KoRn Untitled – In Progress Images

Many of you that follow my work will have seen the images I created earlier this year for the vinyl reissue of KoRN Untitled—KoRn’s 8th studio album. In this post I will show you some of the production shots I took while I was working on this project. It’s my practice to document my work in this manner with my iPhone to gauge my progress. I apologize for the rough look of some of these images. Typically they are taken at the end of a session, so often at night.

So, first the finished images. The brief for this project was to create new artwork to compliment the work I did for the original album release. To this end I envisioned 3 panels, each with a unique identity that at the same time worked as part of a narrative.

In the Awareness panel, the protagonist rises, transcendent, her mask drawn away to reveal her true nature. Her form on the central axis connects the earth and “heavens.” This action is witnessed by a series of sympathetic creatures. This piece is replete with eyes, symbols of observation and reflection. A fun fact about this panel is that the creature on the left with the gaping maw was based on a sketch I did many years ago to illustrate a book by Clive Barker. Both Jonathan and I have connections to Clive and the figure worked well in the composition, so I couldn’t resist adding it.

The Identity panel is all about masks and peeling away layers to seek truth. The artwork references the original Untitled visuals through its use of bird imagery—wings, skulls, flight. The figure with the outstretched arms echoes a pose in the original art. As with all the panels, the art connects through a stylistic familiarity in the figures. The floating head speaks to our ability to create and shift identities, and how all of these are ultimately an illusion, as is the projection of a self.

Finally, the Dreamer panel ties everything together. The Dreamer is suspended above the world and we are seeing his dream as represented by all of the art related to this project. It is the idea that reality is a hallucination created by our brains to make sense of the inputs from our senses. The figures in this panel reference death in several ways. Skull imagery is used in two figures, reflecting mortality. The key in the mechanical dog figure refers to the idea that systems wind down. The spider on the Cyclopean figure represents poison or toxicity more generally. Lastly, the Dreamer himself is observed by a bird figure, which brings us full circle to the cover of the original art.

Here are some progress shots.

This is the underdrawing for the first panel. My first step with this project was to pencil all of the panels in detail so that I could see how they functioned as a series of images. The paper is 140lb Arches hot press.

I started working in the bottom left corner of the piece using a Rotring Rapidograph pen, establishing values. I wanted to make sure that the details really popped, so contrast between values was essential. These characters were intended to feel familiar to viewers of the original art.

Hours into the work. I viewed this piece as having two distinct registers, which is why I worked in a horizontal band across the bottom first, saving the top for last.

With the bottom completed, I worked my way up the central axis, being careful to maintain the visibility of the characters. I used a slightly different technique to render the aura of lichen above the eye, where I avoided delineating the form with line.

The fun in this piece was adding in all kinds of elements that could be discovered over time. When I was younger and pored over album covers, it was always cool to find little things I’d never spotted before. I was very much looking to replicate that experience here.

This is a late night shot of my drawing table when I was about half-way finished the second panel. I am left-handed, which is why the piece of paper is critical. I always mask my drawings as I go to that I do not inadvertently soil the paper through friction or oils from my skin.

This is the finished art inserted in to protective Mylar sleeves. I hope you enjoyed this little look into my process.

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Thanks, Richard.