Hi everyone. Sorry if this post gets lengthy but I'm in need of some help right now, lol.

Basically I'm an illustration student and we've been handed a module in university which is self directed. Basically we write what we do for the next 3/4 months. We got given this in like..January. And it's now getting on for May and I've got a whole sketchbook to fill and a load of other stuff.

So anyway, I chose to do Prince for my work because the dude literally takes up a huge chunk of my life (is that a sad thing to admit or??). And I was like "yeah this will be piss easy I'm just doing about Prince lmao" and it's turning out to be an absolute arse of a module.

So anyway, I wrote out my work as this:

Re-design the Lovesexy album cover and corresponding singles (I wish U heaven, Alphabet St, Glam Slam) and design a poster.

But we have to have a sketchbook that goes along with it and the whole thing has to show 200 hours of work. Which is a fucking lot.

And basically I've been going through a pretty longish art block atm, so I've been avoiding this thing like the plague and drawing shitty anime doodles of Prince because it's piss easy, takes like 2 minutes and satisfies my need to draw his face every day (also creepy, I know). And now it's getting to where I have like a month and a half to finish this and I'm starting to shit my pants.

Basically I need some stuff from you guys if you could help?

Do you know what artists Prince likes himself? (styles or whatever) so I can do research on them and include their influence in the work.

Is there any other alternate artwork out there for the Lovesexy era?

Artists that like Prince or have included him in his work? (I know about Troy Gua btw, I'm doing a research page on him).

Post your own remakes of Prince album covers/singles for me to look at?

Just anything else you can think of? hahaha

Like, literally the only thing I've done of any sort of substance is the poster.

For the poster I wanted to do it based on Anna Stesia because it's like the pinacle song of the album and I wanted to do like an art noveau style thing that mirrored the album cover but I'm really turned off from doing that now since I got it critiqued by another lecturer who said he looked like a hermaphrodite with a slightly large head (he's pretty brutal tbh):

Edit: the pic was all squished

It's gonna be really difficult to amend the head size/anatomical issues now it's been coloured. As for the hermaphrodite thing I'll just put some floaty material around him because I aint drawing Prince's peen on an image thats meant to be all pure and shit.

Thanks so much everyone

>Can I just add though that it was fucking awesome that the tutor that takes me for this module knew who Ingrid Chavez was because she was obsessed with the band Japan omg

[Edited 4/20/15 13:48pm]

no disrespect ...

but, why does the above illustration of Prince, have the ass, hips and thighs (and possibly a vagina) of a thick woman ?...

im not nit-picking here, but it looks more like Sarah Silverman than prince Nelson...

just sayin...

RJOrion said:

no disrespect ...

but, why does the above illustration of Prince, have the ass, hips and thighs (and possibly a vagina) of a thick woman ?...

I have no idea lmao, it's very difficult to draw when you don't have a solid reference. Because I draw basically from my head it's very hard to get right. It could have come out like a woman because I find women easier to draw because I am one lol!

controversy99 said:

To answer a couple of questions, Prince is known to have liked Larry Graham and Chaka Kahn growing up. At some point, he got into Joni Mitchell. More recently, Janelle Monae and Alicia Keys are some examples. For alternate art work, there are lot of photos from this era that evoke a particular sense of style that is closely tied to the album and tour. Those might be useful sources. I would really encourage you to do art that gets away from the nude image. That image was one that dragged the project down some, making the album less appealing to a lot people. An illustration of one the fashion-shot style photos would be cool. Also, there's a lot of layering of instruments on this album, so something along the lines of MPLSound that features some instruments would be cool. Finally, if you can create something that captures the spirit and lyrics of the title song, that'd be cool. "I feel it morning, noon, and night everyday ... heaven's just a butterfly kiss away" evoke interesting imagery.

Thanks so much for the ideas!

And yeah, I think I'm probably going to abandon the nude imagery on the poster, it was just an experiment really.

Angelsoncrack said:

RJOrion said:

no disrespect ...

but, why does the above illustration of Prince, have the ass, hips and thighs (and possibly a vagina) of a thick woman ?...

I have no idea lmao, it's very difficult to draw when you don't have a solid reference. Because I draw basically from my head it's very hard to get right. It could have come out like a woman because I find women easier to draw because I am one lol!

thats cool..i swear i wasnt trying to be mean, because its obvious you're very talented ... i just couldnt help notice the extra junk in the trunk...

RJOrion said:

Angelsoncrack said:

I have no idea lmao, it's very difficult to draw when you don't have a solid reference. Because I draw basically from my head it's very hard to get right. It could have come out like a woman because I find women easier to draw because I am one lol!

thats cool..i swear i wasnt trying to be mean, because its obvious you're very talented ... i just couldnt help notice the extra junk in the trunk...

haha, i know dw. The illustration tutor that has me for another module noted it when I asked him to critique it

Your poster looks like it was heavily inspired by Alphonse Mucha.

Right?

There is an alternate version of the Lovesexy album cover but I think the one that he released is a masterpiece, nevermind the whoopla and controversy back when it came out. I think it perfectly captured the whole Lovesexy idea.

Prince used some of CBabyBayoc´s art for his Rainbow Children cover, and at some point he liked Salvador Dali´.

KoolEaze said:

Your poster looks like it was heavily inspired by Alphonse Mucha.

Right?

There is an alternate version of the Lovesexy album cover but I think the one that he released is a masterpiece, nevermind the whoopla and controversy back when it came out. I think it perfectly captured the whole Lovesexy idea.

Prince used some of CBabyBayoc´s art for his Rainbow Children cover, and at some point he liked Salvador Dali´.

