jazzz said:

luvgirl said:

jazzz said: It is noted that Prince started the initial draft. It's quite logical that he started with the drawing of the sun. It did not appear on the album cover however - which Prince himself specifically acknowledged was drawn by Denise Matthews. [Edited 4/3/19 3:34am]

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The sun DID appear on the album cover ... twice at least ... look again in the letter "P" using your own eyes...

It's there, along with "the ladder", "the symbol" and "The Revolution"! Oh yes, all concepts Denise came up with. And after finishing the drawing, she continued to compose "Purple Rain" and "Kiss!

Right, I here what you are saying. The symbol was "pre Denise", the band name was his, and I'm sure the ladder was as well. Hard to know for sure exactly how much of the design Denise had done. My thought is still that she may have chosen the colors and possibly some of the designs inside the lettering.

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OR, she took Prince's preliminary sketch and made the final adjustments that we see on the released cover.

[Edited 4/8/19 16:26pm]

Some further analysis on the visual language used on the 1999 LP sleeve: the sun(s), the five-pointed stars, the clouds, the sickle shaped moon (letter "C"), the V-shaped "flying birds" in the upper part of the letter "I", the angularly shaped bass guitar body... These motifs all are part of the very personal graphic vocabulary of Prince (and keep also appearing in his lyrics). He already drew ALL these symbols several years earlier, in virtually the same form, in an early notebook from the late 70s:

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http://prince.org/msg/7/458477

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tiens....

[Edited 4/8/19 16:54pm]

jazzz said:

Some further analysis on the visual language used on the 1999 LP sleeve: the sun(s), the five-pointed stars, the clouds, the sickle shaped moon (letter "C"), the V-shaped "flying birds" in the upper part of the letter "I", the angularly shaped bass guitar body... These motifs all are part of the very personal graphic vocabulary of Prince (and keep also appearing in his lyrics). He already drew ALL these symbols several years earlier, in virtually the same form, in an early notebook from the late 70s:

.

http://prince.org/msg/7/458477

.

tiens....

[Edited 4/8/19 16:54pm]

Hmmm. You make some very valid points here. Then my guess is that Denise may have added some graphics to what Prince had already done, and possibly chose the color scheme. Maybe it was her idea to remove the other pics and just use the "Prince 1999" graphic??

jazzz said:

Listen, if you're gonna get nasty and sarcastic don't reply to my post. Believe what you believe and keep it moving. I’m only sharing what Steve Parke and Jill Jones said about the artwork. In regards to the sun, I was speaking in terms of how it appeared on the draft. In regards to what you pointed out as proof that Prince alone did the artwork... that’s very shoddy proof... None of us knows the full dynamics that took place in regards to the way the art all came together. We weren't there and can only speculate and surmise from our own vision and thought progression. That doesn’t make it proof. Jill Jones said she saw Vanity doing a lot of the work (even pointing out some of the drawings!) and in conjunction, Steve Parke pointed out in detail that Prince told him that Denise did the artwork. I happen to think that's significant validation. But don't shoot the messenger.

"like the sculpture she made for Prince that was shown on the Regis And Cathy Lee show. https://youtu.be/WfvWsQP50IQ"

I wonder what happened to that sculpture she gave Prince(r.i.p.)? It would go great in my bedroom.