BARCCHUS: My submission for the Mutt Lynch Winery wine label contest

I haven't entered an art competition in a while, so when I heard about the contest sponsored by Mutt Lynch Winery and Dog Art Today (a great blog by a very dedicated lover of dog art), I jumped at the chance.

The project was to create a wine label that is dog-themed. The first thing that came to my mind was Bacchus, the Roman god of wine (a.k.a. Dionysus in Greek mythology, but you can't alter "Dionysus" to sound like "Bark"). I had the idea of doing an homage to Caravaggio's painting Bacchus, but replacing the man with a dog. It was a great challenge to draw all of the fruit and foliage in addition to the dog. My work is usually dog + colorful background. It was also fun to create something for me, rather than a client. The title of my finished work is BaRcchus: The canine god of wine (after Caravaggio).

The label submissions will be up on Moira's blog next week (June 15-19), so that viewers and fans may vote for their favorite label design. Then the top 10 will be judged by a panel of three judges. If you dig my label design, please take a second and vote for it here! I'd love to make it to the Top 10. And enjoy all of the other 50 submissions!