The 10,000 Year Bender
An illustration composed for an article in the New Scientist Magazine based on our relationship with alcohol.
The article explains how our relationship with alcohol has developed over millions of years. Even our distant ancestors have been documented using fermented fruit to create rudimentary forms of alcohol.
The illustration portrays a man and his distant relative both drinking different forms of alcohol. I decided a comedic approach to the article could work well. Using the same model for both characters emphasises their link. However, because they’re from different eras, over a thousand years apart, their dilemmas and outlooks on life would be completely different.
Extract from the article:
“The story of alcohol is one of an intimate relationship between humans and yeasts, an affair that began millions of years ago and is still playing out today. We like to cast ourselves as the star of this drama, but in fact yeasts are the unsung lead character. Ours is a symbiotic connection – a mutually beneficial partnership. ”
