More of Arnaldo's stunning work, the portrait of John Travolta (above), has writing on the bottom, but alas again, too small to make out what it meant.

'The text on the John Travolta illustration (above) is probably an instruction to drop in a background colour - most times the artist would apply some kind of wash colour but in this case a mauve-y purple  was added'. Incidentally, most cover artworks I saw at a recent exhibition had a protective paper overlay taped to them. Some would have a rough outline of the subject drawn on, and other instructions written on this. (Shaqui)

The painting is shown below alongside the finished cover, which has the replacement mauve background.

'Interestingly, I noticed Arnaldo Putzu started to add outlines to the more 'vague areas of some portraits/figures during this period. I suspect this was to aid the printers in blocking out an area where a different background colour would be added or, in some cases, changed.' (Shaqui)

Wouldn't it be great if a load of this work appeared, and an exhibition was made.  I don't know how many visitors it would get, but I'd be one of the first in the queue!

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