Birgitte M. R. Johnsen Illustration & Design

Fall Out Boy

I have always enjoyed painting portraits, and during the beginning of 2020 I wanted to challenge myself by creating naturalistic portraits. This led to a this series of paintings of the members four of the American band Fall Out Boy. All of these paintings are based on photos found through the band’s Instagram account or through photographer Elliott Ingham, who toured with the band. I am definitively drawn towards images form live performances due to the interesting lighting.

After having created these portraits I also created two posters of the band. And then later in the year painted the guys yet again, but but using a slightly different style based on using a limited colour palette.

If you happen to be in the market for portraits, have a project which could use an illustrator, please feel free to drop me a line!

A digital portrait of multi-talented musician Patrick Stump. Patrick is partially facing the camera (about 3/4th angle) and is pictured singing mid-sentence with his mouth open and eyes closed tightly. He is sitting by a piano, which we see the back of in the blurry foreground. The image is painted in pinks and purples.

Patrick Stump

Media: Digital.

When I saw this image of Patrick Stump, the singer songwriter of Fall Out Boy on the band’s Instagram account, I felt that I just had to draw his portrait. The reference image provided me many different challenges, from lighting and textures, to the expression. While the painting itself took several hours, but if you want you can see the a much shorter time lapse on YouTube. The two images can also be seen more easily side by side in this Instagram post

A digital portrait of drummer Andy Hurley. Andy is pictured in profile, facing to the left of the image, though we can also see his shoulder which is covered with tattoos. His focus is down towards the bottom left of the image with a concentrated look on his face. In the foreground we see blurry golden colours which appears to be blurry zymbals, and the background is mostly dark with some pink ambient light. The image is painted in purples and pinks and minor yellow details in the blurry foreground.

Andy Hurley

Media: Digital.

I continued this naturalistic portrait challenge with Fall Out Boy’s drummer, Andy Hurley. This time the new challenge tattoos, as I hadn’t really painted any prior to this. The reference photo for this image is the third image in this post on Fall Out Boy’s Instagram account. The time lapse of the painting process is also available on my YouTube channel. And if you’d like to see the painting and reference side by side, have a look at my Instagram post.

A digital portrait of bassist and lyricist Pete Wentz. Pete is painted looking up, towards the top left of the image, the background consists of what appears to be metal framing. The image painted in orange, pink, blues and purple.

Pete Wentz

Media: Digital.

Next portrait up is Pete Wentz, the bassist and lyricist of Fall Out Boy, which is based on an amazing amazing photo by Elliott Ingham, which is the fourth photo in this Instagram post. I found the lighting, colours and contrasts in the are just wonderful, and super inspiring. The time lapse of the has also been made available on YouTube. The drawing and reference image can also be found in this Instagram post.

A digital portrait of guitarist Joe Trohman. Joe is facing the left side of the image and shown in profile, he is slightly smiling, but also squinting at the same time. On his neck is his tattoo of an eye with the name

Joe Trohman

Media: Digital.

Unlike the other portraits, the portrait of Fall Out Boy’s guitarist and songwriter Joe Trohman, is painted in more naturalistic colours. Instead my focus was on the shadows, which I continued to paint as a colour rather than using black. The reference image is the sixth image in this post posted on Fall Out Boy’s Instagram account. Lik ethe other images, the time lapse showing the process behind this image has been uploaded to my YouTube channel. It might be easier to see the the two images side by side in my Instagram post.