I bought this DVD, and when it arrived I was very pleased with the cover art. I can't think of one I have that I like as much. The drawing has a vigor that I don't often see except in the Renaissance masters. Unfortunately, the artist is not credited anywhere on the package or the pamphlet. Thinking of it, I recalled the covers of books, LPs, CDs, VHS tapes, and DVDs that impressed me. Most of them have been covers that use art that wasn't made for the work but somehow evokes it or refers to people and time in it. An example is the Penguin classics which use details of artwork from period of the book such as red-figure vases on the Greek classics, Roman coins on the Latin, European paintings from the nation of the original language, and so on. The Oxford paperbacks do the same thing but not as effectively in my opinion.

Sometimes the artwork is disappointing as in the Harry Potter books. The only interesting one I've seen is the cover for the French translation of "...the Half-Blood Prince", but few other fans like it ("looks like a kid painted it"). I was entranced by the Barbara Remington cover of The Fellowship of the Ring that appeared on the first Ballantine paperback, but once again few other readers share my opinion.

Others that stick in my memory are Andy Warhol's banana for The Velvet Underground and Nico and the Poussin painting of the same name used for A Dance to the Music of Time.

What cover art have you all liked or disliked.? Which fulfilled their promise and which didn't?

Could you show us the French 'HP/Half-Blood Prince' cover?

I'm a working artist, with graphic design training, and therefore always interested in art and design issues. The Velvet Underground album is one of my favourite pieces of cover design, too. Generally, all my favourite cover art was made specifically for the job.

Vinyl used to have better cover art because of the bigger size - Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick folded out into a complete spoof tabloid newspaper, not something that can be achieved on CD. The Pet Shop Boys' designers were the first to make good use of the CD format with very tactile cases - that's more about design than artwork though.

Here's a purpose-made CD cover that not only fits the music, but adds a different perspective to the title song, Shawn Colvin's A Few Small Repairs.

I'll venture to ask a rather silly question about the artwork of Led Zeppelin's Swan Song label. I was thinking it was also on the cover of "In Through the Out Door", too, but apparently not -- or at least I can't find a photo anywhere of it and I no longer have the album. However, I distinctly remember watching the label go around and around as I listened to "All My Love" playing. Your example, cjoseph, reminded me of it.

Anyway, the figure is, I guess, of an angel -- he has wings and it's definitely a he with a glorious physique. But the problem is -- and this is where I get silly -- he's depicted in full-frontal nudity but he has no genitalia. Well, I don't know if angels have genitalia or not, but this rendering doesn't and it makes the whole thing look very peculiar. I just wonder if the original artwork did show everything but it was airbrushed out or the artist left the figure sexless on purpose. Someone told me that there's a tradition of artistically depicting angels, cherubim, and such that way. Does anyone know? I swear I didn't find it prurient -- just curious. :-)

Having looked at the link provided by Disputantum, I wanted to see the label design; having found it, I like to share (I'm that kind of person):

I also like spare covers that use a black-and-white photograph such as the CD above. I thought enough of the picture to paint a copy of it to hang on my wall. Similar designs appear on books and DVDs.

Frieda, I can't recall any artwork that depicts an angel other than clothed. Pagan gods, spirits, and personifications are something else though. A famous example is Caravaggio's Amor Vincit Omnia.

CJoseph

I've included a link to an eBay listing for the album. I couldn't figure out how to insert images into this thing!

Anyanka, that really brings back memories! Where did you find it? Do you have a scanner?

dynomutt, I don't know how to insert images either. Would someone be willing to provide us with instructions or tell us where to find out? This is something I really want to know how to do, and if you guys don't mind I could put it into practice here.

Gosh, cjoseph, I really like that Fellowship of the Rings cover, though I am no fan of Tolkien.

Dyno, I think you're right on the money about Duran Duran's "Rio" having that certain eighties' look. Another one that comes to mind that gives me a similar feeling is "Heartbreak City" by The Cars. Ahhh, I really miss "real" record albums. I had hundreds until the boxes they were in were a casualty during a move.

Switching to movie posters and cover art for videos: One of my all-time favorites is "Chinatown." I don't know where to start with the reasons why I like it so much...okay, it's the smoke, so evocative of the 1930s, and how it curls up and becomes Evelyn Mulwray's hair. There's Jake's profile with his signature cigarette and Homburg -- those are sharp-edged, yet Evelyn's face is embodied only by its central features -- no chin, no jawline. Jake and Evelyn are on the periphery; the script of the word "Chinatown" is central: the dragon-like capital C, the Oriental flourishes of the rest of the letters, and the RED. Whew!

This is fun! I'm no great shakes at analyzing art, but I can really get into it.

I really like the Chinatown picture. I've inserted it below to practise my html string for image insertion; usually I leave out some little bit and have to preview several times over!

To insert an image from another webpage, right-click on the picture in its original location, click 'copy image location' and then paste that into the following string, minus the @ sign - had to insert those to make the command visible:

<@img src="insert the image location here"@>

I liked the cover art (done by the author herself) for the Prime edition of KJ Bishop's book, The Etched City:

But the UK/TOR edition had this cover, which is pretty cool, too:

However, the US/Spectra edition of this book had a cover that wasn't as appealing to me:

I guess I'm a little fascinated by the decisions the publishing world makes for the artwork used on the cover for different countries. Sometimes I can understand it and sometimes not. I often find I like the editions for other countries better than our own US editions.

I STILL own a few Nagel prints. At last count, I had close to 10 Nagel prints. ;-)

And just to practice ..... the Rio image should be below.

I don't know -- there's something about Nagel's images that just ........ gets me.

Actually, I think it's the clean lines and the bright pastel colors. Japanese woodblock prints, especially those from the 1930s, have the same feel. Here's one of my favorites :

Sorry for the thread drift. I'm just ecstatic that I can now post images! :-)

Cover art for Neutral Milk Hotel's 1998 CD In An Aeroplane Over The Sea.

Don't know who the artist is.

http://www.connollyco.com/discography/crashtest_dummies/god_hi.jpg

I loved the music on this cd also.
Kim

I also like the Tilly And The Wall cover art for both Wild Like Children and Bottom of Barrels.