Detail

The art direction asked to include a specific piece of architecture, a weathervane that hinted at the name of the winery, and a landscape of California hills and vineyards.

This was my first go at it.

First attempt

Okay, the designer liked it, the client liked it, but it wasn't quite right for the label. They wanted less texture, less brush strokes, less saturated colors, made to look a little old, more atmosphere in the distance...and while you're at it, loose the weathervane.

I started from scratch and painted this....

I am honored that Bridlewood Estate Winery has my work represent their Central Coast Syrah and Central Coast Chardonnay.

A shipment of a case of Sarah 2006...(to answer Bill's question from yesterday: I paid for it.) Cool that they have an engraved version of my illustration on the box.

How cool is that?

Ask your local wine shop to order some for you, Bridlewood describes the Syrah as opening with aromas of smoke, cedar, and chocolate leading to bright cherry fruit framed with spicy oak. As it evolves, a nose of dark fruits and violets gives way to dark chocolate. On the palate, this wine shows rich flavors of blackberry, dark cherry and sweet brown spice with a hint of mocha. Full of soft, chewy tannins, this wine has a long, clean finish.

...and you get my illustration as a bonus.

Post Wine Week Note: I'll be taking a sabbatical next week. I will resume Drawing On Observations Monday, September 21st with an all new portrait of the day doodle. Due to spam issues all comments will be held for moderation until then.

Cheers!

Other wine related musings

Wine label posts

The post Finale appeared first on Larry Roibal.

Detail

It's not every day an art director calls and asks you to paint an ethereal California landscape in a red pallet.

Detail

What could be more fun?

Finished Illustration

The post A Bottle Of Red appeared first on Larry Roibal.

Last night the Democratic party kicked off its four day convention to nominate Senators Barack Obama and Joe Biden to lead the party in this falls election and become the next president and vice president of our nation. The delegates were treated to a speech by Caroline Kennedy; a Ken Burns tribute film to the Lion of the Senate, Ted Kennedy; a speech by the 76 year old senator, who recently suffered from a malignant brain tumor but made the journey to Denver to endorse Barack Obama; what I thought was a great speech by Michelle Obama; and capped off by Michelle and Barack's adorable girls teleconferencing with their daddy from Kansas City..... but I couldn't help notice that there was a subtext to the proceedings... especially if you were watching CNN....Get over it already!

The post The Day One Subtext appeared first on Larry Roibal.

Growing up, I had a Great Uncle Nick who would captivate us with the tales of how he and his family escaped from Russia as a boy; Alexander Solzhenitsyn wasn't as fortunate. Having survived eight years in a Russian gulag, his Nobel Prize winning books chronicle the horrors of Stalin's slave labor camps. Solzhenitsyn died yesterday. He was 89.

The post Solzhenitsyn Dies appeared first on Larry Roibal.

Some bloggers, armed with strong hit counts, have an over inflated view of their contribution to the public discourse and have developed an adversarial relationship with traditional media. I'm not in that camp. I'm a full time illustrator. I don't have the time, nor the budget to track down a story. I have never filed a freedom of information request. I rely on traditional media to stay informed, not just as a blogger, but as a responsible citizen. Some may have noticed the Star-Ledger's bylines peaking out from behind my daily doodles. The Ledger is New Jersey's largest daily paper. My brother and I had a Star-Ledger paper route as boys. and I've been a subscriber and reader ever since. In recent years the Ledger has won two Pulitzer Prizes and numerous other national awards, but like many in the news industry it's suffered financially of late. Yesterday The Star-Ledger's publisher George Arwady announced that the paper needs to cut it's staff by 200 full time employees or it will be forced to sell. Either way it's bad news for anyone trying to stay informed in New Jersey .

The post Traditional Media appeared first on Larry Roibal.

Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

Yesterday, US District Judge William Martini, sentenced former mayor of Newark Sharp James to a slap on the wrist, proving that in New Jersey, crime does pay. The corrupt pol was tried for illegally steering public land to his mistress and cronies and was convicted of fraud and conspiracy. Martini ordering Sharp to serve 27 months and pay $100,000 fine.

The post A Slap On The Wrist appeared first on Larry Roibal.

Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

Rich (Goose) Gossage was inducted into Baseballs Hall of Fame yesterday. Goose was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in 1970. After five seasons with Chicago and a cup of coffee with the Pirates, the hard throwing reliever came to the Yankees in 1978. As a relief pitcher, he helped define the modern day closer, pitching the final out to clinch a Division, League or World Series title seven times. The Yankees, with the help of Goose, pioneered the set-up/closer configuration that every major league team has used since. He was named an All-Star eight times, played for nine major league teams, but I thought it was fitting he entered the Hall of Fame wearing a Yankee cap.

The post Goose appeared first on Larry Roibal.

Ball point pen on the morning newsprint

Senator Obama's political views may be 180 degrees from Ronald Reagan's, but like the former president, Obama has studied the stage craft of a winner.

The post A Picture Is Worth…. appeared first on Larry Roibal.

Ball point pen on the morning newsprint 

I have two photo shoots in New York Today, so todays doodle was another quick one.

Yesterday Senator Obama visited with Shimon Peres and professed an unshakable commitment to  the security of Israel.

The post Commitment appeared first on Larry Roibal.

I seem to be referencing Andrew Keen's book alot lately, The Cult of the Amateur, How The Internet Is Killing Our Culture. As I've stated before, Mr Keen makes a lot of very interesting points about Web 2.0 and how bloggers are filling the web with unprofessional content. I have to concede, there is a lot to be said for having an editor. Take this story about a mayor of a New Jersey shore town and a blog he writes detailing his frustrations with out of town, undesirable renters. You would think that a public official would know better, but he wrote a few derogatory ethnic slurs about Staten Island renters on his blog and now he finds himself in the middle of a very big controversy. Surely an editor would have stopped him from writing said slurs, not just because they were hurtful but in his own self interest. Now, the voters of Belmar, New Jersey will become the ultimate editor.

Read about it here.

The post More Blogging News appeared first on Larry Roibal.