Steve Carroll is an illustrator based in Craigellachie, in the Speyside region of the whisky world. Carroll graduated from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee, with an honours degree in illustration and printmaking in 1991. Shortly after, Carroll moved to Edinburgh where he developed his pen and ink style.
Carroll's first regular commissioned work ran from 1994-1997, where he illustrated caricatures of famous personalities for an article featured weekly in The Scotsman newspaper - five of these portraits are now sat as part of a permanent collection in the Scottish National Portrait Gallery in Edinburgh. Now based in Craigellachie, Carroll continues to complete editorial and design projects which have included Alta Journal of California, The Economist, Fairfax, and Favor and Leith Agency.
"I have a keen interest in portraiture and I try to capture the likeness and personality of each subject. My inspiration comes from newspaper cartoonist, Wally Trog, a slow and painstaking worker, he was always sensitive to the subtle changes of appearance of his subjects."
For our Craigellachie 21 year old release, Carroll chose a piece he created for an local exhibition in Dufftown - known as 'The Miniatures Snug', and with the theme of whisky, Carroll decided to illustrate a caricature based off of Speyside whisky tasting notes.
"To create this piece, I researched the tasting and smelling notes while having fun with different shapes of flavour - before arranging them into an anthropomorphic figure. The illustration is rendered in pen and ink and coloured with watercolours."
Since living in the whisky capital of Scotland, his work has now taken on a new subject matter and that is whisky commissions. Carroll has recently worked with Cabrach Distillery and Leith Agency, bringing to life their concept of a new whisky being born in the wild again.
"It's exciting to see my work across different whisky bottles and I am delighted to be continuing along this path."
If you're interested in finding out more about Steve Carroll and his world of illustrations you can find him from the links below:
Email: email@stevecarroll.co.uk
Web: www.stevecarroll.co.uk
Instagram: @carrollillo