Daniel Downey Illustration

complete darkness.

2010-05-01T14:37:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-04-26T20:57:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-04-24T14:23:00.001-07:00

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.

2010-04-11T09:44:00.000-07:00

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

no caffeine.

2010-04-08T20:50:00.000-07:00

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.

2010-03-01T11:33:00.000-08:00

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

cock-a-doodle.

2010-02-22T20:16:00.001-08:00

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.

2010-02-14T12:07:00.000-08:00

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.

2010-02-02T08:14:00.000-08:00

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

supercharged sheep.

2010-01-27T13:55:00.001-08:00

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.

2009-12-23T13:55:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-20T19:26:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-11T20:38:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-09T21:59:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-05-21T15:10:00.001-07:00

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!!

Beautiful things

2009-05-14T12:58:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture I made as a personal project - lots more of these to come over the course of the summer. Did a little bit of experimenting in this piece - not sure if everything is really working as well as I'd like it to - but it did come together really fast! Exciting! Let me know what you think!> (the colors on here are a little desaturated)

Great Experiment.

2009-04-20T22:08:00.000-07:00

Today the Great Bloomers debut full-length hits shelves. REALLY exciting stuff! Below is a cover design/illustration I did for the guys! I totally ventured off into some new territory (typography) and totally took an altogether different approach in terms of both the imagery and the way I put the whole thing together. Much different than how I normally work - but I think in the end the whole thing picks up on the vibe of the record pretty well! If you haven't heard them yet - you definitely need to check them out asap! Definitely some of the most talented friends that I have. Let me know what you think!

Non-conformity.

2009-04-16T12:47:00.001-07:00

So this was the last assignment of the year in Paul Dallas' class. This really has been the most exciting year in picture making for me - still a long way to go in learning and figure my own thing out, but I'm real excited where things have been leading lately. Big plans to keep the ball rolling this summer - hopefully I'll be able to do weekly updates on here and get some feedback from all the nice people who like to comment!

Laws of Power

2009-04-10T19:40:00.000-07:00

Really happy with the idea in the first one - had a lot of fun putting it together. The second one I'm kinda making a face about - don't really like the way I put it together as much - to me it feels a little to rigid and graphic, whereas I'd really like to start working with a little more delicacy.

Get others to play the cards you deal:Always know who you're dealing with:

Milk

2009-03-19T16:08:00.001-07:00

Here's a portrait illustration I did for a review on the movie 'Milk' of Sean Penn in PEE-DEE's class. Really pleased with how this came together.

The Style Imperative..

2009-03-09T22:23:00.000-07:00

More computerized work from my media class. These are the two spots from an article talking about the difference between style and fashion. The first spot dealt with the idea that what we wear should in part reveal something about our inner self. The second spot is touching base on a line I thought was really good in the article talking about how style didn't demand a credit card - it should prosper on courage and creativity! Plastic pants!

Edit: I just added in the main image - basically the story behind this image is how 'style' is what gives a person a true identity (hence the fingerprints all over the place) - whereas fashion/clothing are ephemeral objects that are mass produced and can be owned by anyone - so in turn can blend a person into the city's landscape.

Bigger!

Respect, Protect

2009-02-11T23:01:00.000-08:00

Two b/w illustrations for an AIDS annual project for the words Respect and Protect. The other catch was that the images had to be floating images - so I did my best to keep it real in that department. Pretty happy with the result.

Pink (revisited)

2009-01-25T18:40:00.001-08:00

I redid this piece over the holidays so it was composed a little better. Everyone seems to really enjoy this one - I think it's cause it has something to do with vaginas. Ignore that line down the middle - thats just me being lazy with scanning.

Larger!

Wrestler!

2009-01-25T17:33:00.000-08:00

This was a piece I did recently which was my half of a diptych Sean and I did for the art show we had last week at the Gladstone. Tons of fun working this way - really happy with the results too, even though an unbelievable amount of detail was sacrificed in getting it to look right for its size in the screening process from the original painting that I did for it. *I'll post up the original painting later on if I have time*. Making pictures like this traditionally is both rewarding and frustrating - especially when you're trying to do it out of your laundry room. This might be a language I use for more personal work - still scratching my head as to how I can use it more effectively to compliment the other kind of stuff I enjoy doing. (*pardon the scan job - this piece was composed from a bunch of different scans - so its a bit fragmented)

Painting stuff!

2008-12-03T17:52:00.001-08:00

These first two guys are for terry shoffners drawing and painting class - overall, I'm pretty happy with the results. I haven't really painted in oils like this before - much more exploring to do and in the future I'm going to use less white. The last picture is of a shirt I airbrushed a little while ago - anyone who watches human giant will appreciate it. BOOSH BOOSH BOOSH!

