Kick Plastic Pilsner - Partnership w/ Sweetwater Brewing and Costa Sunglasses
As many of y'all know, I have worked with Sweetwater Brewing Company many times throughout the past few years. I have done artwork for merchandise such as shirts and glassware, as well as Sweetwater murals throughout Florida. We had always spoke about someday doing a beer. The thought of designing a can / bottle, as well as the packaging on a beer has always sounded cool to me. Just the thought of being able to walk into a local Publix, or liquor store and pick up a 6 pack of beer that is covered in my artwork is amazing.
So when Sweetwater approached me with an idea to team up with Costa Sunglasses to put out this beer, that not only tastes great, but it also helps a cause as great as the Kick Plastic campaign, I jumped at the opportunity full steam ahead.
After a few conversations, I came up with a preliminary sketch of what they were looking for. For me, it was certainly a difficult task. You see most of my artwork comes from experiences I've lived on the water. But most of my fish are all inshore fish, that I target with a fly rod. They asked me to focus the piece on Marlin. I had done one Marlin painting may years prior for a friend that worked for the Miami Marlins front office, but that was more based on the team than on the actual fish.
[Kick Plastic Study - 11x14" Original Marker & Ink- Mixed Media Paper]
After showing them the study, we knew we were on the right track. After going over a few more details, I tackled this piece on canvas. I chose to paint on a 10x20 canvas, as we were on a tight timeline. However, I learned quickly that it was not a good idea! Painting such detail on a piece that size proved to actually take longer than had I done it on a canvas twice the size.
[Kick Plastic - 10x20" Original Acrylic on Canvas - Custom Framing]
Things happened rather quickly after that. Approval was immediate, then off to production it went. In a short matter of time, they were sending out cases of this beer all over the southern states.
First Batch at the Brewery:
More Photos:
