AIDAN O’ROURKE Writer Photographer Coach

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Portfolio of sketches by Aidan O’Rourke – Dublin, Liverpool, Manchester, Salzburg, Berlin and other locations

2019-08-03 By Aidan O'Rourke Leave a Comment

In this post I present my portfolio of illustrations, done in various locations and at various times.

I was good at drawing as a child and enjoyed art at primary school. In fact I won an art competition two years running.

The first was a poster for an anti-crime campaign by the police. I designed a poster with a sports car and the slogan ‘Flashy or not, lock it!’.

I won a Kodak Brownie camera, which I remember picking up as a very excited 8 year old from the police station in Stockport.

The second year I did a drawing of Tom Thumb standing on a giant hand. For that I won a Kodak Instamatic camera, which I also collected from the duty desk at the police station.

Both works were exhibited at Stockport Art Gallery.

Unfortunately, I don’t have these pictures today.

At grammar school I wasn’t able to study Art due to a timetable clash with Music. I drew from time to time and finally started to experiment with photography more seriously at university in Dublin. I turned to photography as I had grown impatient when doing drawings and found it difficult to draw faces.

For me, photography and art are complimentary. I’ve done mostly photography but occasionally, when I’m in the mood, I’ve done drawings.

I attend life drawing classes, but drawing the human figure is difficult. The face is even more difficult. But with sketches of buildings, it doesn’t seem to matter if the proportions are not quite accurate. My style is sketchy and scribbly but it seems to work.

When I do quick drawings, the results are often good. People seem to rate art higher than photography due to the talent and skill that goes into a drawing or painting, although photography also requires lots of talent and skill.

I prefer drawing to painting and I especially like to do line drawings.

I’m inspired by art and often go to art galleries such as the Walker in Liverpool, Manchester Art Gallery and the Tate Britain in London.

I love Japanese woodblock ukuyo-e prints by artists including Hiroshige (1797-1858) , Hokusai (1760-1849) and Utamaro (1753-1806).

I’m very interested in fashion illustration from around 1900s to the 1920s, which was actually quite Japanese-influenced.

I love the illustrations of Georges Barbier (1882-1932), the Russian emigré fashion illustrator Erté (1892-1990) and the Czech artist Alphonse Mucha (1860-1939), all three part of the Art Deco movement.

David Hockney’s (b. 1937) line drawings are fantastic and some are quite risqué!

Talking of risqué, Aubrey Beardsley (1872-1898) is another artist I like.

I really appreciate the illustrations of Patrick Nagel (1945-1984) who designed that famous album cover for Duran Duran.

The drawings of Swedish artist Carl Larsson (1853-1919) are amazing.

I have lots of ideas, which I intend to explore and I’ll share my work my on Facebook and social media.

Many thanks to my friends on Facebook for their positive feedback and encouragement.

Cadishead Bridge on the Manchester Ship Canal. Copied from a photograph. 28 Nov 2015
Media City, Salford Quays
The Champs Elysées, Paris, drawn at the location, July 1977
The former Smiths Arms, shortly before demolition, Ancoats, Manchester 31 Aug 2016
The Fernsehturm or TV tower, built in the former East Berlin 1973. My drawing 7 June 1980
Drawn at the location on a visit to Salzburg Austria, 1980
Test image made in Photoshop copied from photos. 1 Jan 2010
The Brandenburg Gate, das Brandeburger Tor – Berlin 27.03.2017
Salzburg, drawn at the location on a visit to Salzburg, Austria / Österreich 21.09.2019
Illustration of an orange VW Beetle on Blackpool Promenade
Test cityscape illustration made in Photoshop. With the towers of Manchester town hall and Royal Exchange, looking towards Winter Hill. 31 Dec 2009
Douglas DC3 Dakota, copied from a photograph. Watercolour drawing 11.07.1988
Rapid sketch of the LIver Building drawn at the location. It had to be rapid as the temperature was freezing! 18.12.2011
Levenshulme Baths – traced from a photograph 17.01.2015
Copy of artwork from the opening credits of The Untouchables tv series, made in the 1950s. The buildings are in downtown Chicago. When I visited Chicago, I saw this location. The viewpoint is at the southern end of North Michigan Avenue. Drawn around 1988
Copy of a postcard. I lived in a flat which overlooked a courtyard – Hinterhof – like this one. Drawn 1980.
A very rough sketch of the east facade of Manchester town hall in rain. The viewpoint is the window on the first floor of Manchester Art Gallery. 09.11.2016
Fantasy cityscape image of New York, drawn first on paper from a 1930s photograph, then scanned and built up using Photoshop layers. 27.12.2017
Facades on the Landwehrkanal, Kreuzberg, Berlin. drawn around 15.05.1980 during my year spent in West Berlin
The Custom House, Dublin, drawn at the location. 21.05.1977
Cityscape of Liverpool, drawn in around five minutes from my photograph taken from the top of the Liver Building 22.06.2019. I was surprised and happy to receive lots of positive feedback on Facebook.
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Aidan O'RourkeCoach and Content Creator Aidan O’Rourke based in north west England and is often in Ireland and Germany. He works with individuals and groups, helping them to learn and improve. His two main subject areas are Photography and Languages. He has produced all kinds of media to help his students – infosheets, tasksheets, worksheets, e-books,  audio files and YouTube videos as well as photography, illustration and lots more.

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