This is hard work this painting stuff!
Of course, the cop out would be to just use my profile picture on ReverbNation or wherever, but the reality is there is a good reason why most music services have a field for artwork on every track.
With a download product, there is no nice little CD booklet or fold out LP artwork, and people may not be downloading the entire album. It is important that each track is as identifiable as is the singer and the album.
However, this also means that if you have twenty tracks on your album, you have to do twenty covers. A lot of work and potentially a lot of money.
For instance, my track Little Lady Full of Love should really be a wonderful photo of a young woman hanging upside down from a tree branch dragging her fingers through the water. That is what the lyrics sing about. But that means finding a tree over a small river and a willing girl to be suspended upside down (safely) while I take a ton of photos.
This is a lot of research, budget and waiting for a sunny day. Ouch!
I don't have the money to start with, and the most willing young lady I can think of who LOVES her photo taken, is actually far too young and would probably have eyes on my wallet all the same.
So, I have to find another way, and the most obvious one for me is to get out the art pad and Photoshop.
There are advantages to working this way.
Firstly, I can get exactly the image I want, allowing for my somewhat suspect drawing ability. Secondly, and most importantly, I can use a style I am comfortable with and represents me as a musician.
I am somewhat camera shy, so you are not going to get a big picture of my ugly mug anywhere, but a painting is more me. All my music so far has been me playing and singing everything, learning where I have to. That the paintings are being created in the same way is not only rather appropriate but I think says something important.
As of the moment, I have only done two. The first for Dance and Spin has sort of set the style while the second for Lonely Little Girl is just proving that the style works for a darker rock track as well as an upbeat American Folk track.
Now I have those too covered (excuse the pun) I can start working on other covers in between all my other work. Once I catch up, I will try and do a cover before I upload a new track to anywhere. I now have a problem because the tracks on YouTube have the wrong image and I am loathed to do much about it. But I will see.
Hope you all like these. I am not an artist in any way and without Photoshop I could not do this, but I am having a lot of fun!
