It’s been a while since I’ve done one of these Covering Vinyl pieces, but I found myself compelled to draw a Johnny Cash cover today for a reason and settled on Johnny Cash At San Quentin because it’s iconic and fairly simple visually. Pretty excellent, right? I sketched it out first and thought about just leaving it in pencil or maybe even using water colors, but I decided to go with the oil crayons like I did when I drew Dark Side Of The Moon. My intent was to capture the blues and blacks of the image. I wish I had been able to get that white halo at the back of his head, but I got a little carried away with smudging the oil crayons together. Anyway, here’s my version.
The pic came out a little orangier than the actual finished product, but this is pretty much how it looks. Lots of smudges. I should have done a better job of it, but I wound up getting all my fingers dirty so it became increasingly difficult. It’s nowhere near perfect, but I’m still pretty happy with it.
I really wish I could have matched the colors better because I think that’s what really makes the cover interesting. Man, I love how the bass intrudes on the shot. That is all.