As you know, I have been posting all the illustrated artworks from Azealia Banks' release 'Fantasea' - covers for all the awesome singles 'Jumanji', 'Aquababe', 'Nathan' and 'Neptune', as well as the housing mixtape. After a little digging I discovered that the talented illustrator/designer behind the visuals is a New York-based artist named Christina Lu. On her Behance page there is an extensive portfolio of her work (including everything she has done for Ms. Banks and more), but choosing to not simply post the final images, Lu has put together .GIFs of the process her designs have gone through from initial sketches to final artwork. Check out one for the 'Fantasea' mixtape cover:
Fudging awesome, right?! Looking deeper into her other designs, you can see what the single artworks were originally going to look like too. Such as 'Jumanji' - which ended up having a fancily-dressed Azealia dancing with an Elephant - but initially the design was more abstract. Check it out:
Also, this early drawing for the layout of the 'Neptune' cover shows that a sort of mermaid kingdom was going to be included, but was taken out in the final artwork.
Loving all the early layouts for type as well, showing the consideration that went into these pieces even though they are all for online distribution (the mixtape hasn't been physically released) and - in some people's eyes - are "just" illustrations. It definitely shows the creativity and design that is needed to create something interesting and pleasing for the eye. Make sure you go over to Christina's page (click here) to see all of the .GIFs and her other pieces, this is definitely someone to watch and simonsez will be keeping his eyes peeled for sure :)
(Source: www.behance.net/cplu)
