More mid-century doodling

Is it just me, or is there some kind of a Renaissance happening in the illustration world? Every which way I look I can see illustration and design that is so influenced by mid-century styles it might have even come from that era. Yes, I am also guilty! I’ve always loved it – I can still remember vividly the handed-down picture books I had at home that kept me coming back over and over again. I love detail. I love busy images. I love over-saturation, colour contrast and really striking palettes. I love hyper-stylization the way that hyper-realism used to be my jam all the way through art-school. 

Much as I do love it (and there are some crazy-talented designers and illustrators that I LOVE to follow just for the joy of their line-work and unique use of colour), it kind of feels like the market is reaching the point of over-saturation. I really hope it doesn’t get to the point where clients are so sick of looking at things from so many designers all influenced by the same big-name greats they start hating it…because that would ruin one of my favourite things.

And when I think about artists I really admire from that era, I know they were deal-breakers, scene changers. They changed the way we think about illustration today. They defined one of the biggest institutions in global illustration and animation today – Disney Animation Studios. I hope that some day, people might look back on the great illustrators from my generation and think the same way about them. 

laying down the colour for my gingerbread house. I’m not sure I want to keep the pretzel window, it’s a bit clumsy. I’m really happy with the way the wood beams turned out, though.

Anyway! After indulging myself in my growing collection of post-war and mid-century advertisement and illustration prints, I now have sooooo many things cluttering up my desktop that have yet to be coloured (or that I’m just not sure I like enough to actually keep but still can’t bear the thought of deleting). So….here they will live, in their new home in blogger land 😀 I liked how the Hansel and Gretel house has started to come together with colour and some texture, so I might eventually finish that one. The others are just doodles I don’t think will amount to much more than that. Among the million others I have yet to complete….

Work In Progress…

I started this painting after it began as something completely different, which is something that happens when I’m daydreaming (that means alot). I got to the background, and I ran out of steam. I’m still thinking about what to put in there. But I’m feeling a full-on background with some other characters in there. It might take me 6 months to get around to that though, so for the meantime, here she is. Godfairy and Cinderella mash-up. I call her: Tinkerella. Or something like that 🙂

Some close-ups of the face and hair details. These were a lot of fun to paint.

Tenochtitlan Prints

I’ve been looking at Aztec Prints for what seems like forever now….when did they become popular again? I always liked the strong colours and geometric patterns of Aztec art, so I decided to spend a lovely Monday/Tuesday afternoon making one of my own 🙂 You can tell I’ve looked at a lot of Mary Blair 🙂

I decided to make a series based on a colour palette inspired by their indigenous art and the natural landscape (or what I imagine it might be, at least. Trip to South America, anyone?). When I was working on this, I discovered two things: firstly, I love patterns! The riot of repeating colour and form, that is. Not so much on the match-matchy. Secondly, experimenting with colour is a lot of fun. It kind of makes me want to do another one, and another one, and another one…For now, I stopped at four (ten, but who’s counting?!) that I’m going to share here. Sunrise, Day, Sunset, Night…and some extra bits and pieces for fun.

Day

Tenochtitlan Sunset (Main)

Night

Some experimenting with colour palettes

And…another one. These are way too much fun to make.

After all of my experimenting, I couldn’t resist making a vector mask. Who cares that my pattern is weird and only repeats every 15-20  images? Or that it won’t fit neatly (symmetrically) into my lovely symmetrical heart? I still like it. Maybe I’ll design the next one to fit. That would be ace.

I love the idea of having Aztec border trims. Or just border trims. They make everything look so much more interesting, don’t they?

I (finally) have a Sparkly Shiny New Website!

You can visit me on my new website at: http://www.claireobrienillustration.com/

See you there!

Do you want to build a snowman?…yes, if you’re in Canada

This week I stayed up all night in vain to try for an Irish-Canada work visa. I fell asleep for 3 minutes, the visas sold out in 4 😦 So rather than waste the night, I drew me. Well, me if I existed in Frozen and if my hair actually did what it was supposed to do instead of frizzing madly around my face in the humidity of Hong Kong. You are forgiven for thinking I have curly hair – I don’t. This picture is an optimistic view of my life in terms of hair. And an elfin like chin. One can but dream! 

I’m now on Society6!

Check out my new shop, where you can buy the latest versions of my art prints and products at:

http://society6.com/ClaireOBrien

Taxi! 的士! Tda-síh!

Hong Kong Taxi

Like New York and London, Hong Kong is famous for its distinctly coloured Taxis. The red taxis dominate Hong Kong Island and Kowloon, though few will cross over the Harbour unless they have to. The New Territories are the home of the green taxi, while the outlying island of Lantau has a unique blue taxi rarely seen elsewhere in HK. 

The Medicine Shop

The time I spent in Hong Kong was one of the most interesting and challenging experiences of my life. The colour and vitality there is unlike any other place I’ve been. This is part of a series of backgrounds and illustrations I’m working on based on my experiences there.