alternate palette #1
alternate palette #2
final palette
final version
Original photo by Maciek Jasik
Process
“Neon Nights” was a summer personal project inspired by a portrait from a series by photographer Maciek Jasik. I was drawn to the photo’s high contrast and bright neon color palette.
What started out as a vector drawing, turned out to be a cool-looking album art cover. I tried out more than a few colorways in an effort to explore other more obscure combinations, however, I felt like the dark teal worked best with the saturation of the reds and oranges. After I finished the subject’s face, I felt that the composition was lacking in some depth and dimension, especially with the flat vector style. I added the sort of “seeing double” effect with a blur and reduced opacity to keep the focal point. This additional element lends itself to the idea of the hypothetical album title “Neon Nights” in that these late nights are often a blurry dream under the night’s artificial lights.