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

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.