Category Archives: compliments

Interview with Uncommon Goods

As part of the roll out of my glasses, I gave a little interview to Uncommon Goods. They’ve been great to work with, especially for someone who is pretty licensing-shy. I’ve reproduced the interview below where you can read about my uncommon (see what I did there?) path to becoming an artist, as well as some of my favorite spots to drink here in San Francisco.

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MAKER STORIES

Alyson Thomas’ Creative Cocktail Illustrations & Other Adventures in Art

JUNE 18, 2015

Alyson Thomas | UncommonGoods

Attorney-turned-illustrator Alyson Thomas has always loved drawing, painting, and making things, but says she “didn’t think anything of it” until she was voted “most creative” in her college dorm. She didn’t exactly leap from law school to illustrating designs like the ones featured on our Cocktail Diagram Glasses, either.

Alyson’s career started in a very different place–the Department of Homeland Security. From doodling on sticky notes in meetings, to turning in her badge and spending a year on a drawing project, Alyson’s love of illustration grew and eventually blossomed into a full-time business. 

She took a break from diagramming delicious things, visiting “nerdy cocktail bars,” and generally being awesome, to answer a few questions about quitting her day job and the creative endeavors that followed.

Bloody Mary Diagram Glasses | UncommonGoods

Back when you were working as an attorney, did you ever find yourself doodling on documents or daydreaming about creating art when you were trying to prepare for a case? If so, what did you doodle and/or dream about?

Ha! Kind of. My attorney job was as an Asylum Officer for the Department of Homeland Security, where I’d interview people seeking political asylum here in the United States. (Yes, I had a badge.)  As you might imagine, it was a pretty intense and emotionally-draining job, so I didn’t have downtime while working. But, during a mandatory 6-week training program on a federal base in Georgia, I did do a fair amount of drawing on Post-Its during our 8-hour/day classes. At that point, I had been already doing the job for months, so drawing helped me stay sane during the often repetitive classes. That training period was also the first time I received feedback on my artwork from strangers, and it was overwhelmingly positive. I remember being pretty surprised at the time; they were just pen doodles on Post-Its!

A lot of my old notes from in-house training also have doodles — a little sad character named Blocky, smoke explosions, jars–on them. I’ve always been the type of person who can pay attention a little better when my hands are busy. Looking back on the doodles I made during that time though, and I’d have to say they were a little dark. Well, at least a weird hybrid of cute and dark.

Alyson's Food Diary

What inspired you to take that leap and “quit your day job” to pursue art full time? How did you initially become interested in illustrating?

In all honesty, leaving my day job had absolutely nothing to do with any sort of dream to be a full-time artist. I was burnt out from the work and needed to quit. I had saved up 6 months of living expenses and my husband was still working, which gave me some runway for what I began calling my “sabbatical.” Honestly, I wasn’t sure what my next path was going to be. I applied for some other legal positions, and did some contract brief-writing here and there.

Before starting with the Asylum Office, I had been unemployed for over a year out of law school, so I knew from that experience that to keep my spirits up, I needed a project to work on to at least give some structure to my days. Drawing was fun, relaxing, and helped pass the time. So when I began my “sabbatical” in 2010, I also started a daily drawing project called “Meat Sections.” Food has always been a source of interest and obsession for me, and a project creating butchery-style diagrams of, well, anything, had enough legs to last me for 365 days. I joined the 365 project group on Flickr, signed up for a blog, started a Twitter account, and began creating and posting artwork every day.

The response was pretty immediate. By mid-February, someone contacted me via Flickr to buy a print, so I activated my Etsy shop in order to accept the order. During SF Beer Week that year, I created a diagram of a great beer from The Bruery I had sampled, and then shared it with them via Twitter. A few hours later, they emailed me with an offer to create artwork for all of their beers! So these early positive responses really fueled my work, and by July, I really felt like this could be a viable business after my first craft show – IndieMart.

Alyson's Studio

Paints

 

You describe yourself as self-taught. Could you elaborate on that a bit? What steps did you take to teach yourself your craft, and how did you develop your skills over time?

As a student, in high school or in college, I never took an art class. I’ve always been a creative person I suppose – drawing, painting, cooking, sewing, making videos – but I really didn’t think anything of it. I kind of thought that’s how everyone was (until I was voted “most creative” in my college dorm). The period of unemployment after law school is when I started watercoloring for the first time, using a book my then-boyfriend/current-husband Steve bought me. (Why he bought it, I have NO idea.) I also checked out a ton of books from the local library to teach myself basic drawing and painting techniques. I started just doing illustrated journals, and was really inspired by Danny Gregory, both his books and his blog. I might have some innate talent, but I really think so much of succeeding in art and in life is just about putting in the time and effort. I had a lot of time on my hands back then and used it to be creative.

