Tim's 2nd style model analysis (CD case)

In our group we have all played around with using drawings for our main images in our CD cases as this idea works extremely well for our type of band. But this trait of most indie bands seems to get less detailed the more mainstream the bands get.

For instance at the low end of the specrum is an artist called Elin Ruth who has this rather detailed album cover:

A bit more mainstream is Scott Matthews who had a very detailed painting for his first single:

After this we get a tad more mainstream and a tad more unusual and sketchy with Elbow's Seldom seen kid:

Then to more mainstream acoustic music-Damien Rice's single Volcano used a very basic and sketchy drawing (much like most of his album artwork):

Until finally a more mainstream name like Jason Mraz, who used possibly the most basic drawing for his UK album cover for 'We sing we dance we steal things':

But a good middle ground to analyse is the debut album cover for the band 'Those dancing days' who used detailed drawings of each band member to firstly show who the band is and to entice their target audience of young teenagers who are commonly associated with sketching.

This kind of album cover is very simple and doesn't go into much more than just showing the band members and the childish presence they carry but being very simple is where this cover excels as adding any more would complicate the meaning behind it and possibly confuse their target audience. Of course the cover also excels in providing very skilled drawings of the band members which clearly resemble the different features they all carry which makes them such a unique band. This may unfortunately play upon the Male Gaze Theory etc but the clear reason for using detailed drawings was to keep the childish entity whilst still giving a clear image of what the band looks like. This could work extremely well for our bands first album cover as the kind of muci alligns quite well with this band, however if this kind of drawing was to be used some improvements on its likeness to childish drawings could be made. The best of these album cover drawings are the ones that show a strong connection to children's doodling but have a few facial features that resemble the band members so audiences can enjoy finding these differences.

A final thing to take away from this album cover is its unique way of filling white spaces. Unfortunately the green streaks give the apearance that they were an after throught and just drawn to quickly improve its otherwise white and grey appearance. But overall these streaks give some movement to a very static and still life looking cover and actually form a line in which the audiences eyes can follow. This concept works by catching the attention of the audience and then forcing their eyes to follow the lines towards the band name and album title. They also in a very obvious way represent grass which is almost always associated with childhood, especially as the grass movements seem to envolope the drawings of the band members as if they are hiding in amongst the blades themselves. Overall this connection with childhood which gives a clear theme and mood about the band would work exquisitely well for our band which has clearly adopted the same mood but with autumn undertones.