The Cookie Monster idea came pretty quick given the beer name.
With this piece I wanted to replicate the cover of old comic books - Things like Godzilla.
I always try and use somewhere as a reference location, to make a place look and feel real. The location here is that of Amundsen Brewery itself, in the centre of Oslo in Norway. My first point of call is Google Streetview to have a look around a place I've never visited. I look for photos of the area and loosely use them and street view as reference, using artistic licence to add quirky details to a place. The shop I named "Smakake" for example means Cookie in Norwegian.
My favourite character from the Cookie Monster artwork is the one in the foreground with the mobile phone and the hat (Details below). This guy was found on Google Streetview hanging around a short walk away from Amundsen Brewery... I had to add him to the artwork! He doesn't make the keg or cask artwork but should hopefully make the can. I thought it would be funny that all the other people are running away, and this guy is just taking photographs on his phone... it's a bit of a statement of how immersive technology has become.
I also love that all the little details like the "Hi Mum" will never get seen when it's printed to size for keg and can. I always like to hide little things like this in my art...just for me. Maybe one day I will get these printed full size and get an exhibition in a gallery... I can only hope. That's how I really see my work, not as packaging but as artwork, the best place for it (to me anyway) would be in a gallery or on someone's wall.
I'm amazingly privledged to have the vehicle that is craft beer to get my art in front of so many people.
The piece was sketched in pencil, then inked with Indian ink, scanned and coloured digitally with a Wacom tablet.
Copyright © Lewis Ryan. All rights reserved.
