Artist Statement for the Cover Artwork for Land of Deborah - Danielle Vennard
Deborah asked me if I’d be interested in designing her album cover artwork for “Little Stories.” Although I have no experience creating album artwork she thought it would be cool to see what I could do in the style of my charcoal drawings I had been working on. I was uncertain at first that I can design the entire cover but at very least some artwork that could be integrated would be the goal.
I knew starting out I wanted create a portrait or multiple portraits. I scoured her Facebook looking for images of her that stuck out though many did as she is a very strikingly beautiful person (inside and out). I found four images that were the most pleasing to my eye and decided to create four individual drawings of her. The thought was to have multiple options depending on what Deborah liked best for the cover but then the idea to arrange them all in one composition became intriguing. Not only in a two-dimensional arrangement but to place within a scene as if they were paper dolls in a diorama.
To make this work I did something I have never done with my drawings and I cut out her forms to separate from any paper background. I photographed each one individually on black matt board in case they would be arranged later via Photoshop. Then I grabbed yellow and orange paper to use as a background color and began working on a composition with all four portrait drawings. I started as flat as I could get it and then began moving them around and adding extra lights to create dramatic shadows that gave the portraits a sense of taking up more space. Ultimately two of the portraits fit together in a more pleasing way and best made sense together even though the scale of Deborah in one is so much smaller than the other. This dual portrait (one of her smiling and one of her looking more thoughtful) would be the focus.
While creating this piece, I had been engrossing myself in art documentaries, one called, Abstract, The Art of Design. One episode centered on the artist, Tinker Hatfield, most noted for his shoe design. In this episode, he talked about how he had designed many shoes for the Nike Air Jordan line. He was asked to design the 20th edition and the design reflected all 20 years of Michael Jordan’s career as a pro athlete by using icons that represented each year. This spurred an idea for Deborah’s cover by using icons to represent the imagery in all twelve of her songs on “Little Stories.” The arrangement of the icons was done to create a feel of tapestry or lace type repetitive design. The tapestry was then applied as a layer on top of the background image of the colored paper. The photograph of the two portraits was on top but the multiple shadows also weaved in and out of the tapestry.
The final design showcases many art mediums I have passions for. It was one of the most in depth pieces I have ever created since graduating from art school in 2007. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to make this for not only a talented singer/songwriter but also for someone who by chance became a dear friend after meeting at a creatives conference in January of 2016.
