LazyLino

http://lazylino.com This is an experiment to keep DJ Lazy Dave (AKA David Sands), a chronic migraine sufferer, away from phone, laptop and tv screens.

[lazylinobylazydave]

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

[lazylinobylazydave]

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

[lazylinobylazydave]

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

[lazylinobylazydave]

‘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

[lazylinobylazydave]

‘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

[lazylinobylazydave]

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

[lazylinobylazydave]

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

[lazylinobylazydave]

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

#durham #edmundbuyers #witch #tshirt #elizabethlee #faithfuljohannes

[lazylinobylazydave]

‘Always found church boring

The hill went from chore to ordeal

Settled on my own ideas of the corporeal

Expired at eighty-seven

I’d lost one John, and then another John’

‘Elizabeth Lee Was Not a Witch’

Durham, Come Save Me

Faithful Johannes @fjwords

Out 3rd July

The album cover was starting to take shape in my head. A tearful, upset Elizabeth Lee, after being accused of being a witch and harassed by the locals for a large portion of her life, would be on the cover.

I wanted it to be a quite striking image, that would go hand in hand with the album title ‘Durham, Come Save Me’ and she was certainly someone who needed saving.

You can see me adding elements, such as a wart, that the locals may have used to falsely accuse her of being a witch.

I also started developing the idea to have the ‘Eye of God’ stained glass window as a pendant round Lee’s neck. While it doesn’t make any sense for her to wear something that wasn’t made until after her death, I think the symbology was too strong to not at least develop the concept and see if I could get it to work.

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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

[lazylinobylazydave]

‘Next day the earth shook and

The steeple crumpled

Outside my tent, eyes asparkle

Face up was a gargoyle

I’d woke with the rumble

Praise be there was only a goat killed

I feel pursued by a shadow

A giant, its footfall right behind us’

‘A Tightrope Walker Falls to Their Death in 1237’

Durham, Come Save Me

Faithful Johannes @fjwords

Out 3rd July

At this point I felt that the whole concept needed simplifying to look a lot less cluttered and have more impact.

Deep down I knew that Elizabeth Lee, the Edmundbuyers witch, was probably going to adorn the front cover. However, as Hob the tightrope walker was floating around my head since the start of the project, I thought I’d give him a last chance to make his claim.

I wanted a much more dynamic illustration if hob was to become the front star, so I sketched him from below, so he takes up most of the cover, with the central tower, towering over him and framing him in the shot.

I don’t know how well it reads on here, but I also quickly sketched out a silly cartoon, where our hero @fjwords replaces Hob the tightrope walker.

Finally, and for no particular reason, I did a quick sketch of @fjwords from a photo that I found on his socials.

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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

[lazylinobylazydave]

‘And in the summer I did sleep

Some nights out in the forest

The stars they winked for me

With a cat on my chest snoring’

‘Elizabeth Lee Was Not a Witch’

Durham, Come Save Me

Faithful Johannes

Out 3rd July

Today’s sketch is a little different than the rest. I’d decided that I liked a lot of the ideas that I’d created and wanted to bring them all together in the final design.

I had the thought that the the two sides would flow together with Elizabeth’s hair turning to reed’s and branches as you followed it to the back page. There’d be animals looking at Elizabeth through the trees as she lay on her back with a cat on her chest.

On the back I’d bring in elements of Durham cathedral and hob the tightrope walker falling to his death. There’s a lot more that I haven’t mentioned, such as the miners lamp and all of the animals and fish.

But when I finished the sketch, it looked far too cluttered. Especially when sizing it for a cd case. So I decided that I needed to simplify the whole design and decide who to put on the front cover. Would it be Elizabeth Lee the witch or Hob the tightrope walker?

Stay tuned to find out!!

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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

[lazylinobylazydave]

‘It’s better to aim at the stars

You may catch a grain of sand

They say a man in Heaton

Had his head blown clean off

His baby grandson on his lap left unharmed

‘An I guess what I’ve got

Is preferable to that’

‘Elsie Crouch in Stasis 1941’

Durham, Come Save Me

Faithful Johannes

Out 3rd July

This month, in the lead up to the ‘Durham, Come Save Me’ album launch, I’ll be sharing some of the ideas and sketches that led to the final design of the album artwork.

Most of these are me just getting ideas out of my head and onto the page, so expect extremely loose, quick drawings that haven’t been polished very much, if at all.

Today’s sketch was inspired by the song ‘Elsie Crouch in Stasis 1941’

Again, this album is full of such rich imagery. If this was the only idea I had, I would have ran with it and could have came up with a fun yet slightly graphic album cover.

However, while I was prepared to develop this into the cover, it was never a serious idea for the album.

In the 2nd sketch I’ve replaced the grandson with a cartoon Faithful Johannes himself. Now I think about it, this could really work. FJ, can we start again??

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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

[lazylinobylazydave]

‘I hid in a ditch

For a bit

But was coaxed out

With some cooing

Some tea and some honey

Said his name was Godric

The mouth that spoke

Unseen, deep in

A birds nest beard

I mean that literally

A bird lived in there

A wren I think’

‘I Only Hit St Godric With the Smallest of Rocks’

Durham, Come Save Me

Faithful Johannes @fjwords

Out 3rd July

This month, in the lead up to the ‘Durham, Come Save Me’ album launch, I’ll be sharing some of the ideas and sketches that led to the final design of the album artwork.

