James O'Brien illustration blog

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Happyman sketch

This is a sketch I made during one of my bus trips. Usually, my drawing subjects on these trips are limited to profiles and backs of heads. But at the moment, I didn’t see anyone interesting enough to draw so decided to make this mustache drawing instead. It developed into somewhat of a Victorian era caroler.

Bus sketches

Here are a couple of bus sketches from yesterday. The guy on the top had a stiff leg, as if he couldn't bend his right knee. The guy on the bottom sat in front of me and was dozing while I sketched.
 

Catholic charities

This piece was commissioned by Notre Dame Business magazine for an article about Catholic charities. The designer asked for two images. I designed the left side to be cropped in a cross shape and the right side to be within an oval shape. While creating the image, I worked on them together in one large rectangular space, turning a mask layer on and off to check on how they were fitting within the cross and oval shapes. But as is often the case, I prefer the uncropped version.

Drawing in Flash

 

I've been playing with Flash lately, initially for animation and web design. But a couple of my students use Flash exclusively for inking their sketches. So I thought I would try it out and did a quick demo for the rest of the class. At top is a Flash drawing of the above sketch from my Downtowner project.

Here is how I use Flash to create line work for use in a Photoshop image:

• import your sketch to the stage (File > Import > Import to Stage).
• deselect, click the Size button in the Properties panel and select the Contents button, this will resize your Stage to match your sketch.
• insert a blank keyframe (Insert > Timeline > Blank Keyframe) and then click the onion skin icon below the timeline.
• lines are merged if they touch so add additional layers to keep parts of your drawing separate.
• when you are finished, export the file as an Illustrator file (File > Export > Image).
• then, open this exported file in Photoshop, setting your resolution to 300ppi.

Shout!

I just finished this piece for Custom Home Magazine for a story about construction work. The sketch made the hands look as if they belonged to the viewer rather than this guy shouting so I had to work with them a bit to make them more believable. For the client, I had the word "listen" written within the mouth. The subhead for the story was, "Making yourself heard."

Note, with the heightened urgency of the Orphan Works Act, I've begun to add a credit to my web images.

Below is the sketch along with additional line work used in the final image.

An open narrative

I'm mentoring a graduate student this year at one of the schools where I teach. He mentioned being asked in a critical studies class about the meaning of his work. I suggested, "I create an open narrative and invite the viewer to finish the story." This off-the-cuff remark is a perfect fit for this image, a portrait study in texture and pattern and, of course, an open narrative.

Given that though, the narrative could be about a spaceman or a futurist, someone contemplating his fate, considering the next step, foreseeing what lies ahead. This image reminds me of the enigmatic illustrations from Omni magazine I relished back in the late 70's and early 80's.

Texture with graphite

Here's a piece I made last week for the LA Times using a slightly different method inspired by a graduate student at one of the schools where I teach. Her method is similar to my usual technique however she makes custom-made texture areas for each piece. She uses graphite to sketch the texture areas on vellum and then uses them to make screens for screen printing.

So, for me, rather than collaging a pre-existing texture, for this piece I pencil-filled in the large color areas using a 3B graphite pencil, scanned them in, and then converted them to the individual color areas. I like the fact that I am hand-making each color area as well which results in unique textures for each image area.

The LA Times article this piece accompanied was written by a chef discussing his profession.

Below are the pencil-filled areas (along with some of the line work) drawn on tracing paper with a 3B pencil and then set to high contrast using the Threshold command in Photoshop (Image>Adjustments>Threshold). The background was built using the face element.

The RNC Project

I'm documenting the Republican National Convention taking place this week here in St. Paul. Mostly, I'm looking at how the convention is affecting my neighborhood and the immediate area around the Excel Arena (I live a few blocks southwest of the arena).

There is a link to the RNC Project page on the left or click here.

This page will consist of photographs and drawings with some notes written within the images. Here is the first sketch.

Sleep illustration

This is me, still struggling through "Moby Dick." Actually, I'm currently finishing Frank Herbert's "Dune" and have Paul Bowles' "The Spider House" on deck (although I would rather read his "Let It Come Down" but can't find a copy).

I just finished this illustration for Johns Hopkins for a story about a sleep study procedure that can be done in the comfort of your home. The client wanted a "homey" feel with the addition of a graph that represented the procedure. To keep the image more general, I designed it without the graph, just an image about sleep, and then worked in the graph for the client. So this is the non-graph version.

The cat is a combination of my daughter's two cats, Misty and Lue. Misty likes to sleep in this position next to me; Lue modeled for the ears and paws. And even though I'm moving toward the use of more reference, the figure and the rest of the scene were drawn from memory.