Week #42 ('20) Art Appreciation
Welcome to my weekly Art Appreciation post, where I provide a list of some amazing album covers, single art, and random art that have come out within the past week. I’ll give you the artist/photographer/painter/magician’s name, as well as any social media or websites where you can go and check out more of their work. Click here to go back and see some other Art Appreciation posts.
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This week we have a couple of pieces that show off the underrated genius of traditional illustration, specifically old-school comic/graphic novel styles, as well as another painted piece that tells much while showing little. Hopefully, it’s going to be an interesting contrast for y’all, as each piece here uses their own compositional styles and techniques to achieve different goals.
Something to pay attention to? Text. Some people use their album covers as a sort of credits page (especially nowadays as the “back-cover” of an album isn’t always seen since CDs fell out of fashion), some others rely on the strength of their images to stay with you so that you remember who the artist is, and some telegraph exactly the artist and project without having to use words.
Remember, use this post to follow and subscribe to these artists; they deserve as much recognition as the musicians they are attached to.
Artist(s): FRKO
Fendi Don, by Ru$h
This guy has done a few pieces for members of the Delaware scene recently: Jay NiCE and Ru$h’s Fly Art and Famili’, as well as the upcoming An Album Called Classic were all drawn by FKRO, who’s style is one of the most unique of anyone who I’ve seen so far. I love comics, having grown up on the Sunday papers (cutting out my favorite strips to keep for later), so this black-lined style that looks like it’s ripped straight out of a risqué adults 70’s magazine is totally in my wheelhouse. Comic books are obviously no strangers to text and images living together in harmony, having to tell a story with both words and visuals in a way that makes sense. In that spirit, a comic book setting is a perfect one for an album cover: you need to let the listeners know what we’re getting into, and from the ace of spades, cigars, steak and lobster plates you can gather we’re about to have a high-class time. But we are also told directly with the text what we’re about to experience: The writing in the sand (which is a great way to utilize visual and text together), the huge 3D letters, and even a speaking bubble, which you wouldn’t think would work on an album cover, all come together to tell you both about the album and the scene it’s coming from. The colors are also fantastic, using some of the washed out colors you would find in a normal comic book, but then throwing that flush-red coat on there to really draw your attention. I’m loving everything this guy puts out, which includes these music covers, but it also extends into some FIRE clothing pieces; I was looking through his website and the shit is not only bomb, but it’s also moderately priced. One of my favorite artistic discoveries in a while.
FRKO's Website/FRKO's Instagram/FRKO’s Twitter
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Artist(s): Khari Turner
Streams of Thought Vol. 3: Cane & Abel, by Black Thought
Pretty much a total 180 from FKRO’s piece above, Khari has a statement here that is made entirely without words as well as without conventional imagery. I’ve spoken on faces before here on these Art Appreciation posts, and how many people are able to subconsciously connect with a face on an album cover in ways they may not even realize. But the flip-side of this coin is what we have here in this beautiful painting: you are given the basics with the nose and sort of the lips, but without the eyes you will have a hard time identifying with the figure. But I think that’s the entire point here, because this person Khari painted could be anyone. It’s sort of like an unknown soldier kind of situation, where there is no face of Black struggle in America because… well because it’s everyone. I can’t speak for Black America here, but that’s what I think of whenever I look at this, a sense that this face is just a template that fills in with the faces like George Floyd’s or Trayvon Martin’s as history flows by. I’d love to hear what you all think of this, because I feel like everyone is going to have a different view on this.
Khari's Website/Khari's Instagram
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Artist(s): Billy Bonks
Ultimate Mind, by Supreme Cerebral
I actually saw the process that Billy used to make this piece here over on Instagram, and let me say I am impressed as a motherfucker. What you see here is almost entirely hand-drawn, with minor changes done digitally (looks like mostly on a color level), and the result is something that looks straight out of some crazy-ass graphic novel. Comic books can look like what FRKO made for Ru$h’s Fendi Don, or it can be like this: highly colorful, incredibly detailed, and stylized to the upmost. The blood and electricity effects really make the color on this thing pop, specifically the blues and yellows. The coolest thing about a piece like this is that (besides being entirely badass), like normal graphic novels, there are a few techniques that make this visually pleasing and satisfying beyond surface aesthetic. First off, the image has a great sense of symmetry: it can easily be split down the middle with the yellows of the glove providing that visual balance with the left and right sides. Also, if you remember back to those earlier posts, direction of the piece is very tangible, flowing inward towards the middle with the eyes, hands, wires, and effects all being pointed towards the center of the piece. At the end of the day, this shit is just badass, so go give Billy his flowers for this one.
Billy's Website/Billy's Instagram
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