Illustrator #1

What is it?

This is Ryley Walker’s album cover for “Golden Sings That Have Been Sung,” which was released in 2016. It features a nature scene including different layers of the atmosphere, such as the ocean, the sun, the clouds, and outer space. The album cover portrays the music accurately, since the music is laid back and retro. 

What do you think was used to create it?

I believe this album cover was created in Illustrator, since it has a very hand-made and graphic appearance. The artist did not use any real-life images; he created this piece from scratch using tools in Illustrator. I think there was heavy use of the pen tool, seen in the outlines of the sun and the clouds, which gives it a hand-drawn, authentic feeling. The gradient mesh tool was definitely used to create the gradient in the sun, the clouds and the sky, which gives more depth to the graphic. It looks like the ellipse tool combined with the pathfinder tool was used to create the moon shapes that lead the eye to the top of the album cover. 

What design elements do you see?

Contrast

There is a definite contrast between the black outer space and the light pastel colors of the sky, which makes the artist’s name stand out. Also, the bright orange stands out among the neutral sky and clouds. 

Movement

This scene has a lot of movement within the sun that appears to pour over the ocean. It leads the eye from the bottom of the graphic up to the artist’s name at the top, with the moon shapes transforming as they lift upward. The gradient also gives this graphic movement and depth within the images.