
Adobe Art & Soul Challenge
Art & Illustration
Challenge
Disney and Adobe challenged artists to design an album cover inspired by the Pixar movie "Soul", using the Adobe Suite and art from the film, with the prompt: "showcase what makes you... YOU."
Concept
I designed an album cover that illustrated my love for creating art and exploring new media
Skills & Tools
-
Sketching and Prototyping - Adobe Fresco, Autodesk Sketchbook
-
Illustration - Adobe Illustrator
Timeline
December 2020
Background
"Soul" explores the the purpose of life. It explores how our reasons for existing develop with us from an early age and how they take weight as we grow into our primes and then after we pass on. In the film, new souls exist in the "Great Beyond", a landscape where they explore possible personality traits and interests before birth. The main character, Joe, also gets to explore "the Zone" where souls enter a euphoric, enlightened state of being when they become fully engrossed in the passions and the activities that drive them.
Goal: I wanted to reimagine these settings with a fantastical art theme to show that art, to me, is a world I can have fun with and get lost in, when I get into the flow of creating.
Key Features (video)

Sketches & Movie Inspiration
In addition to the movie materials, I looked at dramatic landscape illustrations and paintings on Instagram for inspiration

Image included in competition material supplied by Disney and Adobe

Image included in competition material supplied by Disney and Adobe


Image included in competition material supplied by Disney and Adobe
"Prototype" Insights
Through the following quick, very rough drafts I wanted to:
-
Decide which illustration software (Adobe Fresco vs. Adobe Illustrator) would allow me to create the strongest piece
-
Get a sense of which design would translate the best from sketch to final piece
-
Identify an appealing color scheme derived from blues and purples in the film art

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Fresco

Adobe Fresco
Overall insights:
-
Fresco texture options could create really interesting tones and moods
-
Illustrator offers most flexibility and control in refining the shape of existing elements for a cleaner finish where Fresco may require more delete and re-draw
-
Branching away from blues and purples will add more vitality
-
"Center Character" idea puts the more interesting, intricate details like greenery in the foreground so they don't get lost like in the depths of the vaster landscape designs
Full Color Blocking Mock Up
Based on the prototype insights, I decided to proceed with Idea #4: "Center Protagonist" on Illustrator, and import to Fresco afterwards, if I thought it would benefit from additional texture.

Final Album Artwork




Learnings / Reflections:
-
Gained functional understanding of the essential Adobe Fresco tools and functionalities
-
Would have been nice to explore "animal" utensils like the scissor birds in the top left corner of Idea #3, and to blur the lines between utensil and greenery even further
-
I wish I had explored making it even more personal beyond creating an avatar that sort of looks like me: how does my experience of creating art differ from other artists?