Slumbrew: Beetlejuice

Hey All,

I was recently hired by my boss at Silverscape to create the illustration for one of his beer labels! He's a home-brewer, and until recently, had been designing all of the labels for his line, called "Slum Brew," himself. He asked me to create an illustration to be used on a (for the most part) Red Ale called "Beetlejuice," named for the large amount of fermented beet juice. I've just recently come to terms with realizing I'm a horror illustrator, so it didn't faze me when I was asked to draw a dead man. Dead guys have become the Patrick Sheehan specialty.

Here are the sketches:

1. First up is the "Beet Beetle." I thought this was witty, and an elegant composition. It was my favorite. 2. He mentioned some graveyard imagery, so I figured I'd try a headstone motif.3. Everyone was really disappointed when I said I had no plans to even touch on Michael Keaton. (After 4 years of illustration classes, averting the obvious 1st thought is basically second nature.) So imagine my surprise when number 3 was picked! Figures. I would have been happy doing any of them. (And like I said, saggy old men have become my forte... Is there a market for illustrations of dead, saggy old men?)

Anyway, I very randomly whipped out the charcole and got these guys done very quickly:

It's definitely my own take on Beetlejuice... far more sinister. I was definitely inspired by (nerd alert) The Gentleman and Der Kinderstod from the Buffy episodes, "Hush" and "Killed By Death," respectively. (Those ones still creeps me the f*ck out.)

Anyway, I then scanned the two parts, whipped up some color in photoshop and got this:

(Pardon the teeny-tiny-ness. The finished file is at work and this is all I've got)

Hopefully if this label goes over well, more will follow! For more info on Slum Brew, visit www.slumbrew.com