How to create album art? (free preferably)

[pattonfreak1]

Can anyone give me some insight as to creating album cover art? I'm looking for a way (free ) to create an album cover and I'm wondering what ways I can go about doing so. Are there any programs or websites that can help me in creating art or pictures and arrange words like band name and title?


Thanks in advance

 

[TesticleMilkshake]

Picture of band and photoshop. I can draw some thing for you. What is the "theme" for the album?

 

[pattonfreak1]

Thanks for the quick reply!
The theme I guess is your typical interplanetary sci fi apocalyptic biblical proportioned hokey bull crap

 

[Sloan]

There are lots of free image editing programs available. GIMP is very popular.
For logos and things, I suggest using vector art as it can be resized to any size without loss of quality. The industry standard is Adobe Illustrator, but there are free alternatives.

 

[AntonioPetrole]

I hate to say it but your better off paying someone, even if its not that much money. As much as alot of us want to be able to do everything you can't just dive into it and have a decent product.

I hate to say it but when I see a band that has super cheap looking artwork I might not even give them the time of day to listen to them, its essentially the face of your band and its the first quality that people would see (on a FB page or a CD)

Edit: If your really broke then I would also consider contacting someone involved in getting there graphic design degree/freelancers starting, they will most likely do a better job and alot of them just want work whether its paid or not

 

[smy1]

pattonfreak: by the way you write about it ("free", "I guess", "typical ... bullcrap") it seems like you are not serious about it at all. Why would anyone want to help you out with anything ...?

 

[pattonfreak1]

Well its not that I'm not serious... More like not worthy. I feel my stuff isn't anywhere near the same level as others who frequent here. Plus I know djent is frowned upon by most around here. Also know that the whole "space" themes music and artwork is kinda played out but I do what I do.
Sorry if my intent came across as uninspired.

 

[Terminus]

If you're intending to do a one time cover attempt, much like mixing, art/photo manipulation is something you can't learn overnight...you could try poring over some stock image sites like morguefile for something roughly similar to your theme and using that, often the only thing you have to include is a name in the credits, sometimes it's royalty free, etc just depends on the person who took the photo. You could also go to conceptart.org and ask one of the hungry artists there to make a cover for you, there's even a section for unpaid work as alot of those folks just want to get a portfolio going much like the newer AE's around here.