complete darkness.

Light is the stuff that stops your body from producing melatonin - thats the stuff your body has to generate that makes you pass out like whoa. For best results, block out all light and sleep in complete darkness.

wallspace.

At the end of February, I was more than flattered/honored when Gary Taxali got in touch with me asking if I'd like to do up a piece for the 6th floor OCAD wallspace. As crazy busy as things have been - I couldn't say no to that offer and so I took some imagery from an older illustration I had done in the summer and put this image together for the space. It's pretty big in real life - I want to thank Jessica Mundell x10000 for helping me me paint this beast so quickly!

no smoking.

Smoking is bad. Smoking before bed is even worse - your body goes through withdrawal in the night and can cause you to wake.
This piece, like a few others in my thesis project has a total absence of linework - really oversimplified and different for me - but sometimes different pictures call for different treatments. On that note, I'm kinda digging the range I'm working in and how it's all working together - everything feels pretty cohesive and isn't too schizophrenic style-wise. Got some really great opportunities coming up that I'm really excited about - plus grad show on May 6th. More on the way.

family ties.

I rarely post stuff like this up here.. but I really like this one. Just a little guy.

no caffeine.

Plan on sleeping in about 8 hours? Don't drink caffeine too close to bed then dummy.
In other news... lots of exciting stuff happening lately - my new website is finally up - www.danieldowneyillustration.com Pretty simple right now - but I'm really pleased with it! Big time thanks to Alex Mcleod for showing me how to weave my own dreams! He's got work up at Angell Gallery right now and you should go look at it! OCAD Grad show runs from May 6-9th! Come check it out! I'll have a bunch of thesis work up on display! So many !!!!! marks!

keep your sheets clean.

Not gonna say too much about this piece... so just keep your sheets clean ok?

cock-a-doodle.

This picture deals with the influence of light - in a perfect world, sunlight should let you know when to rise and start your day. In other news - I'm learning a new robot language that's gonna allow me to make a website - very soon - robots and I are bros.

reading.

Fact: Reading before bed actually helps you relax! Lately I've been totally in love with using really rich, 'sophisticated' color palates.. so for this one I kinda tried something different and a little more barbie inspired?

urination.

Another revised thesis piece. Don't drink too much water before bed. More to come soon!!

supercharged sheep.

Ok. So I've been in my lab for the past few months really working hard to deconstruct everything it is that I do in order to come up with a much more of a unique visual language. To give you a taste, this is a picture I remade recently. Things have been insanely busy, but there is plenty more work on the way - so stay tuned! I'm gonna try to post up once a week from now on!!

Animation.

Okay! So here's my final movie for an animated illustration course I had been taking this past semester. It's not quite what I wanted it to be - tons of work trying to learn this program. For a first go at after effects I'm pretty pleased - the possibilities of making pictures move around and do stuff is actually really exciting!

Go-Go-Gorilla from daniel downey on Vimeo.

Ps. I've got a ton of work to upload onto here in the new year - just in the process of re-evaluating/revamping everything I've been doing. Big changes coming up! Really exciting! Illustration rules my life!

bacon

This is an experimental personal piece I did for fun this summer which has been hanging in a small art show at TA2 sound + music studio in Leslieville along with a few other pieces of mine over the past few months. Big thanks to those guys for that opportunity!

VIFF

So back at the start of summer I was asked by my friend Addy at TWBA Vancouver to illustrate a poster for the Vancouver International Film Festival. I don't think it ended up getting used for anything - but I learned a lot on the fly and had a ton of fun coming up with different images for it. Next time around I think I would handle something like this a lot differently. Huge thanks to Addy again though for providing the opportunity, and to good friend Andy Slater for saving my life last minute in designing/laying in the typography for me when my videocard exploded. On the brightside - another good friend of mine, Alex Mcleod had his submitted image represent pretty much the entire face of the festival this year with his poster (see below) that totally makes your eyes want to fall out of their sockets (as does most of his work - cause it's all unreal). Okay, enough name dropping check out those links!

back to the future

So I haven't posted anything in a long while - but I promise that's all about to change. So far this has been a really huge year for me. 3 'Chosen' images for American Illustration and a runner up merit prize in Creative Quarterly 16 - really exciting. Thesis is now well under way and things are shaping up for another really big year. - I'll be posting up some of those images here for feedback later on as I get more done. Right now though - I'm going to leave you with an animated illustration - an entirely new thing that I've only begun to scrape the surface on. More to come soon!

Smoke!

This was a quick little guy I threw together for fun today! Weird looking hand eh? Lots of stuff on the go right now - more to come in the next little while! Also thinking about starting up another blog or an etsy site really soon for the airbrush portrait shirts I've been doing!!