Passers-by

Artist Brian Mallman creates enormously complex narrative images with deceptively simple lines and the simplest of tools – a pencil. His images are dark and light, like our collective humanity. Brian’s skill with his pencil rivals the great masters, yet he is thankfully uninterested in only copying what he sees. He translates his vision into deeper and more interesting images without ever losing the solid ground of realism. With a simple tool and often simple gestures, Brian captures these composite “portraits” of passers-by in Los Angeles and shares with us their imagined inner thoughts, feelings and wishes. We can all relate. Focus is often placed on the eyes and mouths, and the remainder is left for our brains to fill in as we wish. 

This e-book was originally released as a set of signed, limited edition print books produced in conjunction with a gallery show (that included the originals of the drawings represented herein) at Migration in Charlottesville, Virginia in 2009. One hundred were printed; 75 were sold and 25 remain. In the original book – and in this e-book version - thirty-five figurative images that integrate meaningful and surprising text are divided into four chapters: Feeling, Thinking, Wishing, and Doing.

We created this e-book to allow the further distribution of these great images and because people interact with art differently now. Also, screens on our mobile devices are of sufficient quality to allow real enjoyment of great art…at any time you need it.

Enjoy these passers-by and look more fully at the ones around you.