Bigger!

This ones for the birds!

2008-11-24T20:59:00.001-08:00

This was for a christmas card project where we weren't allowed to use any religious or 'christmas-like' imagery. I don't think this resonates christmas in a traditional sense with the exception of colour choice nor does it really illuminate the fact that the birds are lit up to look like christmas lights THAAT great - BUT - the final product looks really neat in real life (though the colours are definitely off in this scan). Aesthetically speaking - I'm really excited as to where things are going - still fighting a little in this picture with certain details but like I say I'm REALLY EXCITED.

Here is a better scanned version!Lazy-man scan version.

Larger Version Here!

Ps. Why cant I post up photos where you click them and they get bigger? This picture file is like 1 megabyte - shouldn't it just work automatically? If someone can provide me with some insight as to how I should be formatting my files or whatever beforehand so they work I'd love to know! Thanks!!

..and now for something completely different.

2008-11-20T17:55:00.001-08:00

Still working on a formula for this kinda stuff - but this is a direction I'm really leaning towards these days. Looking for ways to merge more of it into my current working style without it being 'too much' or too 'print-makey'. This guy here is the digital mach-up BUT - I will post up the original print (which is entirely traditional) as soon as I have them back. Check it.

Larger version right here!

Peewee!

2008-10-30T18:47:00.000-07:00

Here are some peewee portraits I did at Open Studio this past spring - just playing around with drawing fluid and stencil printing ala silk screen. Totally forgot the bow-tie but I think you get the idea.

Here's another little gem to leave you with. "No one knows how much it takes", except...

Classified Ads..

2008-10-24T11:37:00.001-07:00

The first assignment this year was to take three advertisements and construct a narrative from the headlining titles. For my ad's I chose; 'Egg donor wanted', 'Its a big one' and 'Wow, its twins!'. Though the payoff at the end is a little bit dull, I think the visual narrative is fairly easy to follow - I'm pretty into irreverent humor. Technique wise I picked up where I left off from last year and tried a few new things along the way. The color is a little off in this scan - still trying to figure that part out!

Back on track!

2008-10-23T21:00:00.000-07:00

Here are some sketches for now... lots of new stuff to be posted in the next little while - I promise!

I make things..

2008-06-20T11:05:00.001-07:00

This is probably the first summer for as long as I can remember where I haven't been working full-time - which is good cause I'm staying more focused and its forced me to use my art-powers to make things that will generate money so I can drink beers and run around like an idiot. The stuff below is really recent - TONS more to come. Some VERY exciting and slightly more serious projects on the go right now too - coming soon.

airbrushed t-shirt.

custom sneakers - bebop/rocksteady

I did these guys awhile back - thought I'd share them anyways.

Kinda funny...

2008-06-19T11:26:00.000-07:00

About 2 years ago I entered an illustration into a contest at work that would be published into some sort of colouring book if I won - incidentally, I won and was chosen to appear in said book. Now, I had actually forgotten all about the whole thing until the other day when there was a package waiting for me in the office with a few copies of the actual books. The quality of the book isn't all that great but seeing an illustration that you've created in print is always a bit exciting just the same. Upon thumbing through the book I had to have a bit of a laugh - taking account of yet another real world lesson learned! Probably wouldn't do anything like this again - but this time around we're doin' it for the kids! Oh yeeeah!

Cover:

Original submitted illustration:

Printed version> note the amazing crop job

The icing on the cake> Daniel DAWNey? Kinda bummed about this -

Breezin'..

2008-06-02T07:48:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been keeping really busy with my few summer courses and even more summer-type activities to care much about posting anything on here. I haven't got a case of the 'lazy's' yet though - there's a lot going on that I've been working on that I will eventually make a point of posting up later on. Right now I'm really excited about drawing from life and doing those types of studies - just cant get enough of it! Here are some of those drawings below -

In other news, I've been asked to take on a few really great jobs that I'm REALLY excited about - more on this later as the bugs are worked out!! Oh and check this sweet bike I found in the garbage the other day!

One last thing! - I'm starting to do airbrush t-shirts again just to make some summer loot and have fun doing it - so if you're a person reading or looking at this blog and you're interested in having a custom one made for you by me (and you've read this far down the page) then please contact me on here for pricing and details!!

Zissou!

2008-04-18T13:30:00.000-07:00

I've been really wanting to do some CMYK silkscreen prints for awhile now to see how doable the whole process is. As it turns out it's pretty complicated, but also very doable with a little patience! I'm REALLY excited with some of the results and effects I was able to achieve. This one was done from a quick painting I did of Steve Z. Awwwh yeeea! I hope to do a lot more of this kind of work in the future!