Chief O'Brien Freelance Work

Hello everyone. Today I have a freelance illustration I completed last month. I got a message from a friend I hadn't talked to in years about an illustration she needed and let me tell you it was definitely God's timing as I really needed the work.

Linda needed a drawing of the Star Trek Next Generation character Chief O'Brien for a friend's upcoming birthday. I tend to stay away from charicatures because they aren't really my strong suit. I know that may sound lame, but when I work for pay I always want to do my absolute best, and so I am a very harsh critic, and that always leaves me feeling like a charicature could have been better. ANYWAY, I took the job and got down to work.

The Chief needed to be in his wetsuit and kayak(which we see him with a few times when he is in the holo-deck on the show) that was the easy part. Getting it to LOOK like O'Brien was where I spent most of my time, and sweat bullets over the several klunkers that I scribbled out in my first pass. It took me 3 different drawing sessions (on my breaks at my day job) to capture him, but I finally got there. I get a lot of work done in the one hour of breaks i get over the course a 10 hour day at work(GE Aviation). Be on the lookout in the coming months for an illustrated guide to the Gospel of John that I illustrated almost entirely this way.

I think the step in the creation that took the longest on this illustration of Cheif O'Brien was the color work in Photoshop. Painting the color always takes longer than I budget the time for. I always try to create a dramatic, visually appealing black and white drawing that stands alone. This time though the color really helps to sell what is going on in the scene, I think it came out well. I like the way the purple kayak jumps out at you from the river scene. I went with soft, gentle colors and tones for the rocks and boulders. I love the round shape of the boulders, they remind me of the stylized hills I drew in the children's book The Little Leaf by Jairo Penaranda.

I finished this job up and my client was happy with the finished product (thank you again Linda!). I hope the birthday recipient enjoys it too. Thanks for stopping by and reading about this project, I hope you enjoyed it. God bless you.