Well spotted Mucha is one of my favourite artists.

I'll check out CBabyBayoc, thanks for the suggestion. What does the alternate Lovesexy album cover look like by the way? Is it available to see? I'm really interested omg

Angelsoncrack said:

KoolEaze said:

Your poster looks like it was heavily inspired by Alphonse Mucha.

Right?

There is an alternate version of the Lovesexy album cover but I think the one that he released is a masterpiece, nevermind the whoopla and controversy back when it came out. I think it perfectly captured the whole Lovesexy idea.

Prince used some of CBabyBayoc´s art for his Rainbow Children cover, and at some point he liked Salvador Dali´.

Well spotted Mucha is one of my favourite artists.

I'll check out CBabyBayoc, thanks for the suggestion. What does the alternate Lovesexy album cover look like by the way? Is it available to see? I'm really interested omg

I like Mucha a lot, too.

KoolEaze said:

I like Mucha a lot, too.

Thanks for the pic! Posted it into my work

Also I know this is kinda unrelated but I've been really channelling Mucha into my illustrations and for another module in uni. We were given a piece of work that asked us to illustrate two of the seven deadly sins. I did wrath and lust, but the lust one I can't decide which colour scheme works best and which one to submit:

Which one do you guys like best colour wise??

The one on the left is much better, with the black hair and all the red and whatnot. Definitely captures lust much more appropriately than the right one.

Angelsoncrack said:

KoolEaze said:

I like Mucha a lot, too.

Thanks for the pic! Posted it into my work

Also I know this is kinda unrelated but I've been really channelling Mucha into my illustrations and for another module in uni. We were given a piece of work that asked us to illustrate two of the seven deadly sins. I did wrath and lust, but the lust one I can't decide which colour scheme works best and which one to submit:

Which one do you guys like best colour wise??

By the way, the pic that I posted above IS the Lovesexy album cover outtake or alternate version.

KoolEaze said:

The one on the left is much better, with the black hair and all the red and whatnot. Definitely captures lust much more appropriately than the right one.

Yeah, I'm leaning towards that one too. Funnily enough though a lot of people I asked liked the blonde one better. I think the blonde one is better for the colour popping but for the purpose of properly showing the sin it's meant to illustrate, the black and red one is better. I'm probably going to submit that one. Thanks!

The black background doesn't work for the picture to the right.

dJJ said:

The black background doesn't work for the picture to the right.

Yeah, I think it's the line. I've been avoiding doing black lining recently because it becomes sameish. Someone suggested to me to make the background white but I thought that would of been too boring and not get the 'lust' thing across. Maybe a peach colour would work better?

Angelsoncrack said:

dJJ said:

The black background doesn't work for the picture to the right.

Yeah, I think it's the line. I've been avoiding doing black lining recently because it becomes sameish. Someone suggested to me to make the background white but I thought that would of been too boring and not get the 'lust' thing across. Maybe a peach colour would work better?

I guess you could just try different back grounds for comparison?

Why is a lady with cherries the embodiement of wrath?

I mean, it's not the lady herself who is wrong, is she?

The wrath is within the person who perceives her as a lustobject, isn't it?

I think you're a great artist. I agree with the others about not using any sort of nude pic. Maybe one of his Tour pics, aka polka dot suits, loose shirts, military outfits, etc

dJJ said:

Angelsoncrack said:

Yeah, I think it's the line. I've been avoiding doing black lining recently because it becomes sameish. Someone suggested to me to make the background white but I thought that would of been too boring and not get the 'lust' thing across. Maybe a peach colour would work better?

I guess you could just try different back grounds for comparison?

Why is a lady with cherries the embodiement of wrath?

I mean, it's not the lady herself who is wrong, is she?

The wrath is within the person who perceives her as a lustobject, isn't it?

No it was a seperate piece I did for wrath:

https://www.facebook.com/...permPage=1

The girl with cherries is lust

[Edited 4/26/15 11:39am]

Angelsoncrack said:

dJJ said:

I guess you could just try different back grounds for comparison?

Why is a lady with cherries the embodiement of wrath?

I mean, it's not the lady herself who is wrong, is she?

The wrath is within the person who perceives her as a lustobject, isn't it?

No it was a seperate piece I did for wrath:

https://www.facebook.com/...permPage=1

The girl with cherries is lust

[Edited 4/26/15 11:39am]

I like your pieces, I'm just challenging you.

Are these self-portraits?

because, I don't see the sin in the image. I see a girl eating cherries, but that's no sin, is it?

I assume the lust is the lust a sinner would feel if he would feel seduced by the image?

dJJ said:

Angelsoncrack said:

No it was a seperate piece I did for wrath:

https://www.facebook.com/...permPage=1

The girl with cherries is lust

[Edited 4/26/15 11:39am]

I like your pieces, I'm just challenging you.

Are these self-portraits?

because, I don't see the sin in the image. I see a girl eating cherries, but that's no sin, is it?

I assume the lust is the lust a sinner would feel if he would feel seduced by the image?

Are they bloody hell self portraits I'm not that attractive haha

But yeah, that's what I was going for. Basically the instructions I get from uni are hypothetical. Because we're working to become proffesional illustrators we go off what would be given to us if we were in a workplace. So because this was a brief that was given to us to illustrate for a certain magazine, we can't go all out and draw two people having sex or something like that. We have to be subtle with our imagery.

So yeah, by drawing a sexy lady with something often associated with sex -cherries, it gives off a sort of pin-up sort of feel without having to draw something borderline pornographic.