Wine Illustration

All Images, c. Kevin SproulsWine Illustrations are good fun, like the enjoyment of a favorite vintage. I've done quite a lot of work in support of the vintner's enterprise. Let's dive in:Here is a sketch for a wine bottle label. We never went to finished art on this, unfortunately. The foreshortened angle of the kneeling figure was a challenge!When producing illustrations for wine, it often becomes necessary to render vineyards and vines. This can be tedious, as large tracts of land in production can appear repetitive and uninteresting. My job as illustrator is to bring these images to life for the viewer.Here is the sketch I created for the vintner Beckstoffer. The background mountains makes for a romantic composition, as well as the quaint farmhouse and observation tower. The client determined to emphasize typography in their approach to this label design:In the end, we went to finish with many rows of vines included in the design:Do you see what I mean about repetition? Quite a detailed drawing was this!Remember, I mentioned fun. The image above is a flight of classical fancy that I made for a wine called Gran Enemigo. The centaur-like creature engages with a Griffin. This drawing was taken from an old engraving. I'd like to hear the story behind this image! I enjoyed replicating and updating this fantastic composition.Once in a while, I get a chance to do my portrait thing, as I did for many years at The Wall Street Journal. At WSJ, they call these portrait drawings hedcuts. I pioneered this iconic style for the paper in the 1980's. Here it is on behalf of the Catena Winery...This is the vineyard's owner, Laura Catena. And here is an illustration of the Winery:The Catena brand comes to us from the famous Mendoza region, in Argentina. Here is a map to illustrate:To conclude, here is another hedcut example...This is an actual wine label featuring a rather dapper Mike Grgich, founder of the prestigious Grgich wine brand.Thanks for joining me on this excursion through wine country. A Votre Sante!