Eric White has been painting LPs since he had a dream that Elton John had assholes for eyes. He has an ongoing series of LP paintings on his website, spanning across all genres and totaling over thirty 5 completed pieces. The mood of the pieces range from trippy, to desolate, to oddly macabre—right up Tyler, The Creator's alley.

A fan of Tyler and the entire Odd Future coiffure since catching a show in 2011, White tells us the opportunity to create the cover for Tyler's new Scum Fuck Bloom Boy anthology is "an honor because I'1000 really into what he'due south done visually from the very beginning."

Tyler approached the cover with a specific prepare of ideas, just ultimately trusted White enough to let him to finish the piece after the final compositions were agreed upon. While they were in the midst of the creative procedure, Tyler showed White some of his own sketches, and White admits, "I was really impressed with his drawings and especially with his use of colour. I think he has a much better innate capacity for working with colour than I do."

Outside of the jarring color palette, White points out that the embrace is loaded with details, revealing that "there is a tiny Maclaren on the road" fifty-fifty if it'south "barely legible on Instagram, and probably non at all on iTunes."

Continue to run across more of White's work and read our full interview with the Michigan artist.

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Eric White's 'Outpost 2' 2017 (oil & graphite on canvas)

How did you and Tyler connect for this projection?

He had seen my work in the book Rizzoli published recently and liked my work, and I was a fan of his. I had seen Odd Futurity at Highline Ballroom in NYC in 2011. I had washed a few album covers and other commercial work in the past, only I hadn't done a cover in many years as I'm focused on my own work now. But this was also exciting of an opportunity to refuse. His managing director got in touch and soon after that Tyler and I spoke on the phone and nosotros started the process.

What was the process of working with Tyler like? How easily on was he after the initial idea?

He had some very specific ideas in mind for the cover, which evolved a scrap during the process, but I was actually into it. I call back Tyler was initially thinking information technology would be similar to my series of paintings in which the viewer'southward perspective is from inside a car. He would send me sketches of what he was thinking and some photos that expressed the tone he was looking for. I would make detailed comps based on his sketches and ideas, and we went back and forth a couple times. Afterward I showed him the terminal comp, he was on board and basically left me solitary until I finished the painting.

Visuals have always been really important to Tyler and he's washed a lot of his own artwork himself in the by. Why exercise you remember he reached out to you for this?

Even though our styles differ, I retrieve there is an underlying weirdness in both of our piece of work and maybe he connected to that aspect of my paintings. I think he too appreciates my technique, which is pretty labor intensive. Even though it's surreal, information technology is usually grounded in a certain visual reality. Mayhap Tyler wanted his concept expressed in a more than realistic manner.

During the process of working together, he showed me some drawings from his sketchbook and he'due south really talented equally a visual creative person—permit lone everything else. I was really impressed with his drawings and peculiarly with his use of color. I call up he has a much better innate chapters for working with color than I practice…

What was information technology like attempting to create something that will live in the visual globe he's been creating for years?

Well, information technology was an accolade because I'm actually into what he's washed visually from the very beginning. That's one of the things that drew me to Odd Future when they were getting all that attention back in 2010. They take such a unique, cohesive, and bizarre visual way that runs through everything they do, and it was so refreshing to meet that at the fourth dimension. That style continues with what Tyler is doing now. I was really excited when I sent him the finished production and he was happy with it.

What was information technology like to reconcile your own artistic aesthetic with Tyler's, and couple information technology with the album's motifs?

I liked where he was going conceptually, and he was proverb he liked the way I work, so I'd say at that place wasn't likewise much to reconcile. I wouldn't take fabricated an epitome like this on my own, just there are things about the image that relate to my personal work. I'1000 really happy with the manner it turned out.​

What is the significance of the bee roofing Tyler'southward face?

You'd accept to ask him about that! He was specific about the type and bending of the bee, and very clear that he wanted it covering his confront, which I really similar. I recollect this is ane of the means this prototype relates to my personal piece of work, because I often use bad-mannered compositions with figures and faces abaft off the edge or where faces are otherwise obscured. For me, it'southward a good way to establish tension in an image.

Which smaller details on the embrace do y'all hope fans choice upwardly on?

I worked really hard on information technology, and at 16x16 inches this piece is much smaller than piece of work I've been making lately, so there'due south a lot of particular in there. There is a tiny Maclaren on the road. Information technology's barely legible on Instagram, and probably not at all on iTunes. Likewise, there is a lot of detail in the bumble bees' fur, wings, legs, etc, that I'yard actually happy with.

I'm also happy with the way his face up turned out. I had to make it look similar him with well-nigh of the likeness obscured by the bee, which was a challenge.

As someone who was raised on vinyl and was highly impacted by album art every bit a child—and who has done not only commercial work for albums, but a huge series of paintings in honor of the LP embrace—it makes me really sad that the fine art form has dwindled down so much. Most people will only see album artwork slightly bigger than a stamp stamp—depressing. Thankfully, there are however some immature folks who care. Tyler's record is getting released on CD, and plainly vinyl, so people who are interested will have a chance to encounter the image in much better resolution.

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'Dadsville' 2003 (oil on sail)

Were there other color palettes you had in mind prior to the concluding?

I showed him a couple variants when we were still in sketch fashion, and I believe there was 1 that had a more naturalistic dusk palette, with a lot more than blue. In the end, he liked the extreme red and orange and I retrieve information technology works well. It's definitely more striking than it would have been with a more normal sky, and even though it'south a pretty happy image, that color gives it a sense of impending doom, which I retrieve is nice. Possibly that'due south only me…

I know you're very taken with album covers, as per your LP series. Which albums inspired you to do that serial?

The genesis of that projection was a dream I had where I was browsing in a record store and I picked upward an Elton John greatest hits tape, and he had assholes for eyes. I woke up laughing. I'd never taken an idea directly from the dream state until I started the LP paintings. I'g non sure if I want to know what that dream means, but information technology inspired i of my favorite series. Most of the paintings in the serial are done bodily size at 12x12 inches, but recently I started making them 5x5 anxiety. I did a version of The Beatles' gatefold White Album. When fully extended, it's 10 anxiety broad, and I fifty-fifty take a behemothic blackness plastic record sticking out of the side. That anthology remains extremely important to me, and was always in my mind as one I would have to do for the series.

You can find more of Eric White'due south work on Twitter, Instagram, and his website.

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