KFSS Entry 1

KFSS Entry 2

KFSS Entry 3

KFSS Entry 4

Completed on: 4/19/2004

Medium: Straight coloring in Photoshop

Info: The first in a series of contest entries for KFSS studios; an up and coming music production studio spearheaded by Stephen Kennedy and his tireless staff. KFSS mainly deals in arranging and remixing music tracks created by famous game composers the world over. After a few successful album releases they held an art contest for the fans to see who could come up with the best CD album cover art for their newest production. The style of this album was to be very trance like so my CD title reflects that. Religion is a big part of my life so that is why I tried to make a connection between trance and transcendence. While I didn't win the album cover with my pieces, I did land a spot on the inside of the CD cover which I'm pretty proud of. I very rarely, if at all, have a chance to enter any contests like this, so to be recognized in such a way by the KFSS staff is pretty special, and I really do feel blessed. Can't wait till I get the album!

Completed on: 4/19/2004

Medium: Straight coloring in Photoshop

Info: To get the lowdown on the whole contest you can click on the first picture in this gallery. The whole nature/energy motif from the first entry seemed pretty interesting to me so I decided to do a variation of it for the second entry. I kept the most powerful central element from the design and decided to try to build around it with white which is usually a very passive and mellow color. To offset that I kept the title black but added a bit of red to draw the eye inside. When I finished this one I could actually picture it being a CD cover which made me a happy guy.

Completed on: 4/19/2004

Medium: Straight coloring and image manipulation in Photoshop

Info: To get the lowdown on the whole contest you can click on the first picture in this gallery. With this piece I went for a laid back feel as opposed to the more energy infused later pieces. My basic goal was to match the title in the image, and I think I was pretty successful with the heavenly mood. The image I started off with was a good start, but I had a lot of work to do when it came down to coloring and making the clouds look even more wispy than they already were. This one was pretty fun, and I was happy with the end result.

Completed on: 4/19/2004

Medium: Straight coloring in Photoshop

Info: To get the lowdown on the whole contest you can click on the first picture in this gallery. With this design things really became fun. I tried to capture the style of trance music in the energy and movement of the piece while also (hopefully) making it interesting to the human eye. I ended up using a ton of highlight brushes as well as soft blur brushes and some motion blur filters. The end result is my favorite piece of the bunch, although I don't know if this one was picked for the inside cover. I'll have to wait to get the album to find that one out :)