Thursday, May 21, 2009

The NightHorse Cometh

I recently drew this image as an album cover for the very talented(and Irish!) band, Super Extra Bonus Party. It's for their new LP 'NightHorses', which is released this month and I'm very much looking forward to hearing.
I'll stick up the step-by-step process, just so ye can see how the magic(cough) happens.

First off, the concept that I put to the guys. The brief was to have a horse in space wearing armour and being shot at by attackers with rayguns, so the piece designed itself really...


Here are the pencils, no significant changes from the rough other than I flipped the image as I thought it read better the opposite way.

And so onto the inked piece. I was asked to make the horse's head bigger as the fact that he was actually a HORSE might be getting a little lost in there. So I embiggened his noggin a tad. A good call by the band.

Here's my first stab at the colouring. I think it has some decent elements, but on reflection the image looks a bit washed out and the planes needed to be more defined.


Here's the final version. The band wanted the NightHorse to stand out against the BG more, so we lightened him up while darkening his linework, and threw some darker blue hues behind him to pop him a bit more.


And that's my heroic story.

12 comments:

Scribbler said...

Great work man! I guess when it comes to space age fighter horses your only reference would've been Thirty Thirty from Bravestar, the cheesiest rogue sidekick in cartoon history, or Mr Ed in that episode where they put a tinfoil hat on him to scare the neighbours! Yours came out on top again man anyway. Striking looking horse you got there, great comp and colour!

Stephen Mooney said...

Cheers Tom! How's things on your end? Must get the lads out for ales at some point soon.

Kevin Mc Namara said...

Nice work Stephen, really top notch! Its gunna make a savage album cover! The band have to be chuft with it, its alot better than a few of the art i've seen irish band use, thanks for the step by step too

Philip Kennedy said...

Great to see the step-by-step.

Lovely stuff!

Stephen Mooney said...

Ta Philip! I've just been over to your blog/magazine, and I was blown away. I think, without overstating things, that it's the best blog I've ever visited. I adore the content and design, it's exactly what I've been looking for.
Sterling work man.
Here's the link to Philip's 'Fieldwork' magazine blog, go look everybody!
http://fieldworkmagazine.blogspot.com

image color correction said...

Totally cool and great stuff!!! Thanks.

Lorenzo said...

I love the Iron Horse! Great picture and great idea the step by step process.
Bye,
Lorenzo

Philip Kennedy said...

Ah cheers man, appreciate it!

Declan Shalvey said...

Looks great man. The printed image is a bit darker, but still great.

Stephen Mooney said...

Really? Haven't actually seen it yet, looking forward to getting my mitts on it!

ryan marshall said...

great job stephen! cosmic colours!

Gillian Comerford said...

I love horses