Here's a very pleasing job I did back in april and which I decided to keep quiet about until I saw the final thing in the flesh, which was today!!
As a whisky drinker I was delighted to be asked by the Pocket Rocket Consultancy in Stirling to do a scraperboard illustration to enhance this project they were undertaking for the Arran Distillery, and it was a theme I was equally excited about - a devil tempting the viewer with a quaich full of finest Arran malt whisky, amid a sea of sulphurous smoke and flames. Gary the designer at Pocket Rocket had seen my dark illustrations for the two Daniel Morden books - Dark Tales from the Woods, and Tree of Leaf and Flame - and felt that the style was perfect for what they were trying to achieve with the packaging for this third and final outing of 'The Devil's Punch Bowl'. Fitting to the name, this 53.4% alc/vol whisky is a limited edition of 6660 bottles, and the whole packaging is sumptuous with it's use of different coloured foils and inks and cloth covered luxury board.
It is a joy to hold and open the box to reveal glinting foiled type giving an introduction to the drink within, followed by a message from James MacTaggart the distiller himself. Across from this is a listing of the casks used to achieve the particular flavour he was concocting. A ribbon pull then invites you to unmask both the bottle and the devil himself.....
It's great to see him all in golden colour after working on him in black and white. And it was great that they included my signature on the illustration there.
As far as the illustration went it was a classic scraperboard subject matter, what with the uplighting and everything. The designer had a lot of input and ensured that my early sketches were improved immensely before committing to the final artwork. This is how he looked when I was done with him:
Now, I hope some of you get to sample this malt whisky one day - I certainly am looking forward to trying it. But I do have some bad news on that front.....the entire edition sold out within an hour of going on sale!!! But, on the brighter side, I believe some of those bottles were bought by retailers, so get hunting :-)
Also take a look at the distiller's website for more info: www.arranwhisky.com
One last note about my photos - anyone who knows me knows I am currently working all hours on paintings for a Christmas book - I will probably bring some news and glimpses of that here soon - but as a consequence housework isn't a priority and I couldn't find an uncluttered place to take the photos, so I went out to the sanctuary of my shed, which seemed appropriate with the black bikes, the oil and engines, and sunlight slanting through cobwebbed windows!! I hope you like them.
And a final footnote....there is another whisky story to come soon too :-)
TTFN
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