For the past year, I’ve had the pleasure of illustrating for the local magazine Edible San Francisco. I get a list of the Top 10 Eats for each issue, and whip up an illustration to accompany the article. Fun stuff.
Category Archives: watercolor
There’s always room for more beer.
And epic beer posters. If you’ve followed me on Instagram in the last few months, you’ve probably seen several sneak peeks at some beer bottle watercolors I’ve been painting.
And painting.
And drinking and painting.
And then some more painting.
And then the formatting. And re-arranging. And tweaking (but no twerking). And stifling of OCD tendencies.
And then FINALLY a little proofing and, heck, some more drinking time:
All for the huge piece of beer-love you see here:
Beer Hoarder. If you are into craft beer at all, you know one. You might actually BE one. Scooping up rare bottles at beer events. Stalking your local bottle shop for the next release. Waiting in lines for beer, like some perverse Soviet-era throwback. All to take your precious down to your basement, garage, cupboard, or cardboard box to let that bad boy get some age on it. Develop the funk. Yep, you’re a beer hoarder.
Actually, come to think of it, I’ve been doing a little bit of hoarding myself. I’ve been tinkering with this final piece for weeks now. And while it might be prudent to wait to release this baby into the wild until 2014, I just can’t bear to wait. Real artists ship. (Or so Steve constantly tells me.)
What I AM going to do is release a limited edition series of the Beer Hoarder print on 100% cotton fine art paper. And it is delicious paper, people. So thick and textured, it makes this print look every bit as good as an original. Limited edition of 100. Snatch one up here by Wednesday for Christmas delivery.
And because it is the holiday season and there are serious feelings of gratitude for all of my customers and supporters this year, I’m giving away one of these limited edition prints! How can you win? Simply be the first to accurately identify every beer depicted. Easy, right? Your list must be posted under the post on the Drywell Facebook page. I won’t tell you which ones someone misidentifies, only that they didn’t get them all right.
42 craft beers away from glory.
Hoppy Holidays.
xo, alyson
Original Sidecar For Sale
Framed original watercolor. $175
As you may recall, last month I participated in Project Make, an online documentation of the creative process. The project is over, but that means there is original art for sale!
Offering original art is not something I have done a lot of online, choosing instead to sell at local shows. So now’s your chance, if you’re outside of the Bay Area and in need of an original watercolor painting. Check it out at the Project Make Shop.
Making Stuff for Project Make
Booyah! Final Sidecar cocktail diagram
Fully back in the swing of things here at Drywell HQ. Not only is Renegade Craft Fair coming up next weekend at Fort Mason, but I’ve also been busy creating new pieces for Project Make.
pencil sketch of sidecar
Project Make is a pretty fun project headed up by fellow artist Meghan Urback. Basically, for the next month, a group of local artists will be documenting their process for creating art. The process photos are posted on Instagram with the tag #projectmake as well as on each artist’s page on the Project Make website. Here’s mine. After the pieces are finished, the originals will be available for purchase on the site.
Where the magic happens. With the watercolor.
Photoshop mock up from fellow watercolorist Emily Proud
Woodcuts from Sirima Sataman
It has been pretty interesting so far to see everyone’s processes, especially those working in different media, such as wood block printing. My process can be at times …. a bit unorthodox.
Inspiration comes in many (delicious) forms.
…but tasty. I’ll post when the final paintings are available for purchase.
Beer Bourbon & BBQ ad infinitum
That’s right. I’ve finally got all the new art from my Beer, Bourbon, & BBQ show transformed into schmancy print-form, right here in ye ole shop. They’ve seen the light at a few craft shows in the past week, and damn, if they aren’t popular. I think my older art is getting jealous.
Oh, and if you want to up the ante in the gift-giving department, there are still some original pieces available from me for local pick-up in San Francisco. Just shoot me an email using the “contact” button above and we’ll get you set up.
Boulevardier cocktail diagram by Drywell Art $20. Original SOLD.
Old Fashioned Cocktail Diagram. Print $20. Original SOLD.
“Mint Julep” print 8.5 x 11, $20. Original Available.
Manhattan cocktail diagram. Print $20. Original SOLD.
And some more original pieces too!
BBQ Pig Papercut. 8.5 x 11 Print, $20. Original papercut available
attack of the margaritas
As I’ve been doing most of my socializing outside the house this week, I have no lovely cocktail to share today! But since I did enjoy several tequila concoctions at Tacolicious in the Mission this week, with Sharon (Ms. Casa Murriguez herself) and tomorrow is the granddaddy of tequila soaked holidays, here’s a little digital margarita for you all. Given the tastiness of the Paloma I sampled there, I might need to get on a new illustration…
(Tacolicious, btw, was pretty delicious and packed with the weirdest Mission crowd, even at 5:30 on a Wednesday. So interesting that a somewhat expensive taqueria would thrive smack dab in the middle of the Mission. Now just to get that crowd as our own customer base….)
such great heights….with acne
original watercolor and ink illustration
You know the one, right?
I say funny stuff while falling asleep. This may be the start of a series….
a little mountain sketch
I’m going through all my sketch books and scanning them, and came across this one. I think I drew this after watching Where the Wild Things Are (remember the scene of one of the wild things’ model town?)
smoke cloud of doom
Little blocky and the smoke cloud of doom is now available as a print in my shop.
I’m super pleased with the colors on this print. It took A LOT of time to match my original color choices in the original. It really matches the transparency and depth of the original watercolor, which I posted a few months ago.
In other news, The Bruery, a southern California beer brewery caught wind of one of my illustrations of their Melange No. Seches beer and featured it on their blog! I’m super excited (as you can see here) since they make some amazing creative beer. Be on the lookout for some more Bruery beer inspired art, over at my daily drawing project MEAT SECTIONS.
OK. Now I’m off to the beach to enjoy a rare warm sunny February day here in SF!
face it. it’s facets.
I was feeling kind of in a rut lately and decided to just sit down and do something different.
I’m in an e-course taught by Marisa of Creative Thursday, and the last class touched on issues of procrastination and inspiration. I’m always interested in hearing about other folk’s creative processes, because most of the time, I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing. Marisa mentioned that she often just sets aside time to paint, even if she doesn’t have a pre-conceived idea of what she will be painting. I really haven’t ever worked like that, choosing instead just to draw or paint when inspiration “strikes.” This was my attempt at trying a different way for doing things.
This is what I came up with. Much more abstract than usual, but I like it.
