Mitch Clem (artist)
SPB: How do you approach drawing an album cover as compared to a comic?
Clem: That's actually a solid question. Since I started doing comics as my primary thing like a hundred years ago, most of my growth as an artist happened within the confines of panels and, as such, I think in panels now. I don't sketch or doodle, like, ever. A lot of artists have sketchbooks just full of random crazy stuff. Not me. If I have a script in front of me and need to fill a panel with visual information, I can work it out with relative ease. However, not having that practice (or drive, really) of doodling, when I'm approached for any other sort of art, be it an album cover or a shirt design or anything like that, I hit a brick wall. In terms of conceptualizing what to draw on an album cover, I'm rarely good at coming up with ideas. I depend greatly on the band giving me direction and, even then, it's a substantially harder task than it would be to just draw a couple small squares and relay something like "the band puts down their instruments and goes out for saltwater taffy" or whatever. It doesn't seem like there should be a disconnect like that, it seems like it should be basically the same thing. But it's not at all. Also you have to draw album covers a lot larger, and I don't like drawing on a large scale like that as much.
