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Interview with Patrick O'Leary

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This week UBD has been fortunate enough to meet up with Patrick O’Leary, a recent illustration graduate. In this interview we find out about Partick’s topical style of illustrating and what he hopes to achieve in the near future.

Q1 How would you best describe your style of work?

I feel it’s always quite difficult to categorize your own work, but if I was pushed for one word it would probably be topical. I like to react to the news and find the humour in everyday situations as it makes things interesting both for myself and for the viewer. My editorial work probably owes a lot to the articles themselves, which more often than not are comedic.

Q2 Your Illustrations display a unique style and texture, what are your methods of achieving such imaginative final concepts?

Well, as contrived as this may sound, I just like to make an image that I would be happy to look at myself. Naturally I have favourites within my portfolio, but my main aim is to make myself chuckle and hopefully the audience will too. I try to be fairly immediate, while also give the viewer something to stare at. But because the deadlines with editorial work are so short, some of my work is quite simplistic and I feel that putting a texture in can make it a bit more interesting.

Q3 What is it that inspires you, and how do these inspirations reflect within your designs?

The world around me is always a good place to start. I mean, the world around means two things: 1) The ‘actual’ world around me, the news, what’s happening, and 2) my immediate surroundings. I like to surround myself with things that make me feel interesting and more often than not I’m listening to music or watching a film. I feel I’m coming across as quite reclusive here, but I do have friends, honest. In fact, talking to people and discussing issues is one of the main sources of inspiration to me.  

As far as illustration is concerned, I love the work of James Yang, and always keep a close eye on what Peep Show are doing. I’m not sure my work is too similar to theirs, but I have learned a lot from them. Their influence is probably more subliminal than anything else.

Q4 What is your creation process, and does this change depending on the brief you have been set.

Yes. I usually have a sketchbook at hand. Actually, that’s not strictly true; I always have my phone at hand. Due to the wonders of technology, I can jot down ideas as and when I think of them. But it’s very rare. Usually, I get my sketchbook out and try to pick out all the salient bits of information that I want to get across in the image, i.e. is it a location/ a person/ a crowd. What are the people doing, What colour scheme is most appropriate. Then I get my graphics tablet out and start working on a composition straight onto Photoshop. This is the system I use for pretty much any brief now, I’m not sure I’ve been in too many situations that have required a different approach.

Q5 How has your time at university helped you develop as an illustrator?

A great deal. I have this vision from time to time about what I’d be like going into the industry 3 years ago, as a mumbling, confused and probably not very good illustrator. In fact, shortly before university I seriously wanted to become a photographer, so I’d have probably not been one anyway. University helped me realise the importance of being immersed in illustration, looking at things objectively, collecting images and not being afraid to throw the occasional piece of work away or admit that something was rubbish. I would like to ‘big up’ all my class mates and teachers who helped me.

Q6 Having recently graduated what are your plans for the future?

Kids, car, mortgage? No, my plan is fairly simple at present. I basically just want to keep working and get as much freelance work as I can. I mean, I have other things I want to achieve that are not directly related to my career, but my immediate plan is to get a flat somewhere in East London with one room kitted out with posters and a computer, another one to sleep in and lots of time to dedicate to socialising and being creative.

You can see Patricks portfolio here!

by Sasha
Tuesday 3rd August 2010