war cycle 7inch

Digital - 320x317mm - 2019

Kyle from Warcycle (Australian punk band from Perth) asked me to draw the artwork for there then forth coming EP. I was immensely stoked because although my artwork has been used for 7inch EP artwork before, none of those drawings were done with that specific purpose. They were all drawings I had done for myself that were then used for cover artwork. I didn’t really have an idea what to do for it, most d-beat bands use photography for their artwork so I couldn’t find anything to rip off and put my own spin on it. I read through the lyrics and found some lines about mad dogs barking. I thought it’d be cool to draw a war dog for the cover, I did a quick sketch and sent it across, the band liked it and I started working on the proper drawing a few months later once my stint of real-life work ended.

I ended up drawing the dog head about 4 times, none of them felt right, I was forced to take a break from the drawing due to work and when I came back to it I realised that the first dog head I drew was the best so I continued the drawing with that one. I did try and draw my new dog Smoke a few times but his face is too adorable to be used as a war doggy. It was my friend Blake’s idea to put grenades on the dogs collar.

When I finished the front cover, I started work on the back cover, I thought a vulture looming over a child’s skull would be cool. Because children die in war too. I wanted the back cover artwork to be minimal to contrast the full on artwork of the front. The vulture over the skull was very static looking so I added the flame embers falling down to give the drawing a bit more life, channeling some Akira Kurosawa. The band loved the back cover, and then asked for the front cover to look more like the back. At first I was a bit miffed at having to rework an already approved drawing, but after stripping the front cover back a bit I felt the band was right, originally there was way too much detail\crap in the front and it was hard for the eye to focus on anything. I’m a lot happier with the result you see above which has a lot to do with the bands input. Cheers guy!

All the tracks on the 7inch are bangers, I highly recommend grabbing a copy and I am equal parts stoked and proud to have my artwork on such a killer release. Also, Kyle has one of the best smiles in punk. The Warcycle logo isn’t by me.