevitable that we'll be able to do all this live!

I've incorporated some of the more obscure images from our photo day a few months ago. To the left just there is one that Vanessa took while in the pool. The original is strange enough, but add the texture and the grain and it looks like I've got a small explosion on my face. I like that you can't see my face. Others include "With Water & No Face", "With Balloon", "With Organ". But I'm going to wait on posting those; this is the slow middle-bit of making an album and I'm going to need new-post fodder again before something actually happens!

- posted by Tim at 9:35 PM -  

very cool, awesome layers!
Your face explosion looks a bit hurties though!
Went to unearthed, sounds great, but couldnt leave a comment cause it balked at my registration!
Alas, I will try another day :)
By Rach, at September 14, 2006 10:05 PM  

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