James O’Brien’s Illustration Blog

Tags: Avengers, brush pen, face, glasses, hair, portrait

Saturdays, I’m often at Black Dog in St. Paul. Although I like their music, occasionally, some of it is difficult to work to. And there was this guy tapping his foot. Anyway, sketched there a bit and then wandered over the Bulldog and sketched there (Faber-Castell artist pen).

Tags: bar, beard, face, glasses, hair, hat, portrait

Tags: brushpen, face, portrait, Thom Yorke, vector

I’m exchanging sketchbooks with a few artists this year. This image is the first page of the book I’m exchanging with Aaron DeYoe, made with a brush pen, colorized in Photoshop.

Tags: brush pen, cloud, ear, Sketchange, smoke

I attended the Illo Minn Volume 2 panel tonight, moderated by Andy Powell. Panel consisted of Nancy Carlson, Adam Turman, DC Ice, and Eric Hanson. This drawing of Andy and Eric looks very little like them.

Tags: Andy Powell, brush pen, Eric Hanson, face, glasses, hair, lettering, portrait

This is a quick sketch I did of the founder of the Turkish Republic and its first president, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk while waiting for my Döner at the Black Sea Restaurant. The source photo was from a small pamphlet published in 1981 by the Office of the Ambassador for Cultural Affairs for the Republic of Turkey at the UN in recognition of the Centennial of Atatürk’s birth. The cover painting is by Arthur Kampf (1927).

Tags: Atatürk, brushpen, face, hat, lettering, mustache, portrait

This is my Munny doll for the Illo Minn: Volume 2 exhibit opening this Thursday at the CVA gallery. Common thought is that you would paint one of these but I wanted to do something different. First I considered collaging on a digital print, same method I used for my Foot in the Door piece. Then I had this “brilliant” idea to apply sequins using straight pins with different colored tops. Took forever but is really sparkly, and my fingers are still numb. Next time it’s definitely gonna be paint.

Tags: Munny

This is my work for the Minneapolis Institute of Art’s Foot in the Door exhibit. My daughter and I got in just in time, about a half hour before they closed off the entry point. We stood in line for about two and a half hours, weaving our way through the new Target Wing up to the second floor where they were receiving the work.

The process for this was similar to my Mail Me Art piece. I designed the image in Illustrator, printed it out on plain thin paper, used matte medium to adhere it onto a 12″ square canvas, and then painted over the background white areas with acrylic. For the green areas, I “painted” on color tissue paper using wheat starch, same process used by Eric Carle for his children’s book illustrations.

Tags: acrylic, bird, cut paper, vector

For my Mail Me Art 2 submission, I’m sending an oversized card. I used a scrap piece of board and adhered with matte medium a print of an Illustrator image I’ve been working on off and again for a few weeks. I repainted the white areas of the print to give it a more painterly texture and to make the white areas more opaque. Around this I painted and rubbed in some white paint and attached a few additional black drop shapes. Then I added text with a Pentel brush pen, address and “no value” labels. I filled the back with repetitive text and ink blotches. This image is a view of the front of the card at the top and the back of the card at the bottom. Still a little work to do, need to add stamps and may add some additional bits here and there. Also need to address it.

Tags: brush pen, collage, lettering, Mail Me Art

Patti Smith circa mid 70’s, photo reference here.

Tags: brush pen, hair, music, Patti Smith