Tim O'Brien: Every Time You...ah, forget it.

March 16, 2007 1:53 PM

Tim O’Brien – the painter and illustrator, not the writer – is so good with Photoshop (not to mention paintbrushes) that he can make Ronald Reagan cry.
posted by gottabefunky (38 comments total)

In other news, GW Bush makes a sudden about face.
posted by furtive at 1:57 PM on March 16, 2007

Keep America Beautiful.
posted by ericb at 2:00 PM on March 16, 2007

I find his Elvis Costello looks more like Jonathan Pryce.
posted by furtive at 2:02 PM on March 16, 2007

If it was good enough for Stalin, it's good enough for us.
posted by Dave Faris at 2:02 PM on March 16, 2007 [2 favorites]

Off-topic, but related -- TIME magazine's redesign which launched today with Ronald Reagan crying on its cover.
posted by ericb at 2:03 PM on March 16, 2007

Also not the great musician.
posted by birdhaus at 2:09 PM on March 16, 2007

that doesn't look the least bit real.
posted by mdn at 2:10 PM on March 16, 2007

That tear doesn't look fuckin' real at all.
posted by interrobang at 2:13 PM on March 16, 2007

On a nice wrinkly face like that a tear wouldn't come down in one perfectly formed droplet.
posted by zarah at 2:13 PM on March 16, 2007

Tim: I did my first Time cover in 1989: I painted a teardrop on George Washington’s face – this was sort of pre-Photoshop. Back then, I painted about ten teardrops with different backdrops.

Pff. What a goddamn loser.
posted by interrobang at 2:14 PM on March 16, 2007

Time gets honest with America.
posted by furtive at 2:15 PM on March 16, 2007

Yeah, what interrobang and mdn said.

Don't tears generally originate from the part of the eye closest to the nose?
posted by inconsequentialist at 2:17 PM on March 16, 2007

He admits it doesn't look real and I think it's obvious to most people. It's supposed to "read from a distance".
posted by puke & cry at 2:19 PM on March 16, 2007

Quick: Think of your favorite kick-ass Police song. Got it? Hum a few bars till you get in the mood. Concentrate.... Now click here.
posted by hal9k at 2:19 PM on March 16, 2007 [4 favorites]

Thanks hal9k

"Sending out an SOS, sending out an - Oh what the fuck?"
posted by puke & cry at 2:21 PM on March 16, 2007 [1 favorite]

Agreed 23s. But why the tear? Why not Reagan with his ear cupped like he always did during a hard question, pretending the rotors are drowning out reality? Why not just photoshop a fork up his
posted by hal9k at 2:25 PM on March 16, 2007

OH MY GOD RONNIE REAGAN IS SO TOUGH HE CRIES GLASS!
posted by Terminal Verbosity at 2:26 PM on March 16, 2007

Read at a distance: Oh my god. Reagan's crying.
Read up close: Oh, nevermind, he's just got some syrup on his face.
posted by inconsequentialist at 2:30 PM on March 16, 2007

Saint Reagan crying for america from beyond the grave. Ummmm, WTF?
posted by elwoodwiles at 2:31 PM on March 16, 2007

I think it's supposed to evoke that 1970s PSA with the old Italian guy crying over pollution.
posted by maudlin at 2:40 PM on March 16, 2007

(Read from a distance, he looked like an Indian.)
posted by maudlin at 2:40 PM on March 16, 2007

he can make Ronald Reagan cry

That's not a tear, that's embalming fluid.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 2:40 PM on March 16, 2007 [1 favorite]

The tear is not supposed to look real, it's supposed to look like a picture of Ronald Reagan crying that you can see half-way across the airport magazine stand

sure, I'd have thought so coming across the magazine cover in the wild, but when someone frames it as if this is an amazing feat of photoshopping, I expect something more... maybe it's harder than I imagine to make a fake tear, but on first glance it doesn't seem impressive.
posted by mdn at 2:43 PM on March 16, 2007

OH MY GOD RONNIE REAGAN IS SO TOUGH HE CRIES GLASS!
posted by Terminal Verbosity at 4:26 PM CST on March 16 [+]
[!]

No, he's crying Astroglide.
posted by COBRA! at 2:50 PM on March 16, 2007

That's a pretty big, sticky-looking tear. Are you sure the gipper hasn't been moonlighting for vivid video?
posted by rhymer at 2:53 PM on March 16, 2007

How is this ever a noteworthy story? I've seen it reported a bunch of places like it is, but I just don't get it.
posted by Artw at 3:06 PM on March 16, 2007

See, I'd have been happier plus more impressed with the photoshopping if instead the picture were of Reagan with a black eye.
posted by furiousthought at 3:10 PM on March 16, 2007

Artw : It's 1) hype about Time Magazine's redesign, and 2) it's significant because photographers have been fired for doctoring photos to this degree, and Time is brazenly publishing a doctored photo on their cover. It's not the first time the magazine has drawn fire for manipulating images for the purpose of editorializing.
posted by Dave Faris at 3:12 PM on March 16, 2007

I'll be impressed when it's revealed that the tear was the original image and Reagan's face was assembled underneath it through a mountain of Photoshop filters and layer effects.
posted by metaly at 3:14 PM on March 16, 2007

DF - WTF? are these concerned people aware that it is 2006, and that graphic designers have been doing this kind of thing on covers for a good twenty years?
posted by Artw at 3:41 PM on March 16, 2007

Ask your Adobe Photoshop, Elements, and picture-fixing questions, and I, Debbie Grossman, imaging
guru and picture editor extraordinaire, will answer the best of them here.

Bar-fucking-f.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 3:50 PM on March 16, 2007

At least it's not Reagan bukkake. I'm going to be trying hard to scrub out my brain today.
posted by BrotherCaine at 4:17 PM on March 16, 2007

Artw, you might want to check a calendar.
posted by notsnot at 4:34 PM on March 16, 2007

I think it's supposed to evoke that 1970s PSA with the old Italian guy crying over pollution.

(Read from a distance, he looked like an Indian.)

maudlin wins it.
And makes me snork my coffee.
posted by squasha at 5:07 PM on March 16, 2007

I think it's supposed to evoke that 1970s PSA with the old Italian guy crying over pollution. (Read from a distance, he looked like an Indian.)

Um, check out the second comment in this thread.
posted by ericb at 6:22 PM on March 16, 2007

I did (and it was useful, thanks). I just wanted to use the "read from a distance" reference.
posted by maudlin at 9:07 PM on March 16, 2007

The tear ducts are on the inside of the inside of the eye.

It's like these remorseful paroled murderers I keep running into. They alway have their symbolic "I'm sorry" tear tatoo on the outside of their eye, but I'm not about to point out that they screwed up their prison ink-job.
posted by sourwookie at 9:14 PM on March 16, 2007

Well why the hell can't Will Ferrell keep his clothes on then?
posted by Smedleyman at 12:51 AM on March 17, 2007