Fine Lines

Castles EP by sublunis

Album art by KLA.GustFlo

Another collaboration with the amazing ambient/synth/piano/soundtrack/songs-for-deep-thinkies artist sublunis! The new EP takes the music in a different direction than the previous two albums, while still maintaining a signature style that makes the artist so recognizable. I attempted to work that in with the art - another alcohol ink work like for Sublunar, but a different subject and composition, plus a font style not typically associated with ambient electronic music.

The EP is out now - may it deliver you inspiration.

Castles EP process images

May / June 2023

This project, I'll admit, had a slight bump in the road. I'd intended to make a full analog art piece for the album cover, but schedule constraints meant I would not have finished the art in time for the album release! So, I pivoted. While I love the feel of a fully analog work, I am very fast at hybrid renderings (thank you years of architecture projects). I photographed the work at 60% completion, bringing it to a full-fledged art ready for an album cover. That freed up the remaining time to focus on the graphic design, something that would have been rushed otherwise.

In the end, I think I'm happier with this iteration for a sublunis album. My artwork for his last album was a digitally altered version of a piece I'd previously completed:

like, on an actual flag - which was its original purpose - it looks great!

those look fine! lovely, even! with the semi-transparent fabric, the way it catches the sunlight, it looks beautiful!

but now look at how it looks digitally

the pink and blue are so vibrant compared to the sad, lonely lavender!

and let's look at this statement from Michael Page, the creator of the bi flag:

(sidenote: he created this flag in 1998, so if his takes on bisexuality is different from yours, it's okay to notice that! a lot has changed since the 90s when it comes to lived experiences and the way we describe them. but, it's also important to respect his thoughts about this and the way he presented them, even if today, we'd probably not say that bi people "blend unnoticeably into both the gay/lesbian and straight communities.")

so in pantone colors, the pink is 226 C, the blue is 286 C, and the purple of the flag is 258 C.

but...here's the deal

Michael talks here about how the key to understanding the symbolism is to know that the purple blends into both the pink and blue. and on a physical flag, I think you can see that!

but digitally, it absolutely does not blend. it clashes badly, and looks oddly separate from the other two colors.

which got me wondering...what purple do you get if you actually blend 226 C and 286 C?

oh! oh, my god.

look at that! look at how nicely it fits between those colors!

look at it next to the original color scheme! look at how much more vibrant the purple is!

and friends. this is just blending through rgb! you get even more purple variations when you use other color spaces!

let's compare all of them:

(top: original, lab. middle: lrgb, lch. bottom: rgb, hsl)

look at all of the different purple options you can get just by combining these two colors!

if you want almost too-vibrant saturation, you can go hsl, if you want something more relaxed that's closer to the original, you can go lab or lrgb. and if you want to split the difference, lch is bright and violet, while rgb is there with its saturated but darker purple.

anyway, I guess I don't really have a point here? this isn't so much an informational post as it is Me Getting Weird About Colors, but I think it is a useful lesson about how colors look very different on screens compared to how they look on objects in real life.

and sometimes, I think it's okay to compensate for that.

out of all of these, this is my favorite bi flag:

it's the one where the colors were blended in lab color space. for me, the lighter, softer purple is close enough to the original bi flag purple, while also feeling like a smoother blend of the blue and pink

but that's just me! and it might not even look the same to you, since every screen is different, because technology is a nightmare!

Dark Black Locust

2022

alcohol ink, colored pencil, gel medium

9x12 unframed, 11x14 framed

Stretching gnarled fingers, twisting, unraveling

upwards and outwards, enclosing and

breaks

every trotted piece a warning

.

.

Dark Black Locust framed

Spiralcase

2007

water-based oil paint and oil pastels on canvas board

"Spiralcase" was a painting I first saw in a dream. I was a spirit, incorporeal and nearly formless, and I was racing. I wound down a dimly lit spiral staircase, or perhaps the staircase wound upward to meet me. A dim light from below cast near color onto the stairs. Shadows lightened and faded the deeper I went, until the stairs ceased their winding and I'd reached the bottom. At the center of the space sat a well, emitting a pale light faintly upward. I approached the well. Bathed in that eerie glow, I reached out and suddenly became aware of my arms. The rest of me slowly took form, a foot stepping closer to the well, a light casting upon my silhouette, reaching all the way up to my face. I had a face.