Danesh Mohiuddin Art

January 2012

2012-01-04T08:20:00.001-08:00

December 2011

2011-12-15T04:26:00.001-08:00

November

2011-11-06T02:07:00.001-08:00

October 2011

2011-10-03T01:56:00.001-07:00

September 2011

2011-09-05T08:07:00.000-07:00

August 2011

2011-08-10T02:32:00.000-07:00

July 2011, keep going!

2011-07-01T13:25:00.001-07:00

June 2011, Spanish Summer

2011-06-03T12:19:00.001-07:00

May 2011, continued

2011-05-25T05:17:00.000-07:00

Check

2011-05-23T14:07:00.001-07:00

I don't just sit and think anymore, i just check things. Check the cricket scores (check what people have to say about a game that has happened, and about a game thats about to happen), check the nba scores (check highlights, top 10 plays, and preview of games about to happen), check facebook messages, check if anyone likes what i posted, check if someone has an interesting new status update or if anyone is online, check my professional g mail account, check my personal g mail account, check if anyone is on skype, . Check what the news is on RT, BBC, CNN, Toronto Star and Gulf News. Check the traffic on my blog, check the traffic on my website. And when each thing is checked, during this time, new things are updated on all these sites. And so I check everything all over again. And so on, and so on!

The purpose of people who put up these websites is to gain traffic, so the more you check the more they profit, and the more they know about you. In order for you to keep checking they have to keep changing something. And so they do, this is their job. And so I keep checking. What about important things to check.

Like checking up on my own health. Checking if the people I love are alright, if they need anything. Checking what is happening outside. Checking my physical surroundings, why are they the way they are? All this time checking e mail, facebook, nba, cricket, etc etc.. could go into checking things that really matter, that are really important. No one advertises the status of your mental, spiritual or physical health to you. No one has to profit from this so no one makes you do it. Only you profit from this, so you have to do this.

I guess this is an age of distraction and subtraction. An age of displaced attention. So this is a time to start a revoution, not from any poltiical party or any leader. Revolt on this time of mine that is being stolen. Emancipate myself from mental slavery, none but myself can free my mind. (thanks bob marley, I think I understand now, after singing along a million times!). So how to fight against this great magnetising power that is stealing crucial minutes, seconds, hours, days, years from my life. I guess its to fight the way that you've conditioned yourself. or been conditioned to check all these things.

How do you free an internet slave?

Is it ironic that I'm posting this on a blog?

MAY 2011, Madrid, Spain

2011-05-06T10:33:00.000-07:00

Cartoon Cricket World Cup Scores

2011-02-21T05:21:00.000-08:00

Sooo the world cup cricket is here again, after four years... and I've build a special site just for this, it contains scores, schedules, points and live scores... since this is going to require some maintenance I will be spending more time on this and probably not uploading drawings daily... so definitely check the site out HERE

February continued!!

2011-02-14T14:44:00.000-08:00

Spill featured on the Carbon Cult!

2011-02-14T00:33:00.000-08:00

An ex colleague of mine has been kind enough to feature my character on her environmental blog! You can still vote for him here, also check out her blog, The Carbon Cult, this is a great cause!

February 2011

2011-02-03T11:56:00.000-08:00

January 2011

2011-01-01T15:02:00.000-08:00

December 2010

2010-12-10T00:19:00.001-08:00

Jason Seiler course assignment

2010-12-07T02:50:00.000-08:00

So this is a brilliant online course that I'm taking right now with www.schoolism.com.. with the great caricature artist Jason Seiler. In this assignment, he provided us with a sketch that he did, and a photo reference, and we had to complete a value painting. This is what i cam up with, and am now waiting for feedback! Just want to make sure that everyone knows, the original sketch is by Jason Seiler!

India USA Relations

2010-11-06T12:34:00.001-07:00

This is an illustration in the Opinion section of Gulf News. The theme is the complexity of the relationship between India and USA, and how they will manage their nuclear policies. In the end I had to find a simple way of describing complexity, and what better way then a rubics cube! Do you think it works? What message do you get from this?
You can read the article HERE

Unibrow

2010-10-23T07:19:00.000-07:00

Haha.. this is another one for sketchoholic, saw the topic at night, and was thinking about it while i tried to fall asleep.. all sorts of unibrow images, then got up in morning, and this is like the second sketch I did, I think its my best submission so far :)

Worst Job

2010-10-23T07:17:00.000-07:00

I've been really getting into these sketchoholic competitions... enjoying being on a platform with other very very talented artists, and its definitely a humbling experience. Brush and ink then photoshop, definitely coulda stepped it up a notch with the finishing, but I like the crazy idea.

