Dressing the Beast

Art Direction for Is A Beast was provided by Dave DeCastris (aka Andy Whorehall). He previously provided art direction and production on Cameron McGill and What Army’s 2009 full length, “Warm Songs for Cold Shoulders,” as well as the 2010 EPs preceding the ‘Beast’ sessions: “Two Hits and a Miss” and “Deserters“. Artwork for ‘Beast‘ was produced for CD, Digital, Merch, Web Dev and Social Media branding intents. Included below are session photos, cover mocks and ideas for Is A Beast, plus artwork for the preceding EPs leading up to the Beast’s release.


Per DeCastris’s website about the making of Beast:

“The cover features a portrait of Cameron originally painted in acrylic color by Peter Mera, a regional artist. It was photographed by my sis, Deb, in black and white during its earliest phases on a low-resolution 2-3mpx camera phone to capture a somewhat grainy effect I was seeking to then paint some white fangs and abstract elements on top of.

The collaboration was accidental in tone, as were many ideas for the cover which involved photography and night images— the stark nature of Cameron’s record, its songs, and the road it took to complete it only made sense with it being darker in tone, stark, to the point, black and white.

Was also aware at the time that it is was possibly the last of a few recordings made with What Army. Part of the marketing of this record included a crowdsourcing campaign on Kickstarter to afford the record’s production. $4700 was raised on a $3000 goal—fan support made the record’s production and distribution possible.

(Link: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1656891405/cameron-mcgill-and-what-armys-new-album-is-a-beast)

I loved working on this record, and was able to witness its coming to life through various pre-production sessions and planning for the recording as a fly on the studio wall.”— Dave DeCastris, 2018