Most of these are me just getting ideas out of my head and onto the page, so expect extremely loose, quick drawings that haven’t been polished very much, if at all.

Today’s sketch was inspired by the song ‘I Only Hit St Godric With the Smallest of Rocks’

This sketch was taken from a statue on the side of St Godric’s Church in Durham City Centre. I had to add the bird 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

[lazylinobylazydave]

‘Though in honesty now

I am having some doubts

I was placed here with great fanfare in seventeen twenty nine

I’ve lost my fountain now

I once lost my crown

I was sidelined for decades to the park by the trainline

But have faith my believers that’s all just a flicker in time cos

I AM THE MIGHTY NEPTUNE AND I’LL BRING YOU THE SEA

I AM THE MIGHTY NEPTUNE AND I’LL BRING YOU THE SEA

I AM THE MIGHTY NEPTUNE AND I’LL BRING YOU THE SEA

I AM THE MIGHTY NEPTUNE AND I’LL BRING YOU THE SEA’

‘I AM THE MIGHTY NEPTUNE’

Durham, Come Save Me

Faithful Johannes @fjwords

Out 3rd July

This month, in the lead up to the ‘Durham, Come Save Me’ album launch, I’ll be sharing some of the ideas and sketches that led to the final design of the album artwork.

Most of these are me just getting ideas out of my head and onto the page, so expect extremely loose, quick drawings that haven’t been polished very much, if at all.

Today’s sketch’s were inspired by the song ‘I AM THE MIGHTY NEPTUNE’

I’ve walked past this statue in Durham Market Square hundreds of times and never had any idea how old it is and what it represents. I never gave it much thought at all.

In the 1700’s, there was a plan to bring ships up the river Wear and create a canal to Durham. The statue of Neptune was erected as a symbol of the project. Imagine how different Durham could be today if it had been a port City for a few hundred years!

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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

[lazylinobylazydave]

‘Durham’s drissle

Makes it tricky as

I climb from the middle

Always take mead for courage

But today I feel a little funny

Is that crow calling my name

And is it starring

I’m reflecting that I don’t have any savings

Gave them all to my agent

I’m unstable and I’ve slipped’

‘A Tightrope Walker Falls to Their Death in 1237’

Durham, Come Save Me

Faithful Johannes

Out 3rd July

This month, in the lead up to the ‘Durham, Come Save Me’ album launch, I’ll be sharing some of the ideas and sketches that led to the final design of the album artwork.

Most of these are me just getting ideas out of my head and onto the page, so expect extremely loose, quick drawings that haven’t been polished very much, if at all.

Today’s sketch’s were inspired by the song ‘A Tightrope Walker Falls to Their Death in 1237’

At this point, and to be honest from the start of the project, I thought Hob of Pelaw would be the cover star of the album.

Here I’m trying to get the feel and weight of a tightrope walker standing on a rope. I also used reference images to work out the clothing of people in 1237 and to see what someone looks like falling off the rope.

Hob died in 1237 after falling from a tightrope suspended between the centre tower and one of the west towers.

Hob was there to help draw a crowd for the market that was held on Palace Green.

This tragedy caused Henry lll to intervene and tell the prior of Durham that he had destroyed his chances of becoming the next Bishop of Durham.

Hob now has a headstone next to the north door, close to where he fell.

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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

[lazylinobylazydave]

‘Last week in Lincoln

I had a wobble

‘My time on the rope is borrowed’

The stonework and the people

Looked equally deceitful

My eyes had a brief close

A murmur from below rose’

‘A Tightrope Walker Falls to Their Death in 1237’

Durham, Come Save Me

Faithful Johannes

Out 3rd July

This month, in the lead up to the ‘Durham, Come Save Me’ album launch, I’ll be sharing some of the ideas and sketches that led to the final design of the album artwork.

Most of these are me just getting ideas out of my head and onto the page, so expect extremely loose, quick drawings that haven’t been polished very much, if at all.

Today’s sketch’s were inspired by the song ‘A Tightrope Walker Falls to Their Death in 1237’

At first look, this looks like the first real introduction to Hob, the tightrope walker. In reality, this is me trying to work the scene into a satisfying composition making the cathedral look large and looming without making Hob, the main character of the scene, look too small.

I didn’t quite resolve it in this section of the sketchbook but I got to use a new technique to make the cathedral tower look correct in perspective from an angle that you don’t have access too.

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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

[lazylinobylazydave]

‘I’ve been spat at, been followed

Lads had dogs, me the quarry

In my 40’s it started

Quite frightening and shocking

I fought it until I was sixty

Argued back, let those bastards itch me’

‘Elizabeth Lee Was Not A Witch’

Durham, Come Save Me

Faithful Johannes @fjwords

Out 3rd July

This month, in the lead up to the ‘Durham, Come Save Me’ album launch, I’ll be sharing some of the ideas and sketches that led to the final design of the album artwork.

Most of these are me just getting ideas out of my head and onto the page, so expect extremely loose, quick drawings that haven’t been polished very much, if at all.

Today’s sketch is inspired by the song ‘Elizabeth Lee Was Not a Witch’

These sketches were me just feeling out sketching dogs and people spitting.

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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