“Leave it to The Hop Gods”
My first beer label illustration “Hop Gods” for Lead Dog Brewing
“You like stouts?”
“What’s a stout dawg?” A naive 21 year old version of myself asks Jose.
“A stout? You’ve never had a stout? I forget you’re just a baby” he says taking a jab.
That night me and Jose (pronounce it hozee if you will) get off another shift at the good old Starf**cks and head to his man cave. Proud as ever, Jose’s old ass hands me a freshly popped bottle of mysterious liquid he concocted in his garage the month before. After he takes 10 minutes to explain some app chemistry (21 jump street) that I don’t even slightly understand, he says “take a sip, tell me how it tastes.”
“Damn Jose, I like stouts, tastes like I’m on a beach, relaxing my woes away as I sail off Into The Sunset” I describe to him.
Jose loosely throws out, “Haha I like that, I can picture that on the label if it ever had one, you should draw that shit dawg”.
Me and my boy Jose, sweaty and dancing at his wedding.
In this moment amongst friends, Jose didn’t realize he planted an itch under my skin. When I get an idea, I write it down, I fantasize about it, I think so much about the end result that it puts me so high up in the clouds, that I need to start chasing it. At that time, I was nowhere near ready to have my art on anything more than pencil and paper. But as I’ve grown into the artist I am, I’ve wanted to feel that high of having my art on something so simple yet visible as a beer label, whether for the homies or for someone as respectable as Lead Dog Brewing.
My friends at Lead Dog have asked me to do some artwork in different forms, but when the OG homie Phil said that he wanted me onboard to be one of many artists that help redesign and create a whole new series of beer labels, damn that shit felt good. Phil goes back to early Ascension Clothing Co. Days. Back in college I got to use my business as a model in my Entrepreneurship Classes to help construct business models and marketing ideas which Phil was apart of. He’s the reason I have a label in the first place, thank you Phil, you’re the shit.
Sketching.
It’s November. The time now has come to draw. Drawing is like 25% of the job, but also is the most crucial of steps. I feel pressure on projects like this, “draw good T Hams” I tell myself in my cold garage,“Don’t blow it T Hams, everyone is gonna see you suck if you let it happen”. Finding a way to represent what I want to create as an artist can be challenging, usually I like characters and trippy things you can’t understand. The first concept is done and I switch it up, instead of “Hop Gods” which was pre-established, I draw the “Hop Goddess”.
Next. Not the one. Dope. But not it. I tell myself to get lost, to draw like I know how, and f*ck what everyone thinks. Character is where my brain is. Critical thinking. Pencil sketching. Color Theories. Chasing that high of finally getting my own beer label. Doubt.
“Alright Phil, here’s my new concept” I type out. “ The characters are mostly from my head except the dog. The dog is a Cerberus from Greek Mythology, the 3 headed dog of hades except I gave him his little hop collar. The other two are Hop God Warriors ready to go to war with anyone who disturbs The Order of The Hops.”
“Dope, let’s go forward with that one.”
“Hop Gods” Final Illustration
Waiting in anticipation a few months later and in my hand I’m holding “Hop Gods”, a triple hazy IPA that makes me feel, physically and mentally, like I’m in the clouds. Thank you Jose and thank you Lead Dog, this means a lot to me and I am proud and grateful for both of you. May the Hops Be With You until we meet again!✌🏾
To learn more about Lead Dog Brewing and the other amazing artists, check out this page here:
“Beer in hand, Dream come True”
