James O'Brien's Studio Blog » lettering

AARP illo

J. O'Brien — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 23:54:36 +0000

How fitting that I am commissioned by AARP for an illustration on the eve of my 50th birthday. This is for a story about phone scamming.

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The Ape Fell

J. O'Brien — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 07:02:22 +0000

This is a personal piece about a man called The Ape, kind of a pulp noir, fall from grace type of narrative, a story about failure and resurrection. “Cursed are you among all.” A tragic villain.

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J is for Jackson

J. O'Brien — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 08:27:21 +0000

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Pug dog

J. O'Brien — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 01:54:20 +0000

Above is an illustration I made recently for a story about a pug dog. In the story, she approached a worker out of curiosity. Below is a breakdown of the image layers.

This is the un-cropped version.

Before adding the pattern of rocks to the background.

Before adding the boots.

Before adding the second set of line work for the pug dog.

Below are the rocks isolated from the background texture, included a cigarette butt and a twig.

Below are the boots (see previous post).

Below is the pug dog, two sets of line work, with color. I’m currently using this with some background texture for my website splash page.

And here is the background texture.

I wanted to lengthen the original pants I had drawn so I drew two additional pant legs.

Below is the original line work for the rocks, cigarette, and twig (some additional elements not used in the final).

Pug dog line work three.

Pug dog line work two (not used in the final).

Pug dog line work one with teeth (and shoe/leg that was not used in the final).

Below is a gouache painting of the shoes (not used in the final).

Below is a gouache painting of the pug dog (not used in the final).

And finally here is the rough sketch.

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My shoes

J. O'Brien — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 00:39:33 +0000

I’m finishing up an illustration that includes worker’s shoes. So I put on a pair of my old bulky shoes as a model for the drawing, sat on the couch, propped my feet up on the end table, and drew while I watched my daughter conquer Mario Kart.

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The Streets of San Francisco: David Soul

J. O'Brien — Sat, 27 Aug 2011 03:45:02 +0000

Even though we stream Netflix for most of our movie watching, I joined our local movie store, Filmzilla, mostly because they had The Streets of San Francisco on DVD, one of my favorite 70′s cop shows, and of course to support our neighborhood businesses. Plus sometimes it’s nice to just physically wander through a store to pick out a movie.

This is a sketch of David Soul in his pre-Starsky and Hutch days, from The Streets of San Francisco episode “Hall of Mirrors,” 1972.

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Longfellow Dunn Bros.

J. O'Brien — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 02:31:26 +0000

Brush pen drawing of a man studying at the Longfellow Dunn Brothers.

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Bun E. Carlos

J. O'Brien — Fri, 10 Jun 2011 05:37:31 +0000

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Ryder Smith

J. O'Brien — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 05:50:29 +0000

Quick sketch from this photo, while listening to this.

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Sketching at the dentist

J. O'Brien — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 04:08:39 +0000

…while waiting for the drill, sketch for a current job.

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