Line Illustrator for Irish Whiskey Reference Book (ongoing annual commission)

The project I am producing an annual cloth-bound reference book on Irish whiskey, first edition publishing late 2026. The look is restrained and literary, think Slightly Foxed Editions or Wisden, not a glossy photographic whiskey book. We are hiring one illustrator to create a consistent set of line illustrations for the distillery section, with a view to repeating the commission every year for the right person. The style Fine line illustration in a single ink weight, drawn to sit on a warm cream page and printed in copper. Confident, clean linework. No shading, no full colour, no heavy fills. References are vintage engraving, architectural line drawing, and the quiet ornament of classic reference books. The whole set has to read as one hand: the smallest detail and the largest scene must clearly belong together. What we need (year one) 12-15 hero illustrations: larger scenes, each a distillery in its setting, up to 148mm wide 40 spot illustrations: small vignetted single-object drawings, one per distillery (a still, a doorway, a roofline), 40 to 70mm wide, fading to nothing at the edges That is 52-55 individual illustrations What we provide A reference photograph for every distillery. You draw from our references, not from imagination. These are real, recognisable places and architectural accuracy matters. Format Vector, transparent background, single colour we can set to copper, consistent line weight across the set. We will agree file types with the chosen illustrator. See attached distillery spread to see where the illustrations might feature. Year one is the 12-15 heroes and the 40 spots. Hero illustrations for further distilleries come in later editions, so this is potentially an ongoing annual relationship for the right illustrator. To apply Send a portfolio showing relevant line work, one or two sentences on how you would keep fifty-plus illustrations visually consistent across the set, and your rates: a per-hero rate and a per-spot rate quoted separately and your availability through to early 2027. Shortlisted illustrators will be paid for a single test piece, one hero and one spot of the same distillery from our reference, before we commit to the full set. Please open your proposal with the word copper so we know you read this through.