Darkness, texture and photocopying

Illustrator Emily Evans has created the album artwork for South London producer Paul White’s new record Watch the Ants, showcasing her beautiful and distinctive collage-style work.

Paul White - Watch the Ants
Paul White – Watch the Ants

Evans was commissioned for the album having created illustrations for label One-Handed Music’s Dedication series of Mixtapes. The work came about through a chance meeting on Twitter – label founder Alex Chase happened upon Evans’ website, and approached her for the work from there.

‘I was over the moon,’ says Evans.  ‘It was a really cool project to work on – each [mixtape] was different and it was amazing researching the artists.’

The illustrator went on to create the artwork for White’s Street Lights single, which also boasts a superbly surreal video by animation studio Plastic Horse:

The illustrations for the single used a dark blue palette, which Evan’s said aims to ‘give the sense of mystery, unknown  and confusion about the  night.’

She says, ‘The subtle difference between dark, dark blue and black really intrigues me. I instantly wanted to use dark blue in Street Lights to embody the enveloping atmosphere and escalation the darkness creates.’

Paul White ft. Danny Brown - Street Lights
Paul White ft. Danny Brown – Street Lights

The dark blue was carried into the Watch the Ants Album artwork, which was informed by an intricate breakdown of the album’s themes, lyrics and meanings, supplied by White himself.

Evans then took to Brixton Library to frantically photocopy numerous images and textures, which were then collaged and painted over.

‘I get a bit addicted to photocopying,’ she says. The textures are amazing and Brixton’s photocopiers are pretty old, so you get a lot of dust and scratches added to everything.

‘I then painted over the photocopies and played with layouts, then photocopied them all over again. It’s kind of a routine like that till I get something I like.’

Paul White – Watch the Ants is released on 29 July on One-Handed Music. For more information click here

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