BirkeyBlog

When visiting Spain in March 2008, I was visually reminded of how many cathedrals there are in that country and in the rest of Europe. This was a sketch of just one of the many we visited while in Barcelona, Valencia and Granada. The most impressive and memorable was the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona, by architect Antoni Gaudi.

This sketch was done at La Lonja, a castle from the 15th century that housed the silk merchant trade in Valencia, Spain. The design is definitely organic, and carved from stone. It appears on the side of an 8-sided star shaped fountain, pictured below.

This pencil sketch was done in Valencia, Spain, while I was visiting my son there in March, 2008. This particular museum houses mostly religious art taken from cathedrals and churches in the area.

This sketch also done in Valencia as we spent a day at the Oceanarium of Valencia, Spain, a world-class facility. Included here are some of the building shapes, as well as the dolphin show, and a fountain that looks like a boat located on the beach of the Mediterranean Sea.

Here are some additional sketches I did while in Spain last month. The first is a window detail on the side of the place of the Alhambra Palace in Granada, Spain.

This next one is a sketch of one of the older parts of the Alhambra… the castle or fortress section used to defend the original old city.

And this sketch done in Granada is of a new hotel built on the side of a mountain that mimics the style of some of the Alhambra Palace which is further up the mountain.

Another sketch is of the cathedral or chapel built on the Alhambra after the Europeans took Granada back from the Moors. The site was originally a mosque.

I think I was looking through some Pen and Ink drawing books I have, and decided to try my hand at a pen and ink sketch of a guy in one of the books. This was probably 20 to 25 years ago. It probably took me about 2-3 minutes to sketch. That’s the whole idea… quick, sketchy, loose, free. Just do it. Then know when to stop. I think the original was sepia ink on white “trash” paper.

I think I was looking through some Pen and Ink drawing books I have, and decided to try my hand at a pen and ink sketch of a guy in one of the books. This was probably 20 to 25 years ago. It probably took me about 2-3 minutes to sketch. That’s the whole idea… quick, sketchy, loose, free. Just do it. Then know when to stop. I think the original was sepia ink on white “trash” paper.

I had a friend who was a graphic designer, with a design project for Kemper Insurance. He needed a series of illustrations depicting the process an employee would go through if they were injured on the job. First there is the injury. Then there is the doctor visit and treatment. Then there is occupational or physical therapy. Finally, the employee is back on the job - good as new. Of course Kemper Insurance makes this all possible!

I did the first stage illustrations in Adobe Illustrator. Then I rasterized them into Photoshop, and added some texture and noise to the images.

Back in the 1990’s, I did a series of illustrations for a designer friend of mine, who was designing some print brochures for Exelon, the energy company. The illustrations had to communicate about business, energy, technology, manufacturing, building relationships, etc. He wanted them to be very stylized, strong, colorful and punchy.

I used Adobe Illustrator to develop the three images to the right, because of the vector based art capabilities of that software. I delivered the images as EPS files to my designer friend to be imported into Quark Xpress, and he delivered them to the printer for final proofing and printing, and delivery to the customer.

I love Greek food, culture, architecture and language! Why? Perhaps because I spent a summer there in 1980 doing a short-term mission project for Greater Europe Mission. I made some great friendships, some of which have lasted to this day. I’d love to go back for a visit someday, and take my wife with me!

During the 1980’s when I was doing a lot of freelance architectural rendering and illustration work, I was asked to do a rendering of a proposed redesign of an entire city block in the Greektown area of Chicago. Working from the architects sketches and ideas, I created this aerial perspective for presentation purposes.

The idea here was to recreate the “Greek village” aesthetic that one sees often when traveling in Greece. There are usually hillsides, mountains and/or beaches involved, with the village stepped up in layers behind. That was the idea behind this design. I think it worked pretty well, even though it was never built. The site is along the East side of Halsted Street, with the Kennedy Expressway behind it.

I’ve done so many map illustrations in my career, I’ve lost count. Many of them are of the Chicago area. The one on the left I did in 1995 of the Chicago area, featuring all the main Interstate highways, Lake Michigan, the outline of Chicago and border counties. It was done in color pencil, probably on 100% rag drawing vellum. I just found it looking through archives on my hard drive.

The other one is an aerial map done in the same color pencil style. I did it for myself initially, then Rand McNally found it on my BIRKEY.COM portfolio website, and used it on the cover of their Chicago Streetfinder Map edition. The University of Chicago also found it on my portfolio site and used it for an event poster.

Chicago Area Map	Chicago Aerial Map

I am not really known for doing “cartoon” illustrations, but back in the 1980’s I did a whole series of them for Ameritech Mobile Communications. They were used in various brochures and company print communications. I enjoyed doing them.

Here are a few examples. Notice the relative size and shape of the cell phones back then!