The first in my Northern Monk Patrons Project series, this one was a collaboration with Pilot Brewery based in Edinburgh and I was more than happy to have a visit to one of my most loved cities. I even tried a deep fried Mars bar, the inspiration for the flavour of the beer this artwork was for.

After a couple of days of walking around to find a view I realised it’s a tricky place to capture without altering the reality of the place and personally I like to represent what’s there.  I had initially ruled out Edinburgh castle as it felt a bit too obvious, but I’ve also always been fascinated by its construction and geology (if you’ve not seen my work, I like rocks).

This particular view is one I loved as a kid, it’s from a hotel we used to stay at on the Grassmarket and luckily I was allowed to go up, even climbing out of a window, to get the perfect view.  The thing that really clinched it for me with this outlook was the hint of the Mars Bar colours and the dramatic shadow to emphasise it being for a dark beer.