In November, Scott Lane, the band’s many-hat-wearing guitarist contacted me to say that they were soon to begin recording the album and that they had me in mind to create the accompanying visuals; nothing short of an honor.  With the privileged receipt of preliminary recordings, the fantastic archive of live concerts, and the song lyrics, I was encouraged to follow the titular track’s advice and draw whatever I wanted.

What I wanted to do was a three-fold aspiration:

• To iron the kinks out of a new technique I’m developing, inspired by combining the processes of Edmund Dulac, Peter de Sève, and Bill Sienkiewicz
• To properly represent the traditionally influenced rock sound that makes the band so fun and approachable, with a sensibility of timelessness
• To hand letter all text, including eleven tracks of lyrics

From the first sketches, the influences of the major illustrators of yesteryear were evident.  I looked a lot at Charles Robinson, and the art collected by William Randolph Hearst, as well as the cosmic visuals in Malick’s amazing 2012 film, Tree of Life.  I visited the classic art collections at The Getty and Los Angeles County Art Museums, I sketched a lot of art that was religious and mythological in theme, ultimately culling most of the ideas for being too directly communicative of a specific story or culture.

Reference and Initial Sketches from Whatever You Want in Progress, Nicholas Froehlich Illustration, 2012

I started looking at decorative elements of historic maps, always love of mine… and that was the clicking point ideologically:  I would create a cosmic map that at once contiguous and without spacial reference.  [edit - WARNING- here's where it gets... artsy...]  Out of the basic visual elements of fire, water, space, and stone I could create a tableau where any image could be next to, above, or even within the imagery of the others.  Using this primal foundation I could convey the general feel of the music and its sentiments without imposing a rigid visual representation of the lyrics.  I would let the listener bring more of themselves to the experience of the album… ‘Whatever You Want’ and its embrace of bliss in the Campbellian sense would be represented as a stone monument to artistic expression surrounded by scores of muses, the other lyrics placed on images of birth/death by fire and water, and the cover an open frame for the viewer to impose upon with encouragement…

Pencil Layouts from Whatever You Want in Progress, Nicholas Froehlich Illustration, 2012

Final Ink Drawings from Whatever You Want in Progress, Nicholas Froehlich, Ink Illustration, 2012

Whatever You Want in Progress, Nicholas Froehlich, Ink Illustration, 2012

I had also been toying with the idea of the Tower of Babel motif, as exhibited in last December’s poster for their show at The National in Richmond, Virginia.  (I affectionately refer to that one as the ‘Tower of Bumbalon’)  There is just something prescient about the vertical construction of the city, how progressive and cooperative the inhabitants are told to have been… and how a certain *someone* did NOT like them apples… I don’t know, it’s an easy one to spend time thinking about.  I thought my first version was too Greco / Roman, so I took another stab at it focusing on Yemeni ruins and Tuscan hill towns.

Tower of Babel detail from Whatever You Want in Progress, Nicholas Froehlich, Ink Illustration, 2012

Muses detail from Whatever You Want in Progress, Nicholas Froehlich, Ink Illustration, 2012

Water Dragon detail from Whatever You Want in Progress, Nicholas Froehlich, Watercolor Illustration, 2012

Final Paintings from Whatever You Want in Progress, Nicholas Froehlich, Watercolor Illustration, 2012

The hand writing took about four passes to get laid out, some of the initial inking are exhibited here:

Whatever You Want Lettering in Progress, Nicholas Froehlich, Ink Illustration, 2012

Title Song Lyrics from Whatever You Want in Progress, Nicholas Froehlich, Ink Illustration, 2012

'Distance' lettering detail from Whatever You Want in Progress, Nicholas Froehlich, Ink Illustration, 2012

Band Lineup Lettering Detail from Whatever You Want in Progress, Nicholas Froehlich, Ink Illustration, 2012

'Keep Virginia' lyrics from Whatever You Want in Progress, Nicholas Froehlich, Ink Illustration, 2012

And what better to wrap up this “sneak peek” of the album art than to drop the poster image for the May 4th CD Release Party at the Bluebird in Denver, available to the lucky attendees (or at least some of them) and popping up for sale somewhere else soon!

Whatever You Want CD Release Party Poster by Nicholas Froehich; Ink, Watercolor, & Digital Illustration, 2012

Aaaaaaaand for anyone who actually read this far down, CHECK OUT the title track, Whatever You Want, available for free (along with CD pre-orders) at the Congress’s Official Site, www.thecongressmusic.com

Oh, and it’s Moustache March!

Self Portrait, Moustache March 2012; Nicholas Froehlich

The Congress Live at the National; Nicholas Froehlich, Pen & Ink 2011

I’ve tossed up some process pics to show how it came together almost overnight.  The disaster occurred when I tried to add the watercolor onto the original ink drawing.  Somehow between the late night, early morning, india ink, and hot press watercolor stock I bought more than five years ago the lines wound up smudging as soon as I touched them.  Thanks to the new scanner, a lovely and affordable Mustek that easily accommodates 11″ x 14″ paper it is preserved for posterity as seen here.  The color above was the result of the scanned ink printed double sized onto Epson ultra-radiant watercolor stock paper with watercolor directly applied.

Bumbalon Rough Sketches, Nicholas Froehlich, Ink in Moleskine

The Congress Bumbalon Detail view 1

The Congress Bumbalon, Ink Detail, view 2

NixFlix #1: “The Killing” (1956) – Streaming on Netflix until 1/16/2012

The Killing, Watercolor Pencil & Marker, Speedpaint; Nicholas Froehlich

This great example of a noir heist film was directed by none other than Stanley Kubrick!  Its about a group of professional and would-be thieves, pugilists, and guns-for hire that endeavor to knock over a racetrack with an elaborate scheme.

The story is told out of sequence, a style now familiar but one that I’m sure held a good amount of novelty.  Not being an expert, it would seem based on the films that followed, that this was a real springboard for Kubrick.

Highlights include seeing Sterling Hayden onscreen as Johnny Clay (kept the phrase “Purity of Essence” rolling through my mind, since I caught the end of Dr. Strangelove on television last week), and he’s great as a sort of ringleader.  The white guy who drops the N bomb totally gets his, and there is an EPIC fight scene with a huge, hairy-backed Russian chess player.  Aww heck, I’ll slap that in here because it’s THAT good…

Hairy Backed Russian Fights Off A Dozen Cops

Its definitely a great example of noir, with nary a true hero to be found; and its narrative style stands tall in a tradition that heretofore includes Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Memento, and Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead among many others.  I am new to this one, but I can tell already that the Kubrickian sense of detail is embedded and it’ll hold up well to multiple viewings (the use of jazz to denote sex and violence… and is the narrator a liar?) and I look forward to watching it again soon.

This speedpaint was done in two hours with water soluble drawing materials.  I used a Derwent Light Wash Sketching Pencil to rough it in (not a fan, doesn’t work well with the water), followed by my first experimentation with a cool grey Japanese water soluble TOMBOW ABT Marker.  The background was fleshed in later with a black Derwent INKTENSE soluble pencil, and there’s a touch of Pro-White for highlights and the lettering.  This scene is from a heist in The Killing, but something about it was most definitely echoed in The Dark Knight!..

‘Til next time.