But seriously, who gives a shit?

Continuing along with some progress of my retro packaging project, I've learned a few things. Some quite literally, some... not. They just kind of appear in my head sometimes. Some say it's a condition. Anyways, so one main focus of this project for myself (a personal goal, if you will) was to improve my digital illustration skills as a whole; learning to properly shade vectors/images all while learning the functions of my drawing tablet at the same time. For my trial run, essentially, I decided to start with the image I plan on using for my cassette tape redesign of "In God We Trust, Inc". The original cover was a standard picture of Jesus on the cross, but the catch was that the cross itself was made from folded dollar bills. While I like the original, I had to think deep on what the album made ME see and hear. The visual representation of separation of church and state (and just about everything else) with a more drastic approach led me to the image of two businessmen "sealing the deal" with a firm handshake... but with one hand bleeding from the center, sans nail. How would I draw this, though? I have certain visual styles I enjoy creating, but the modern comic book style of shading was the exact look I wanted. After lots of research and about 5-6 hours of time, this is the image I created:

Like 15 layers of soft gradients and pixel-perfect vector cleanup helps, I suppose. Now all I have to do is use this same technique on an entire vinyl spread. Welp. Speaking of that vinyl, by the way, my original idea of a collage of shopping bags? I needed more than that. I wanted to be hands-on and unique with the entire design, so I kept with the shopping motif with the typography (especially the tracklist), while just plain-out keeping it "punk as fuck". So here's what happened after a few hours:

More to come.