Okay, I did some album artwork for Mark Nicholson, and you can find more info about him [here]. He is expanding his career into new age piano compositions, and he was looking for some album art.

The designs are pretty simple and not graphic intensive, but they were all made to his specifications and ideas. In general, New Age piano is very minimalistic. There's a couple of things I would have liked to change, like a couple of the blended piano keys on the designs, but eh... gotta make the customer happy!

Free and Clear
I'm immensely proud of my piano in the water... took forever to photo-manip that to make it look natural because the stock photo of the grand was so stark and different. Still couldn't manage to get the legs to look totally immersed, but close enough!





Touch of Spirit
Of the two, I don't really like this one that much, but I think the back is good.

Nice work, Rachael! =]

While the work is very nice as an album design, I am slightly disturbed by the piano and the water.

I would love to critique it, but only with your permission because it will be lengthy and more like the knowledge of the way water reflects; not related to the actual design. (since I'm more of an artist than anything)

The designs as a whole is great though!

It looks pretty good Rachael! The only thing that bugs me is that the cobbing for the piano is a bit choppy and the reflections don't really look natural. I think it might look better without the reflections. Otherwise, great job!

Go for it Cindy - I'm always ready to learn!

I have never really worked with photo manipulations, but I have tried to recreate a design similar to yours with how water reflections typically work.



The image I used were not stocks and this is just an example. >_>

If an object is lying on the surface of the water and actually submerged into the water, the reflection should touch the actual object and overlap depending on how much the object is submerged into it. By the looks of the piano, only the legs are submerged, thus the reflection's legs should "touch" the location where the legs are fully submerged. Unfortunately, reflections cast by water is different from a mirror's reflection; your reflection is that of a flat 2-D object reflected across an axis. =]

Because of the sky, the sun should either be blocked out by clouds or gone. The reflection should be located directly underneath the piano (this would work out if you make the legs touch).

The most important part is that the keys or any upper side of the piano should not be seen on the reflected image. Therefore, you shouldn't be able to see the keys and the area with the strings (excuse me since I do not play the piano or know the piano so I don't know the actual name of that part of the piano). Why? Because the water is reflecting the bottom of the piano. There is a possibility that one can see the "stringy area" (brown) of the piano, and that only works if the cover of the piano (or whatever you call that black board you raise up high) is shiny enough to reflect the strings. The water which is reflecting the piano, can reflect the reflected image of the strings and you can see a small portion of it. I know that was confusing. x_x

So here's an example:



The example I show only shows how the reflection works, but only a slight hint of it should show on the water. So my photo manipulation is actually inaccurate but it was just a quick photo manip. Nothing is reflecting the keys from the top, so again, you should not be able to see the keys of the piano on it.

The covering of the piano should have a blue hue around the edges because of the colors of the water reflected on it. The same goes with the legs. If possible (and it's hard to imitate), the legs should glisten with waves and specks of blue/white because of the reflection. I couldn't do this well, but hopefully you can!

The legs that are submerged into water--- they gradually disappear. They fade into the water; even though if it is already covered in water, you should still be able to see it as it goes deeper because the ocean in the picture is still.

Last but not least, is the direction of the reflected image (I'm tired of typing that word: reflect. >_> It feels repetitive...) It should be reflected straight down and towards the viewer which is bottom center rather than the bottom right corner. The location of the sun should effect this, but because of the backdrop you have, that's how it should reflect. =] The reflection itself, should be darker and less saturated. It shouldn't be solid-- you should be able to see the water's texture on it. For the reflection, I simply used "Soft Light" on the water so the texture seeps through.

As for your actual photo manipulation, perhaps it's just preference, but increasing the contrast of the piano may be a good idea. It seems as if the lighting for the piano is all over the place (like a studio), and that's a little unrealistic looking compared to how the lighting is outside. The entire piano, since it's black, should reflect the waves of the water too, but just only a little.

=]

I hope this isn't too long, and that you're able to follow it well (and even add more too it).

I'd love to see the outcome!

For your first cover, I think the main problem is the reflection and how it's positioned. It just looks too flat and too angled, for lack of better words. And the piano itself looks odd because it seems like it's just standing there. For your second cover I think it'd be better if you made the keys fade into the mountains as opposed to making them fade to the sky. And your last CD has choppy edges. But with that said, you know your skills are amazing Rachel so keep it up.