Oversized Album Cover Prints Available on Official KISS Website

2/1/13 NOTE: Due to "human error" these prints are currently unavailable for purchase from the Live Nation website. However they will be back—please check back here again soon! These two signed (signed by me [Michael Doret] and the members of the group), limited edition, large scale fine art prints (not lithos) are still available through the official KISS Online Store. RaRO is signed by myself, Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons. Sonic Boom is also signed by the two newer members of the band. These prints made from my original artwork of Rock and Roll Over and Sonic Boom are the best incarnations you will ever see of my art for these two iconic KISS releases (please ignore the fact that it says "Pre Order" on Sonic Boom – that's a typo).

I have digitally redone my orignal art for Rock and Roll Over (after 30+ years the original original art is long gone), and so now it's cleaner and crisper than ever before. The art for Sonic Boom was digitally created to begin with, and so enlarges to the 20" size perfectly. To give an idea of the print quality and clarity of these giclées, here's a detail of Sonic Boom showing the watercolor paper texture:

The print images are 20" square printed on 25" square "Museo Textured Rag" digital Watercolor paper. These are archival prints and will show no visible signs of fading for 100+ years under reasonable lighting situations.

Printed by Art Works Fine Art Publishing in Los Angeles, these editions are limited to 250 prints each, and each print will come with a certificate of authenticity signed by me.

As the creator of these two pieces I am very critical of print quality, but suffice it to say that when I saw the final proofs of these two pieces I was blown away by the color intensity and the quality.

To see my other blog posts on Kiss...here are the links—earliest first:

1) For All You ‘KISS’ Fans Out There…

2) The Return of . . . KISS (#1)

3) The Return of . . . KISS (#2)

4) The Return of . . . KISS (#3)

5) WXRX/Live Radio Chat

6) Podcast Interview on PodKISSt

7) Signed Prints Available on Illogator

After Delayed Release—KISS Wants to Announce...

Get them while they're hot: "Sonic Boom" & "Rock and Roll Over".

Click HERE for more information.

I recently recorded this SHORT INTERVIEW with the kind folks from Podkisst, discussing these limited edition prints.

Signed KISS Limited Edition Prints Now Available

These two signed (signed by me [Michael Doret] and the members of the group), limited edition, large scale fine art prints (not lithos) are now finally available through the official KISS Online Store! These prints made from my original artwork of Sonic Boom and Rock and Roll Over are the best incarnations you will ever see of my art for these two iconic KISS releases.

I have digitally redone my orignal art for Rock and Roll Over (after 30+ years the original original art is long gone), and so now it's cleaner and crisper than ever before. The art for Sonic Boom was digitally created to begin with and so enlarges to the 20" size perfectly. To give an idea of the print quality and clarity of these giclées, here's a detail of Sonic Boom showing the watercolor paper texture:

The print images are 20" square printed on 25" square "Museo Textured Rag" digital Watercolor paper. These are archival prints and will show no visible signs of fading for 100+ years under reasonable lighting situations.

Printed by Art Works Fine Art Publishing in Los Angeles, these editions are limited to 250 prints each, and each print will come with a certificate of authenticity signed by me.

As the creator of these two pieces I am very critical of print quality, but suffice it to say that when I saw the final proofs of these two pieces I was blown away by the color intensity and the quality. Order yours before they're gone!

Podcast Interview on PodKISSt

After doing my first live radio interview for WXRX I did another, slightly longer interview for the KISS fansite "PodKISSt". In this interview I discuss influences on my work, how the two covers for KISS came to be, the limited edition prints of those covers, international problems with the KISS logo, crazy fans, and some advice for budding young artists out there.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

WXRX/Live Radio Chat

Today I did my very first live radio interview with Stone and Double T at WXRX radio out of Rockford Illinois, home of the landmark Coronado Theater. I chatted with them about my work on KISS' album covers: both "Rock and Roll Over" and "Sonic Boom".

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

The Return of . . . KISS (#3)

In developing and refining my pencil sketch for Sonic Boom I wasn’t completely happy with how the background was working with the diamond shape and the positioning and scale of the lightning border (a small nod to RaRO). I also wanted to play up the idea of something shattering (i.e. from a sonic boom). So I came up with the semi-abstract idea of concentric circles rippling outward like water, only breaking up incrementally into smaller and smaller segments as they expanded, changing the background color from violet to black. It seemed like a fairly simplistic idea, so I tried it and it worked. It also seemed to serve well to both ground and amplify the light beams emanating from the center, which break through the faces. I went through several color iterations, ending with one that had a dark red bleed border. I showed that version to Paul. He looked at it for a minute and then suggested we just change the border to black. We both agreed that this worked better, finishing the design process on this piece.

I did have to redo all the art for the CD/DVD package, which has a slightly more horizontal proportion. That meant shifting and manipulating the proportions of many of the elements. Because the angle of the beams had changed in the new configuration, the most complicated part of this was redoing all the faces. It’s a little difficult to tell what went into the face art, transforming them from normal color photographs, so here’s an enlarged detail:

At first glance, it might look as though I accomplished this using some version of Photoshop’s posterize filter—but I didn’t. The photos needed to be manipulated quite extensively to gain the look I was trying to achieve. I used a similar process when I did the graphics for the Jewish Zodiac pieces.

I’m hoping this art will elicit strong reactions from KISS fans and art enthusiasts alike. My intention was to stir nostalgia for the era of Rock and Roll Over, while inviting the same enthusiasm for new adventure that the Sonic Boom albums and DVD intend to do. 

The avid KISS fan will note that the KISS logo on Sonic Boom is not the “official” logo. As I did with RaRO, I redrew the KISS logo after discussing the idea with Paul Stanley. He knew that I had redrawn it for RaRO, and liked the result. In fact, he told me that I’m the only designer who he would ever allow to do that! Below I’ve posted an image with the official KISS logo (at upper left) and just to it’s right, my redrawn version. Below that are (on the left) the logo from Sonic Boom, and the one from RaRO.

Tinkering with the KISS logo, ever so slightly, was an important step towards seamlessly blending the iconic logo with the (hopefully) iconic cover design. I’m very happy with end result, which you see on the cover of Sonic Boom. It truly has been a pleasure to return to my roots, in essence, by rejoining the creative process with KISS. As it was the first time, this experience was one to remember! I can’t wait for the next adventure…