Alien Baby

2010-10-15T06:17:00.001-07:00

Another one for a sketchoholic competition.. this one i did in an hour, when straight to ball pen, didn't have much time and also.. sometimes if i'm drawing something more familiar I do it like this, comes out more spontaneous.... i'm thinking at some point it would be nice to paint it... but i still don't have a handle on digital painting, and don't quite enjoy it as much as just pure sketching... thats something I need to get past though if I want to start pushing my work more...

Smile in the night

2010-10-14T22:35:00.000-07:00

Haven't posted in a while, I've mostly been posting art on my facebook, I guess more people can access it immediately there, but the advantage of a blog is that you can go and look back on older stuff..
This is a submission of mine for a sketchoholic competition, the theme is 'smile'. To be honest, this is the second idea I came up with.. normally, I like to go through at least ten concepts before I choose something. But the deadline for this was coming pretty quick and I wanted to spend some time working on it too... maybe took two hours overall. I feel somewhat dissatisfied with it still, maybe I'm comparing it to something in my head? I don't know, I guess i was quiet happy with the pencils sketch, but I gotta figure out new ways to do a finished illustration... i've resorted too much to the all too regular technique of inking, scanning, and colouring on photoshop. But yeah, it would be great to get some comments! I know there's a long way to go to improve :)

Subway sketching

2010-09-20T06:55:00.001-07:00

Great to be back in the city of Toronto drawing with talented artists on the underground line. This is a series of drawings that I liked, was extremely frustrated with my stuff before I started these, but stuck with it, and got some good stuff came out of it.. Moral: don't give up! Persevere!

Fishtalker business cards

2010-09-15T14:20:00.000-07:00

Followup to the blog banner I did for fishtalker, I've now applied it to a business card..,

Sanicare

2010-09-07T04:45:00.000-07:00

Character Design I had done a while ago for a Sanicare, the comics were handed to school children and the had to write stories under each image, and younger ones were asked to colour the picture, the results are really really interesting, check them out HERE, very entertaining kids!

Mooch!

2010-09-04T03:34:00.000-07:00

New character that I'm drawing and writing for XPRESS newspaper... possible the first newspaper comic strip in Dubai, excited about it fer sure! For those not in the Middle East or unfamiliar with the Islamic calender, by 'this month' he means Ramadan... cartoon is a comment on the hyper commercialisation of the month through which the original meaning may have been lost..

Love is...

2010-09-01T08:54:00.001-07:00

These are a series of drawings I did for a friend's wedding in Jordan... they put a different illustration on each table.. would love to see how they turned out!

Dynamo Dinners (4men magazine, Dubai)

2010-09-01T08:38:00.001-07:00

Illustration I did around 2 months ago for 4men Magazine, fun one to do!
You can read the article on line HERE

Friday morning 23 minutes session

2010-08-27T03:35:00.001-07:00

Extreme left is a potrait done by Fernando Vicente which I studied, next to the right is what I drew from a photograph, and then a self portrait! Starting to look forward to the morning sessions now, excited about which I artist I want to study next! This was all done in photoshop, I need to start introducing colour at some point though, can you tell that I'm slightly colourphobic?

Godzila

2010-08-26T07:24:00.000-07:00

Studying Mort Drucker

2010-08-23T22:03:00.000-07:00

Studying a Mort Drucker drawing this morning, can't help thinking what a genius this man was, just studying his lines and form but doing it on photoshop just using roughish brushes.. the lady on the left is a copy of one is drawings and the one on the right is my own drawing from a photograph. Really like the way he draws hair, what an inspirational artist! The use of lines to describe form is awesome too.

Jungle Ball

2010-08-23T08:43:00.001-07:00

Wanted to share a illustrated ticket that I did for a charity organisation.. like the way it turned out and they ended up using the lion on all the waiter's polo shirts...

23 Minutes

2010-08-20T22:16:00.000-07:00

So its been two days so far, but its a good start. This is an exercise I learn from Bobby Chiu a few years ago, but have had tremendous difficulty doing it confidently. Its a morning drawing exercise which has four parts... each part lasts 23 minutes (i chose that number as a tribute to the great Micheal Jordan, maybe it'll give me luck in perseverance and discipline)... 1. Draw another artist's work 2. Draw from a photograph 3. Draw from life (this is tough because I do it at home in the morning and there are no people around, so I usually skip this one and do it later during the day in the metro etc..) 4. Draw from imagination... what I've posted today is the last part...
I'm going to try and do this consistently in the mornings.. the true test is how long I can continue to do this for, because I truly feel it helps tremendously....

Toothbrush nightmare

2010-08-17T14:07:00.001-07:00

I did this for a competition on sketchoholic.. the topic was nightmares.. i've been quite busy recently so haven't had a chance to participate much on this site, but I try to as often as i can. Its one thing to illustrate for a newspaper, and another thing to compete with other artists in a competition. Still not used to it, and I think I need to get out of the idea of what others are doing and just concentrating on doing my best. No excuses, just effort!

