I had the pleasure of making the artwork for the Semi Hendrix debut album Breakfast At Banksy's. Semi Hendrix is a collaboration of MC Ras Kass and producer Jack Splash.

The album is a passion project for the 2 musicians, and the artwork needed to reflect the unfettered gusto of the sound.

Beyond style references to classic psychedelia and the weirder corners of my portfolio, the brief was to "go nuts". I was of course happy to do so, imagining my Banky's as a psychedelic, otherwordly coffeehouse.

Art Direction by Michael Tolle.

Mello Music Group gave the project that little bit extra, issuing the LPs with a "tie-dye" vinyl and a picture-disc edition as well.

Though tangential to the client's explicit style references, the aesthetic of classic video game Qbert suggested itself when I started placing these Paranoia Spirits into an isometric cell structure, and it ended up meshing well with the rest. 

The hard highlights as seen along the edges of the leaf forms is something I generally steer clear of. But combined with the thick lines and bright, graded colors, it called to my mind early graffiti writers so I stuck with it.

Naturally I was concerned this lettering might not be legible enough, but true to the psychedelic spirit of the project it was given the go-ahead.

I prepared the initial pencil drawing with an isometric graph paper to lock in the angles and sense of space, using white sheets along the way to "crop" the image and keep the composition of the front cover always in view.

I scanned the pencils and printed them out in a larger format, taping together multiple A4 sheets and covering the backs in graphite in a low-tech simulation of carbon paper.

The final drawing on bristol stock is a combination of india ink lines and graphite tones.