whisk(e)y Sketches
a club of sorts
For almost a decade, there was a whisk(e)y tasting group in Northfield, Minnesota run by my friend Arnab Chakladar. I doodled as I sipped on a hundreds of mostly delicious drams of single malt whisky and sometimes bourbon, blends or exotics, including single casks and special bottles just for us. As a side project, local artist Karl Nelson and I handcrafted a nice booklet to keep our geeky notes and Arnab's mandatory rating system, but, mostly, I wanted to record the delightfully weird comments made about the whisky. In my humble opinion, Northfield's poet laureate Robert Hardy provided the best descriptions. Local author Ben Percy who was part of the gang describes the banter beautifully in an article for Minnesota Monthly. If you're a whiskey fan, a foodie or like to read excellently thorough reviews, check out Arnab's blog My Annoying Opinions.
the notebook
Our task was to give words about the nose, the palate, the finish of the samples we tasted and then we got a "wild card" rating in case the overall experience of that whisky was unusually pleasant or unpleasant. Since everyone seemed to be shuffling loose pieces of paper, we decided to make a notebook. Printmaker Karl Nelson and I collaborated in handcrafting a series of 15 notebooks on beautiful French paper. I included my drawings and quotes from my sketchbook. Here are some sample pages.
Sometimes I drew on my iPad, sometimes on my scores. We all look so serious in these sketches, probably because it was easiest to draw people when they were still but I assure you, these were goofy times.
So many sketches of Arnab...
This is the label I drew for a special bottling of bourbon from Knob Creek made just for us. Arnab's doing of course and we all pitched in to get a number of bottles. He called the batch "Brown Sweetness."
Nightly necessary ritual, rincing the glasses with very hot water. No soap! Otherwise, the next tasting group might get soap notes, and some of the single malts were far too precious!
Sometimes, I love to see how fast I can draw people. It's not always pretty but it's fun and it gives my hand practice.
Sometimes, I love to see how fast I can draw people. It's not always pretty but it's fun and it gives my hand practice.
Sometimes, I love to see how fast I can draw people. It's not always pretty but it's fun and it gives my hand practice.
Sometimes, I love to see how fast I can draw people. It's not always pretty but it's fun and it gives my hand practice.