This was an exercise in taking a photo that was quite dark and foreboding and turning it into a happy looking illustration. I'm slowly getting my head around how to make my work look like illustration instead of "fine art". This is watercolour and colour pencil.
Originally inspired by the occult fiction of the seventies, this began life as a cover concept for a commercial horror anthology. It later transitioned away and became a personal project, granting me more freedom with its content, and a return to one of my favourite themes – the offsetting of monstrosity with beauty.
Clio is a limited production, quite difficult to obtain, premium Spanish Red. I had the pleasure of visiting the vineyard many years ago and, while there, managed to take one photo of a particularly gnarly vine. This is at best only a very unreasonable facsimile.
