Durham, Come Save Me

Faithful Johannes @fjwords

OUT NOW

So here it is, the final design. I scanned the images into photoshop and ran them through a colour filter, adding blue to the design. I cleaned up the blue pencil sketch marks underneath the ink and I moved the pendant down, so it’s in line with @fjwords name.

On the back cover I added the ‘moon’ drawing scan from the CD itself in Facebook and added the same blue filter.

For the CD itself, I created an image of the moon (mentioned above) with pen and ink (and a brush) and ran it through another colour filter to give it a warmer hue.

Many thanks to Faithful Johannes @fjwords for trusting me with the album design. I was pretty much left to get on with it. This allowed me to crack on and find my own meaning from the lyrics and express them in the artwork.

Luckily, @fjwords’ lyrics painted such vivid pictures in my mind that it was easy to come up with ideas and sketches. Then, with a sketchbook full, it makes the final design choices so much easier to make.

I trust you’ve all preordered the CD but if not, there’s a link to the CD below. There’s also a T-shirt with the album design on it.

Theres an album release party at the @peoples_bookshop in Durham on Wednesday evening. It’ll be good to see you all there.

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‘No one thought I was a witch when I was young or

Had some money

When my skin was clear

And I lived in Muggleswick with mummy

I prayed on bended knee

I begged “forgiveness please”’

‘Elizabeth Lee Was Not a Witch’

Durham, Come Save Me

Faithful Johannes @fjwords

Out 3rd July (((TOMORROW!!)))

And here is the final design before adding colour in photoshop. I still felt that I needed to refine the final image but as I was keen to start, I decided to draw the final piece four times, then choose the best elements from each one. As it happens, the 4th one turned out just as I wanted it, so I didn’t have to take any elements from the previous pieces. I’ve included the three previous drawings at the end for your amusement.

All of the images you see here are made with pen and black ink on Bristol board. A brush pen was used for blocking in black and grey and for some of the thicker lines, including the hair. At this point you can still see the blue pencil sketch lines, which would be removed in photoshop.

On the back we can see ‘Hob of Pelaw,’ the tightrope walker, falling to his death between Durham Cathedral’s Central tower and one of the West Towers. The moon helping to silhouette Hob’s figure.

The CD image is a pen and ink drawing of the moon, chosen from the lyric ‘I’ll eat beans when the moon’s full.’ It was also then scanned and superimposed behind Hob and the Cathedral for the back cover.

The CD is out tomorrow and is available to buy via the link below. I love this album and I exclusively listened to it while working on the design without feeling the need for a change. It’s full of off the wall perspectives on well known and not so well known local stories, and is coated with humour and sadness.

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‘No one thought I was a witch when I was young or

Had some money

When my skin was clear

And I lived in Muggleswick with mummy

Yes, it was me that freed the corvids

Now, that’s a cruel and evil torment’

‘Elizabeth Lee Was Not a Witch’

Durham, Come Save Me

Faithful Johannes @fjwords

Out 3rd July

Here I’m sketching out the album artwork a few times to refine the layout and get Elizabeth Lee’s (the witch’s) image looking right.

The title text is based on text from the Lindisfarne Gospels and the ‘Faithful Johannes’ text and the song list on the back is based on ancient runes.

I liked the decorative strip behind the title but again it was starting to feel a little cluttered.

I’ve started working on the hair. Along with the untidiness of it, i started adding single strands of hair. This is to feel like there’s an electrical force supercharging the air. Is this due to her being a witch and having magical powers or is it born out of sheer frustration? I’ll let you decide.

You can see the back cover taking shape. For this I brought a few elements from the sketchbook together. There’s Hob the tightrope walker falling from his tightrope suspended between 2 towers of Durham Cathedral. Behind is a full moon, taken from the earlier sketch based on the lyric ‘I’ll eat beans when the moons full.’

In the third sketch you can see the hair developing more, the decorative strip behind the title is gone and the expression on her face is getting a little tighter.

At this stage I was feeling confident that I was ready to start on the final piece.

