I was offered an exciting opportunity to create cover art for a musician called Sleeping Colors. This was my first time doing this type of commission and it was a great experience where I think I learned a lot. Last semester I took a 2D design class and one of the assignments was to create synesthesia art. For the assignment we chose a song and free drew whatever came up while we were listening to it. I found the assignment so fun. It is also not uncommon for me to create art that is influenced by a song that I love. I used a similar technique for these pieces. For both of the songs I listened to them over and over again while I created to choose the colors that stood out to me and the composition of the piece.

Song 1

The first song felt like a dreamlike state, with airy vocals and psychedelic instrumentals. I felt like I was leaning into a surrealist vibe. There was a few quotes that really stood out to me: “Everything’s a metaphor” ,”I’m awake and dreaming” and “The hallway holds a thousand doors, each one leads to somewhere”. I visualized stairs and doors that lead to strange places and a moon on a string. I added the freakishly long dresser when I thought of the thousand doors line. I wanted to keep the color palette simple with only a few shades as to not take away from the scene itself. My favorite part about this piece is the shadow behind the moon. I felt like it added a lot of depth to the moon and also the background. I used primarily alcohol based markers as well as colored pencils in the areas I wanted to be softer, like the clouds. This song was so inspiring to create with.

Song 2

The first thing I visualized when I listened to the second song was a kaleidoscope, with changing colors and shapes. To me, the lyrics were about looking past the expectations of society and doing your own thing. I was sure that I wanted to make a mandala for this song and I picked bolder colors because for me this song was more upbeat and had psychedelic vibes. I just started in the center of the paper and started drawing whatever shapes came to my mind while listening to the song. My favorite part about this piece is the color palette.

Overall, I had such a great time creating these images and I feel like the artist’s style of music and my art style went really well together which made my ideas flow freely. I hope that I will be able to work with them again in the future.