Big Lebowski Inspired Cocktail Book Illustrations and Cover Artwork

Image of a drink recipe book called The Unofficial Big Lebowski Cocktail Book with orange and blue starbursts, sitting on a bar with a cocktail

Final book cover editorial illustration for the Unofficial Big Lebowski Cocktail book, featuring a drink and lettering illustration by Jennifer Hines.

The Brief: To create 75+ full page illustrations, complete with title lettering illustration, food and cocktail illustrations, spot art illustrations, and cover illustration for a Big Lebowski-inspired cocktail book for Quarto Books

Role: Illustrator responsible for illustration and lettering for book cover and book interior illustrations. Creative direction and book design by Laura Drew and the Quarto Books design team. All text and recipes written by author André Darlington.

Tools Used: Procreate app, iPad Pro, Photoshop, Apple pencil, Photoshop.

In the summer of 2022, I partnered with Quarto Books to create all the illustrations for an upcoming title, The Unofficial Big Lebowski Cocktail Book, featuring over 50 recipes for cocktails and foods that were all inspired by the Coen Brothers’ movie The Big Lebowski. The author André Darlington wrote the content and recipes, but they wanted something illustrated instead of the typical photographs. The movie is quirky with lots of fun details, so the brief was to bring out the fun and characters from the movie to make the book have a similar vibe. Based on the recipe text, I created hand-drawn cocktail illustrations for each drink, using hand-lettering to illustrate the titles for each drink, and then added some fun spot illustrations that referenced the character, scene, or story plot point that the drink referenced. I had no photos to go by, so I had the pleasure to visualize the recipes and color to see how they might look. In addition to the over 50 cocktails, there was a series of food recipes for noshing with friends or bowling buddies, so I got to illustrate those food recipes as well. This project was a very fun project that spanned the summer of 2022 and where I got to flex all my favorite drawing muscles, including lots of lettering, cocktail illustrations, and food illustrations, all combined into one quirky package. I’m proud to have illustrated this project from the cover through all the recipes. The book released March 2023. Thanks to Creative Director Laura Drew for the commission.

You can order the book on Amazon here, or at your favorite bookstore: https://www.amazon.com/Unofficial-Big-Lebowski-Cocktail-Book/dp/0760381216/

See the book on Goodreads and give it a nice review (please!): https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61398974-the-unofficial-big-lebowski-cocktail-book

Image of an opened book featuring a spread of pages with a cocktail recipe for Tumbleweed drink and an illustration with lettering, the drink, and tumbleweeds by Jennifer Hines

A lovely spread featuring the recipe for the Tumbleweed cocktail, complete with my illustration of the drink, lettering of the title, and fun illustrations of the scene and drink garnishes.

Image of four editorial illustrations from a Big Lebowski cocktail book featuring cocktail lettering of drink names, cocktail illustrations, and spot illustrations

Four editorial illustrations from the interior of the book, featuring cocktail illustrations, fun spot illustrations to suit the movie scene or characters, and lettering. Let’s Go Bowling features fun bowling imagery in a bowling alley; Urban Achievers features classroom and scholarly awards with the cocktail; The Pomeranian features imagery for the dog from the movie; and Sarsaparilla shows a desert with a sarsaparilla cocktail and bottle.

Image of four editorial illustrations from a Big Lebowski cocktail book featuring cocktail lettering of drink names, cocktail illustrations, and spot illustrations

Four editorial illustrations from the interior of the book, featuring cocktail illustrations, fun spot illustrations to suit the movie scene or characters, and lettering. Ransom Courier shows the failed hand-off of the ransom; Star Lanes features fun bowling imagery and signage; Occasional Acid Flashback is trippy and references the dream The Dude has with tiled checker floors, and the Porn Star Martini references the porn movies of characters Jackie Treehorn and Bunny Lebowski.

Image of four editorial illustrations from a Big Lebowski cocktail book featuring cocktail lettering of drink names, cocktail illustrations, and spot illustrations

Four editorial illustrations from the interior of the book, featuring cocktail illustrations, fun spot illustrations to suit the movie scene or characters, and lettering. Where’s Bunny references the character’s disappearance and ransom note; Modestly Priced Receptacle features the coffee can and Ralph’s receipt; Venice Beach League shows a perfect punch for your bowling friends; and Jeffrey Love Me shows Maude’s costume in the dream sequence.

Image of four editorial illustrations from a Big Lebowski cocktail book featuring cocktail lettering of drink names, cocktail illustrations, and spot illustrations

Four editorial illustrations from the interior of the book, featuring cocktail illustrations, fun spot illustrations to suit the movie scene or characters, and lettering. Moonless Prairie Night features fantastical bowling dream sequence imagery; Roll on Saturday is about Walter’s insistence on not disrupting his religious observances; Treehorn features imagery of character Jackie Treehorn and his garden party; and Ferret in the Bathtub shows images from the scene where the nihilists try to intimidate The Dude.

Image of four editorial illustrations from a Big Lebowski cocktail book featuring cocktail lettering of drink names, cocktail illustrations, and spot illustrations

Four editorial illustrations from the interior of the book, featuring cocktail illustrations, fun spot illustrations to suit the movie scene or characters, and lettering. The signature drink, The Dude, shows images of the character’s favorite and frequent drink, The White Russian; Whale Song features a walkman and candles to set the mood; Strikes and Gutters features fun bowling imagery, and the Nihilist features… well, nothing.

Image of four editorial illustrations from a Big Lebowski cocktail book featuring recipe illustrations, lettering of recipe titles, food illustrations, and spot illustrations

Four editorial illustrations from the interior of the book, featuring food illustrations, fun spot illustrations to suit the movie scene or characters, and lettering. A few of the tasty food recipe illustrations from this cocktail book include Da Jesus Salad, showing the purple passion of the character from the movie; Pigs in a Blanket and Lingonberry Pancakes from the Nihilists at the diner scene; and Meat Joy, referencing Maude’s avant garde arty friends.

A spread from the book featuring the chapter opener for the section of Lazier Drinks: Shaking ‘Er Easy, which has cocktails that require shaking to bring them together. This opener is modeled after the character Jackie Treehorn’s bar in his Malibu home in the movie The Big Lebowski.

A spread from the cocktail recipe book featuring a drink recipe for The Dude, or the character’s favorite drink The White Russian. The cocktail illustration features some of the character The Dude’s favorite things, including sunglasses, a carton of cream, a bowling ball, and a walkman to listen to past bowling tournaments.

The rug really tied the room together! This spread from the cocktail recipe book features a take on a Mai Tai, which of course features the Dude’s rug, which is the catalyst for the entire movie plot.

Image of a book The Unofficial Big Lebowski cocktail book illustrated by Jennifer Hines, sitting on a bar next to a cocktail in a martini glass.

Enjoy the book with a cocktail of your choice! The final illustrated book cover for The Unofficial Big Lebowski Cocktail Book by Andre Darlington, featuring illustrations by Jennifer Hines.

I’m so proud to have worked on all the illustrations in this cocktail book, so I hope you’ll decide you’d like to try out some of the recipes! You can purchase your own copy here, or at your favorite bookstore: https://www.amazon.com/Unofficial-Big-Lebowski-Cocktail-Book/dp/0760381216/

And you can leave it a review here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61398974-the-unofficial-big-lebowski-cocktail-book

Are you interested in having me create some fun or tasty illustrations for your book, brand, or product? If you’d like a custom illustration, please go to my Process page to see about getting a custom quote.