My latest album cover art...

[dan weapon]

Just for anyone interested in this sort of thing.

It's a little cliche but it's exactly what they wanted. (and before anyone says anything, a modern city in the background with old Armada ships in the foreground kinda doesn't make sense from a timeline point of view - hence why I sort of introduced a loose 'entering hell' theme...)

 

[aberration]

Complete with Christophe logo, even. Very clean, nicely done!

 

[Keregioz]

Really good job you did there.

 

[slashvanyoung]

I'm usually not a fan of modern PSD art, but Dan, the stuff you've been posting here from time to time (Clipping Death artwork, Metalliban etc.) is just amazing.

As a football fan I thought about printing your football-squirrel pic and putting it up.

 

[Felix Neumann]

Wow, I´m impressed. Looks very good, Dan!

@Slash I did not know, you are a Football fan. What Club do you like/support?

 

[wishtheend]

Excellent work. How much do you typically charge for album art? I'd be interested in hiring you in a few months for my band's cd.

 

[Chryst Krispies]

That's fucking sick.

 

[garry666]

fuck did you do some wicked shit ill deffinatly be hitting you up when ive finished my album.

 

[Joematthews]

Do you mind if I ask for a REALLY rough outline of how you create something so awesome dan?

Joe

 

[dan weapon]

Excellent work. How much do you typically charge for album art? I'd be interested in hiring you in a few months for my band's cd.

Cheers guys!

I only look for about £75 for a front cover and not too much more if back covers/inlays etc all need to be done... which I think is pretty reasonable for minimum of 20 hours work!

 

[dan weapon]

Do you mind if I ask for a REALLY rough outline of how you create something so awesome dan?

Joe

Man, that's hard to answer quickly...

Put VERY simply, it's just combining a million different photos and images in photoshop haha. (ok - hundreds, not millions). Some bits I draw directly in photoshop myself, eg seaspray, smoke and that ridge right in the middle of the desert are just drawn with paintbrushes.

There must be about 10 different photos of skies for example (that's before you get into lightning territory). It's basically finding a way to combine lots of different stuff together to make it look cohesive.
Each indiviual image is altered so much, from brightness/contrast, to sharpness/bluriness, to saturation of colour etc to make sure it blends in properly.
Then often, each image will be copied a few times and set to different layer styles (eg "hard light", "overlay", "multiply" or whatever) and then with different opacities for the desire effect.

 

[iamandy]

awesome work man!

 

[Metaltastic]

Jesus dude, that's fucking awesome, the amount of detail is staggering, and the textures are mind-blowing - and I think the whole "clipper ships superimposed on a modern cityscape" idea is really cool, sorta steam-punk

 

[dan weapon]

Cheers man!

I've got another one that I've been working on recently.... It's a total Thrash cover. Not finished yet though - the man at the front looks too disconnected from the rest of the image which is annoying me. I tried to make it a cross between my style and Ed Repka (who did the classic Megadeth/Death and every other thrash band's art). Cheesey post nuclear war style!

 

[FIXXXER]

AWESOME!
could you make a small tutorial just to show where to start and stuff...

 

[abyssofdreams]

he doesn't look disconnected at all!! but the building on the far back/right does a bit.

 

[slashvanyoung]

This is very "So Far, So Good, So What...?"!

I like it because of the Repka-Vibe... he did some, if not THE, best covers in metal.

@ Felix: I'm just a huge football fan in general. Not necessarily rooting for one team, but there's always a place in my heart for "Borussia Dortmund" and some of our regional teams like "Rot-Weiss Erfurt".

Bundesliga, Premier League, Primera Division, Serie A, Eredivisie... I dig them all!

 

[iamandy]

AWESOME!
could you make a small tutorial just to show where to start and stuff...

theres afew tutorials on here: http://psd.tutsplus.com/ to do stuff kinda like what Dan is doing..

Cheers man!

I've got another one that I've been working on recently.... It's a total Thrash cover. Not finished yet though - the man at the front looks too disconnected from the rest of the image which is annoying me. I tried to make it a cross between my style and Ed Repka (who did the classic Megadeth/Death and every other thrash band's art). Cheesey post nuclear war style!

Have you tried adding a shadow behind the fella stood at the front?

 

[Machinated]

dan, that second one is pure thrash! awesome

 

[-J-]

dang, you got skills! love the radiation one too! great stuff man.