Monday, June 25, 2012

A Book About Wine

It's true:  I love wine so much that I decided to make a book about it.

And it goes like this:

  Title:

15 Wines That Will Change Your Life

Purpose:

To create a wine guide introducing the fellow wine lover to some unique yet accessible wines that are not your everyday wine. A new grape varietal to try with dinner, as an aperitif, or on its own.

The Process:  

Researching 15 unique wines, creating drawings of maps, food pairings, and other little illustrations in pen/marker, and making them all digital

materials:  crayola markers
  paper
pen
ink
                  analog to digital brain conversion device (not sold in stores)
          wacom cintiq 
          book binding board
       cloth
       glue
         scissors
         patience
        wine
                 
When I was coming up with book ideas, I made an early decision that I wanted to make a wine guide; some sort of introduction to new and unique wines to pair with food.  Rather often I find myself in the grocery store with a food craving, will finagle something delicious, yet get stumped on the wine choice and wind up with the same old boring wine that I always get.  Well, not anymore!  This book, aptly named 15 Wines That Will Change Your Life (thank you Issy for the title!), is a short version of suggestions of not-so-common, quality wines to properly pair with your cuisine.



MAKING THE BOOK

I started collecting information, hunting down both unique and accessible wines.  Bear in mind, the reason I wanted to do this book is because I wanted to give myself excuses to draw all things related to wine.  Part of the wine varietal selection process involved finding clever subject matter to illustrate.
Please note the wine spill on the notes to the right:


Look at this hog's mess ..... I love it!  There is nothing like being submerged in the scribbly scratch paper phase to figure out what the hell you are actually doing.

 


Next I made a storyboard....
 (pardon the nun salt shaker)


I made two storyboards to be exact
Gotta get it right!
I wanted the layout to be similar on each page, writing out every single
detail, only so I could break my own rules on the final copy





Each page contained wine notes:  which region the grape is
from, fun facts, aromas, flavors, and food pairings.

Once I gathered all the information I could handle I went on a drawing frenzy






 Mussels, Shrimp, Lobster
I could draw sea creatures all day!


 The Pear Experiment
I was running out of time and had forgotten my markers, so this
pear was a digital experiment! Made 100% digitally:
I'd eat it!



Sausages/Hanging Meats


 Asparagai



Steaming cups of coffee




At Last:
The Final Product! 



Here are some select pages from the final copy:
enjoy!




 









Cheers!