Headstand Media

In the 1980’s, Randal Birkey was commissioned to assist in the production of large 40″ x 60″ presentation boards of a proposed architectural design for a new Chicago Bears stadium competition. The architect and engineering design team was able to export their CAD drawings into an EPS format. Randal took those files, converted them to Adobe Illustrator on a Mac, then adjusted line weights, colors, added shading and backgrounds, titles and labels, and managed the output of the files on large scale ink plotters. The color ink plots were dry mounted on 1/2″ Fomecore gator boards and delivered to the design team.

This is a watercolor architectural illustration of a renovation project on N. Dearborn Street in Chicago. It was commissioned early in the 1980’s as Randal was starting his freelance illustration career. A real estate developer was rehabbing this mansion into a commercial office space, and needed a way to communicate what the final product would look like, in order to attract a first tenant.

Randal visited the construction site, took reference photos, and went over the architectural blueprints with the developer. An initial “pencil” layout was completed and approved by the customer. The line work was then inked in by hand using Rapidograph pens and sepia ink on Strathmore watercolor board. Then the final water color washes were added.

I have a friend named Linda VanderWeele, who did a lot of graphic design in the 1980’s for various Chicago area firms. One of her clients was the Chicago Board of Trade. They commissioned her to design a coffee table piece on the arcitectural history and interest of their building, a well-known Chicago landmark.

Linda asked me to illustrate the center spread with an aerial perspective view of the building, and an illustrated floor plan, showing the two main sections. This I did using historical blueprints and architectural drawings from the CBOT archives. The original building is a great example of Art Deco style architecture, designed by Holabird & Root, and completed in 1930. The addition, designed by Chicago architect, Helmut Jahn of Murphy/Jahn, was completed in 1980 and is an example of the Postmodern style.

I used a 3D modeling program on my Mac computer, called MacPerspective. Once the wire frame was completed, I transferred it by hand to watercolor paper/board, and inked in the line work with sepia ink. I added the watercolor washes last.

In the construction of the illustration 3D model and then the illustration, I intentionally left out details from surrounding buildings to create the visal focus on the CBOT, but yet give the building a sense of scale in its setting.

I did this pen and ink illustration of the 111 N. Canal Building in 1994 as it was slated to be renovated. The image was to be used as a sort of “icon” for the project. Today, I park my motorcycle in front of this building on some of the days I ride it downtown to work!

Randal Birkey illustrated this building for a graphic designer who was designing a postcard for the 55 West Wacker Drive building management. It was created using sepia ink on watercolor board, then adding the color with watercolor washed and color pencil shading. The suggestion of the Sears Tower in the background, gives the scene a sense of placement and scale in downtown Chicago.

Deb and I got married in 1980, and settled in Oak Park quite by chance. We really did not know much about the community and its history at the time. In those early years, we discovered the Frank Lloyd Wright connection and became fascinated by his designs. This is a pen and ink drawing I did of the Frank Thomas House still standing at 210 Forest Avenue.