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‘No one thought I was a witch

When I was young or

Had some money

When my skin was clear

And I lived in Muggleswick with mummy

I’d pray on bended knee

I’d beg ‘forgiveness please’’

‘Elizabeth Lee Was Not a Witch’

Durham, Come Save Me

Faithful Johannes @fjwords

Out 3rd July

Now I had an idea what I wanted from the hair, it was time to get the expression right on her face.

I think the first sketch captures what I was after. Elizabeth Lee’s eyes are looking up toward where the ‘Durham, Come Save Me’ title will be on the cover, as if this is what she is silently pleading for. She’s obviously been crying and in distress but there’s a little bit of hope in the despair.

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Pre-orders for the CD with a lyric sheet/ download available now at: https://faithfuljohannes.bandcamp.com/album/durham-come-save-me

‘Then I learned to stay sort of blank

Kinda calm

Sometimes that’d slip though and I might play along

Plucked a hair from a kid one year

Said I’d curse her with a tincture’

‘Elizabeth Lee Was Not a Witch’

Durham, Come Save Me

Faithful Johannes @fjwords

Out 3rd July

This was a critical point in the development of the Elizabeth Lee character. The reference model I used had crazy hair, which I absolutely loved. In my mind, a woman with wild, unkempt hair was another element that could lead people to be tricked into believing she was a witch by the people who accused her.

Even without adding any witch like meaning to the wild hair, it was certainly a striking image. I just had to make it my own. More on that in future posts.

The second image was a quick sketch and this time, I deliberately tried to lean into looking like a witch or hag. I still thought I was on the right track making her look like a normal lass though.

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Pre-orders for the CD with a lyric sheet/ download available now at: https://faithfuljohannes.bandcamp.com/album/durham-come-save-me

‘My Johns and me had three daughters

Taught them the path to glory

The one that leads them far out of this valley

I was proud together that Christmas

But later they’d barely visited us’

‘Elizabeth Lee Was Not a Witch’

Durham, Come Save Me

Faithful Johannes

Out 3rd July

Two more sketches of Elizabeth Lee and I was getting closer to what the final cd design looked like in my head.

I’d also bought a special blue pencil to try out. This is a pencil that doesn’t show up on photography film. You sketch your image in blue pencil, ink over the pencil with black ink and photograph it. The blue sketch under the ink is then not visible when the photos are developed.

However, it doesn’t work with digital cameras, but with photoshop and tweaking the colour balance, it’s not too hard to remove.

The pendant is also getting more simplified and looking more like like a piece of jewellery.

I’ve leaned in to getting the period clothing right a bit more in one of the sketches too.

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‘No one thought I was a witch

When I was young or

Had some money

When my skin was clear

And I lived in Muggleswick with mummy

They gossiped about my second husband

And the invites soon dried up then’

‘Elizabeth Lee Was Not a Witch’

Durham, Come Save Me

Faithful Johannes @fjwords

Out 3rd July

More development of Elizabeth Lee’s character design. The ‘Eye of God’ stained glass window/pendant is being refined to look more like it belongs around her neck. I also added a bit of colour to the pendant, just to get a feel of how it might fit in the design.

The second sketch didn’t turn out as I planned at all. Even though I still kinda like it, I think I was thinking about witches too much. The model was really pretty but I think I may have subconsciously tried to make her look more like a witch, which wasn’t my intention at all.

I did want subtle cues that the locals could disingenuously use to claim she was a witch but overall, I wanted her to look like a normal, bonnie north east lass, which I think I’m closer to in the first sketch.

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LAST ORDERS!! For the ‘Durham, Come Save Me’ T-shirt. I’ll hand over to Faithful Johannes for the details.

‘Last call on the DCSM T-shirt Pre-order - I'm not going to get a tonne of these made, and will be ordering the preorders (plus a couple extra) this weekend

- so nows your chance.

Based on @lazylino 's cover illustration of Elizabeth Lee - supposedly Durham's last witch, from the song 'Elizabeth Lee was not a Witch’'.

https://faithfuljohannes.bandcamp.com/merch/elizabeth-lee-t-shirt