And then, with the Meat Sections project in 2010, having a self-imposed schedule of doing a daily drawing really accelerated my skills. It’s easy to see when I go back and look at my work from that year. Since that time, I have taken two adult art classes, both at Root Division here in San Francisco. One on drawing and one on acrylic painting.

Fresh Herbs | Alyson Thomas

What gave you the idea to incorporate classic drink recipes into your designs?

The first cocktail artwork I did was for my second solo art show in 2012, entitled “Beer, Bourbon, and BBQ.” I made 4 cocktail pieces, all featuring bourbon – Mint Julep, Old Fashioned, Manhattan, and Boulevardier. The originals all sold fast and then I knew I was on to something. Most of my artwork is inspired by my desire to research and learn more about food and drink, and then share that information with others. It is really quite helpful to have a visual representation of what goes into various cocktails, and in their (generally) correct proportions. You can understand more about how drinks come together – like how a whiskey sour, a margarita, and a sidecar are all basically constructed the same with slight tweaks.

Cocktail

Speaking of classic drinks, you mentioned on your blog that you patronize nerdy cocktail bars. What makes a cocktail bar nerdy? Is this research for your work, or just for fun? Or both?!

Good question! In my mind, a nerdy cocktail bar has an interesting menu, uses somewhat esoteric ingredients, has impeccable technique, and last but not least, knowledgeable bartenders who are obviously passionate about the cocktail world. I think in the last 3 years or so, cocktail bars have really raised their game when it comes to these criteria, so finding nerdy cocktail bars is easier and easier. If a bartender can not only answer your question about a particular drink ingredient, but also will expound on the history of it, how they like to use it, or maybe give you a sample taste, that’s a nerdy bartender in my book. The ultimate nerdy cocktail book in my opinion is Dave Arnold’s Liquid Intelligence. Definitely advanced, science-based, knowledge, but amazing.

I’ve also had the great fortune to work with several bars, either making custom artwork for them, or illustrating their menus, like Padrecito in SF. [Shown above.] Oh, and my barfly habits are definitely both for fun and research!

What’s your best advice for someone looking to switch career paths to follow their dreams of becoming an artist?

Do your work consistently and regularly, and then put it out there. You aren’t going to know if you can make it until other people can see your work and respond to it.

Drywell is famous.

OMG My art is in the newspaper!

Mildly anyways.

Yesterday, I had the surreal honor of being featured in the Sunday San Francisco Chronicle newspaper! (Under the appropriately named “Hot Stuff” column in the Home & Garden section)

A freelance writer contacted me out of the blue a couple weeks ago and interviewed me for about 40 minutes. She was super nice and even wrote the article so I didn’t sound like a doofus. And that was awesome. Also, I’m forever indebted to her for including this quote of mine in the article: “I’m just kind of riding this meat train for a while.” My law professors would be so proud…

Check out the whole article here on sfgate.com.

People like me?

this is a winner's wreath ...

In MORE good news, last week my little art self was nominated as one of the best local San Francisco Etsy shops, by 7×7 Magazine.

I’m pretty blown away that I was nominated at all, since I only had my first sale in February of this year! Plus there is some awesome competition.

The winner will be featured in November’s issue of 7×7 Magazine. So if you’re so inclined, you can check out the voting page and vote for Drywell. You can vote once a day until this Thursday, September 9th. And you could…. uh… tell your friends?

Welcome Awesome People.

08.08.10

I have a feeling there are a lot of new eyeballs on ye ole blog, as Thrillist ran an awesometown write up of my little art shop, drywell…art by alyson, today.

So welcome to all the “sent-by-Thrillist” folks! Hope your eyeballs like it.

Also, I semi-stroked out this morning when I was just sitting, catching up on my bloglines and saw my little “friday socks” illustration on eastsidebride. Did a double-take, realized it was not in fact, my OWN blog that I was reading, and yelled to the hubby like a crazy-person. ESB and A Practical Wedding were my go-to blogs when planning my wedding last year, and in fact, are the only two I still l read now that the deed is done. So, uh, thanks. You made my Saturday.

smoke cloud of doom

blocky and the green cloud



Little blocky and the smoke cloud of doom is now available as a print in my shop.

I’m super pleased with the colors on this print. It took A LOT of time to match my original color choices in the original. It really matches the transparency and depth of the original watercolor, which I posted a few months ago.

In other news, The Bruery, a southern California beer brewery caught wind of one of my illustrations of their Melange No. Seches beer and featured it on their blog! I’m super excited (as you can see here) since they make some amazing creative beer. Be on the lookout for some more Bruery beer inspired art, over at my daily drawing project MEAT SECTIONS.

OK. Now I’m off to the beach to enjoy a rare warm sunny February day here in SF!