Community Expert

Question

Something for the Weekend - Part 250 - A picture for the album!

Forum|Forum|4 months ago
September 26, 2025
34 replies
4704 views

Thanks to all who took the time to participate in our last 'Poison Pen' challenge. There were some great ideas and images.

This week we have something different, thanks to an idea suggested a couple of weeks ago by @Trevor.Dennis . Growing up, I always liked buying record albums and I loved the cover art that contained the record, sometimes as much, and occasionaly more, than the record itself! There were iconic images such as Hipgnosis' graphical prism on Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side of the Moon', or Richard Corben's fantastic graveyard bike on Meatloaf's 'Bat out of Hell', and who can forget Peter Blake and Jann Haworth's cover for the Beatles' Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.

So the challenge for this week is to think of an album you liked and come up with your own cover design for it. There is no real starter image but I have attached a simple grey square 2500 x 2500 pixels in sRGB to use as a format.

When you post your response can you add just a few words on what the album is and how you went about it. It may help others see the potential of different approaches, software, and tools to such a challenge.

The “rules”:

Anything goes, as long as it meets the forum rules on decency, copyright, etc.
Anyone, and everyone, is welcome to have a go, whether you are a complete beginner or a Photoshop expert. This is not just for our forum “regulars”.
The challenge is not limited to Photoshop. Any Adobe software can be used.
There are no prizes apart from the chance to practice, show off your skills, or bring a bit of humor and fun. Don't be shy, join in and have a go!

When posting back your image — please use the blue reply button in this first post and use the 'Insert Photos' icon at the top of the reply box. If posting a comment on someone else’s entry, then please use the grey reply button next to their image post.

Have fun!

Dave

Show previous replies

T

Turtle.PSD

Participating Frequently

= D

Tracklist:

I generated the doors within Firefly with specific references. Sponge effect from the filter gallery to emulate the effect on the image I was referencing. Frontmans door door has 2 seperate layer masks one for just the glass in it's seperate blending mode. I used a color range select mask to easily isolate the glass which is the only door part not affected by a gradient map.
The background was subtely distressed by adding monochromatic noise on a grey layer, gaussian blurred significantly, with adjustment layers and opacity change.

Then I used some splatter brush to distress text and add finishing touches.

davescm

Author

Community Expert

I like the way you used different doors for each band member. Thanks for including an explanation on how you went about the challenge.
Dave

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

No Ai again. In fact the ape on the Endless River cover is the only time I used Ai for this thread.

davescm

Author

Community Expert

Haha, A new take on the album and who doesn't remember dueling banjos in 'Deliverance'. Very clever. 🙂
Dave

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

This one was the most fun to do Dave. I am not sure there is any such thing as a steel banjo like Mark Knopfler's on the original album cover, so I started with this one from Sketchfab. Then tried to find a new steel skin before realizing that I was being stupid, and that Mark's guitar has a central disk that could be shaped to fit the banjo. So most of time went into making the strings look at least a little bit believable.

Apparently Brothers in Arms is the first CD that most people bought after buying their first CD player. That was the case with me, but I don't remember the last time we played a CD in this house. I am not even sure that my car radio even plays CDs!

It's great to see some more covers being uploaded, and some very interesting ideas as well.

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

Hey! No one said we couldn't do the easy ones. 😉

davescm

Author

Community Expert

Another very good re-creation, Trevor, nice. 🙂
Dave

jane-e

Community Expert

Cheers!

Jane

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

My feet were tapping just reading the song titles Jane. Least ways, they were till I got to Lily the Pink. After that it was more a case of 'How am I going toget that song out of my head?'

C

Christelle RD

Community Expert

Dave, I thought my computer has got a trouble to download the image 🤣
So here is the cover of “Magic Oneohtrix Point Never” and it illustrates marvellously the music.
I'm sorry, I have big troubles to paint on Ps ... not very happy of my drops. First I did the psychedelic background on Illustrator, then I went on Photoshop to liquify it and to paint the multicolored drops.

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

@Christelle RD I had to look this band up, and they sound Like Kraftwerk if Ged joined them. That's some bizarre musioc right there, and no mistake. I'd say you got remarkably close to the original with your rendition, and that was not an easy graphic to recreate.

...but do you actually listen to this band? I have most of King Crimsons albums, and even managed to persaude my ex. to go see them at The Royal Albert Hall, and she loved it! The strange thing with KC is that I only listen to their later stuff now, and they are the most confronting tracks on first hearing them. Is that how it works with this band?

C

Christelle RD

Community Expert

Thank you @Trevor.Dennis
Oh, a concert at the Royal Albert Hall, it must really be something special!

I listened to Kraftwerk and King Crimson, I didn't know them and I'm happy of those discoveries 😊 - Love the electro style of Kraftwerk and the jazzy rock of The Court of the Crimson King (what a cover)!
I try to keep up with new music by reading magazines, but my main sources of inspiration are my ballet teachers. Out of personal taste (or habit, I'm not sure), I tend to prefer instrumental music (I prefer music without vocals, with exceptions such as David Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Mika, ...). Basically, I do love classical music and that extends to film music and its variations (Harry Potter, William Joseph's Variation on Hunger Games, for example) and electronic music.

I recently discovered Oneohtrix Point Never and I really like it.
When I listen to them while working, it's because I want to feel new. Now that you mention it, I'm thinking about it: artistically new. Right now, I'm trying out lots of new media so I can mix them together. I used to only do realistic figurative illustrations, but now I would like to integrate surrealism... In short, this music pretty much represents my state of mind at the moment.
Maybe there is a reason too why you're listening to KC later stuff so much right now ...

Oups, sorry for taking so long 🤭

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

jane-e

Community Expert

Haha Trevor, that's funny!

Jane

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

Just as I was posting this, I realized I could/should have called it 'Chimp Floyd' but it took too long getting anywhere near to what must have been a custom font, so it is what it is. Full disclosure, I used Firefly to produce the Chimp/Ape with its arms in something like the required positions, but that's the only Ai. Thanks to the people who gave the tips about accessing the free Adobe Stock images. BTW, in case you have not seen it, Julieanne Kost has a useful video on how to use the new Generative Fill models.

davescm

Author

Community Expert

A clever take on the original, Trevor, nicely done.
Dave

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

An auld acquaintance including the greatest piobroch, the old album shown in the low sun with a new allusion.

Click to get closer, Click again to get closer still

davescm

Author

Community Expert

A very appropriate image of Skye for that album, Jacob.
Dave

Jacob Bugge

Community Expert

Thank you very much, Dave.

JR Boulay

Community Expert

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add but when there is nothing left to take away.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Acrobate du PDF, InDesigner et Photoshopographe

Trevor.Dennis

Community Expert

Band member Phil Rudd lives close to me. Well, close if you count Cook Strait and half of the North Island close. He lives in Tuaranga, and has something of a colourful past

Kevin Stohlmeyer

Community Expert

This was a great challenge this week guys. Gave me an opportunity to revisit a personal favorite and not well-known soundtrack. (Movie is pretty good too for two young actors.)

A variation on the original which showed Matthew Modine only - but missed the relation between Nicholas Cage's character and "Birdy" as he loses touch with his friend.

davescm

Author

Community Expert

A clever take with a nice nod in style to the original, Kevin.
Dave

Show more replies

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded