Ferment Magazine Cover

I had the pleasure of illustrating the cover of Ferment magazine for September. Ferment is a craft beer magazine which is included in Beer52 subscriptions. When they asked if I would illustrate a Scotland-themed issue, I was delighted - several of my passions (beer, Scotland, illustration) rolled into one job! 6 years in Scotland have prepared me well for this commission...

I thought I'd share the process of this one.

Step 1. Brief & initial sketches

The editor suggested three different designs: a hiker in the Highlands, a visit to a cosy distillery/beer/whisky tasting, and a wildcard: giant thistle with various Scottish things in it. I did 3 very quick pencil sketches on paper, scanned them and sent them over for review. I'd been sent the layout of the magazine cover so I was already making sure each of these would work within the given dimensions.

Step 2. Refining the sketch

The thistle design was selected and I added more detail to the design, exploring what elements could be included.

I was leaning into the Scottish stereotypes, but trying to put a little twist on things and include some more unexpected things than bagpipes and whisky - for example, I included a mini Loch Ness monster having a splash in a whisky barrel. I always find ideas like that come easier to me when I'm just sketching on paper.

Step 3. Final linework and colour

Once the above had been approved, I traced over my sketch to get it looking cleaner, and then scanned this pencil drawing. Some small adjustments were needed, e.g. adding more detail to the thistle plant.

Then it was time to add colour, which I do digitally in Photoshop. I don't have a lot to say about that process because it was fairly straightforward! I wanted to keep the colours of the thistle plant - purple and green - which meant I based the rest of the colours around this so it'd all work together. The blue of the saltire flag fortunately ties in well.

After this was approved we just had to work out the background colour - and then the magazine sent me back this final design with the logo and text in place!

For those of you reading who perhaps aren't familiar with Scotland and are wondering what on earth the significance of the guy with the traffic cone is, let me run you through the design (from top left going clockwise):

-The thistle is the national flower of Scotland
-A wild haggis (a fictional - or is it?! - creature) is making eye contact with a man in a kilt eating crisps. The crisps don't have particular relevance to Scotland, they just go nicely with beer! And in my illustration, they help tie the whole image together as you can follow the trail of them all the way down to the bottom. But I was imagining that they're Taylors (formerly Mackies) crisps, which are made in Scotland. I recommend the Pickled Onion flavour.
-A woman waving the Scottish flag next to Greyfriar's Bobby, a famous statue in Edinburgh of a famous dog: he has his own Wiki page; I gave him his own tartan dogbed to sit on.
-A woman wearing a hiking fleece reading a guide to Skye - I wanted to at least hint at the beautiful scenery in Scotland!
-Nessie splashing in a whisky barrel - there was no way I would be able to include a full-size monster, so this had to do!
-A Highland cow (or coo) - tourists absolutely love these guys. You can't throw a stone in Edinburgh without hitting a shop that sells tasteless merchandise of them. Hopefully I've not added to this problem with my illustration! NB: If you're ever in Edinburgh, no need to go to the Highlands to see them: Swanston Farm is a bus ride away in the Pentlands, I have encountered them a few times (sometimes more closely than I wanted!!).
-The Duke of Wellington is a statue in Glasgow (located outside the Modern Art Gallery) - for decades, locals have been adorning his head with a traffic cone, leading to great renown: Banksy has said it's his favourite work of art in the UK. During COVID, he was further decorated with a face mask, and he's been seen with a traffic cone in the colours of the Ukraine flag. But here, he's enjoying a beer.

Thanks for reading!

L x