From Sketch to Chaos

I rarely show my sketches but this time I make an exception. Just to show how my work progresses from an idea that I talked back in my previous blog post, using the tools that I have (again, previous blog post) to a sketch that I can show to my customers - and hopefully finish too. Don't worry, you'll get to see that finished art too.

Creative process isn't always straightforward. More than often, it needs time to grow - either with time or with some other methods. Sometimes its a combination of may things. Black Chaos cover art for example, that I did for Italian death metal band Profanal, took a long time to finish. Mostly because it wasn't meant to be cover art for anything in the first place!

I have very little time for my own projects but "Black Chaos" the artwork started its life as a random idea in my head that I tried to translate onto paper. I didn't had any comissions going on at that time so I kinda forgot it after I wasn't entirely happy with the sketches.

Original sketches. I made atleast four sketches I think - two of which are shown here.  The idea didn't really had any name yet, but it had been given birth.

Black Chaos got lost and the idea didn't emerge again until some time later when Stench of Decay needed cover for their "Visions Beyond Death" 7" EP. I started pondering with the idea how to incorporate Stench of Decay elements to the image but the things I tried didn't feel right, it just didn't work. So I did something else for them (http://eeroart.blogspot.fi/2012_05_01_archive.html).

Again, the sketches and idea was lost until the band Profanal approached me with a need for cover. Right after they revealed their album title - "Black Chaos" - I knew that my sketch had been given a name. I knew just to what to give to them. But the nice part is that even after that, the idea continued to grow thanks to the input of the band.

This is the actual sketch I offered to the band Profanal.

The feedback I got from the band was to lose the planets and make the island more prominent, evil and gross. Those were valid points, its all about the island that is chaos. With the claws and huge spikes protruding from the island it made it much more sinister and much more like a living, gargantuan organism that sole purpose would be wreak havoc and chaos.

The actual artpiece just before inking.

There you have it - sometimes its a very short and direct road but with this, lets just say it had time to mature. Finished art:

Black Chaos - all done.

As you can see, once I am committed to my final sketch, very little changes are made until the art is complete. Finished cover art for the soon to be released album:

Profanal - Black Chaos (CD and LP, Iron Tyrant Records, 2012)

Next time - you might have guessed it, its all about the actual inking process. Until that time, feel free to leave a comment!

-Eero