Music Inspires Art: Bloody Diamonds
The Band
I first heard the band Bloody Diamonds last summer; a friend of mine broke my cardinal rule and hijacked the radio in my car. I let it slide because if he hadn't then I never would’ve gotten to hear their music. He had returned from tour and along the way his band had crossed paths with Bloody Diamonds.
Last July they played a show in Pittsburgh as part of a national tour across the United States. The group from Toronto, Canada instantly had my attention as they played. A hypnotic, dark sound that draws you in, I highly recommend making the trip out to see them perform live if you’re looking for something different.
Go check them out on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Spotify, and all that fun stuff. www.bloodydiamonds.com
The Collab
I was able to get in touch with my friends in the band to collaborate to come up with a painting. I always ask a couple of questions to get a sense of where the band was coming from with their music then I listen and create my own art with their answers in mind.
What song would you like to see visually conveyed?
-Skin And Bones (our newest song - it's the first one off our upcoming new album) would be great!
Did you have any keywords or thoughts in mind when writing it?
-Lyrically this song is about dedicating yourself to something, no matter the sacrifice.
Are there any specific colors that come to mind when listening?
- Definitely dark a colour theme. Black, dark purple, dark red maybe?
Are there any lyrics that hold particular sentimental value to you?
-"I've shed tears here, I've shed blood here, but I've never had your love" is my favourite I think. To me it describes the extreme/desperateness of something I've been through.
My Interpretation
The vignette and a sketch of my rendition of a skeleton.
Original sketch idea. It evolved as I continued but I will definitely be revisiting the concept.
I definitely had a ton of fun with this one, anytime I can go darker I love it. Bloody Diamonds are very good at being cohesive in their look and feel throughout their music so it was pretty easy to slip into a style. I took black spray paint to the border because I was reminded of those creepy Victorian vignettes in old photos. Happy accident: I forgot that with the Florida humidity paint dries differently, so it was still sticky when I set it down. This caused some of the spray paint to chip, fall off and leave white. While listening to the song I really got into it and began to claw at the paint, scratching away at the semi dried surface creating this sort of grungy feel.
I thought about the idea to dedicating yourself to something, how it just pulls everything out of you, nothing else matters so quickly sketched up this:
With a skeleton figure, normally I do very black 2D shapes but I thought it would be fun to play around with highlights and add more depth. Granted it still came out in my odd little style, but I was satisfied and decided to leave out color altogether.
It was certainly a challenge trying to break out of my old habits. Sometimes even though I have an original idea its better to just morph with it and let the work just evolve. The way it was envisioned in my head was not how it came out but this was so much fun I am gladly going to revisit the concept.
The Final
A huge thanks to Bloody Diamonds for allowing me to collaborate with them and taking the time to chat with me about their music. I HIGHLY recommend following them and checking out their music.
The final "Skin and Bones" image inspired by Bloody Diamonds
If you or anyone you know likes to create music, please feel free to contact me. I'm always looking for more artists to collaborate with. It's all in good fun, thanks for viewing!
-MARMS