Non State Actors

2010-08-16T23:31:00.000-07:00

Is this illustration clear? What does it communicate? Do you think it represents the article well? Is it confusing? How else could I have done this?

Bedroom intruders and slumdog tourists

2010-08-14T01:52:00.001-07:00

One great thing about working for a newspaper is the range of topics you get to illustrate on. Everyweek I do regular Opinion and Perspective illustrations for Gulf News, and quite rarely I get to do a cover for XPRESS. I used similar techniques initially for both, using brush and ink, although going more loose on the slumdog tourist. Then in colouring also, I went with a rougher brush in photoshop for the slumdog drawing. Obviously the most evident thing is the printing, as the XPRESS was printed on glossy paper, and the Gulf News one one newsprint. Knowing what paper it will printed on definitely effects how I go about an illustration. On newsprint, its a rough texture, so I'm looser with the brush work, and looser and rougher with the colouring.. with glossy paper, there are more smooth gradients, and neater brush work. I don't have a preference for one over the other.. they both have their own function.. although for the inside pages, I do prefer the days when comic books had newsprint, rather then all glossy...

Project Mega

2010-08-12T13:55:00.001-07:00

This was a fun project to do, basically a custom toy designed by Mohammad Abedeen (hope I've spelt your name right!) which was distributed to over a 100 artists in Dubai, to come up with their own design on it. The first one I did (blue man with octupus) was displayed at the Dubai International Financial Center, and stolen within a couple of days.. and the second one (construction worker) is currently displayed at Virgin Megastore. I thought since I was living here I wanted to deal with an issue specific to our time and place, so I painted this sweating worker. I don't know if it moved anyone or caused people to think, but I felt like it had to be out there, seen in a context one is not used to.. since we're used to seeing them working in the heat and dust on the side of the road everyday. Maybe seeing them in an unexpected place would make us think more about it? I don't know, but I hope that we think more about this issue, and resolve it soon... there's a lot of suffering that takes places which allows us to live in such comfort.

You can check out more Megas here http://www.foo-dog.com/projectmega

Fishtalker

2010-08-09T21:19:00.001-07:00

This is a banner I did for the blog of a good friend of mine, Joel Duncan, who lives in toronto.. loves to travel and fish. Check out his site, www.fishtalker.com
For his banner, I was really focused more on composition, shapes and design, so I decided to do away with line and concentrate on those things. I know Joel quite well, so when he told me he wanted a design for his blog, the image was already there in my head, just had to be transferred... he had it made into a t shirt over the weekend and went fishing with it, and I'm going to be helping him convert it into a business card, and postcard.
Maybe I should do a blog banner for myself too??

Drawing on the Dubai Metro

2010-08-09T01:25:00.000-07:00

Drew this guy sitting on the dubai metro today going to work... using a compo pen thats running out, and thats the best time to use it.. you can hear the metal scratch against the paper as you draw and struggle to get those last few lines in. I could actually drive to work, but I take the metro just so I can draw from life at least once a day. I started drawing on trains while in college in Canada, and continued with Bobby Chiu's sketch group in toronto for a couple of years. Its challenging drawing in Dubai because its not normal, there are a lot of cultural sensitivities, and people stare (ideally you don't want any attention when you draw, because you want to draw people in the natural poses, so its best that they are not aware). I've been reading a book by Walt Stansfield on drawing, and trying to follow his advice on capturing the action first, exagerating it. But I also have to work on my structure because I feel this has always been a weakness with me, and if I can work hard on this my drawings would take a leap. Anyways, gotta get back to my newspaper day job, illustrating a cover, will post it when it publishes. Cheers!

New Beginning

2010-08-09T00:58:00.000-07:00

For quite some time now, I've had 6 different blogs.. for newspaper illustrations, for sketches, for characters, etc etc.. and have been trying to figure out for sometime now how to organise my stuff, and maybe I've over organised. I ran into a blog today, by a fella named Charles Santoso, from Australia. Just blown away by his blog, so inspired. I found him through sketchoholic.com where he's been winning one contest after another! He runs his blog (http://www.minitreehouse.blogspot.com/) almost like a diary, and just puts all his work in there, not worrying about themes or character or style, and it really helps to see his progress...

From now on I'm going to try something similar and stick to this one blog, since it already has the most following (compared to my other ones).

This an exciting time for me, because I feel really ready to commit to visual storytelling, and give it everything I got. I really really really want to improve.

Hope you enjoy this blog from now on, and I'm always open to comments, so please tell me what you think, and what you are getting from the images.

Here we go!

March

2010-03-20T21:19:00.001-07:00

February

2010-02-08T23:44:00.001-08:00

January 2010

2010-01-02T00:38:00.001-08:00

December

2009-12-07T21:32:00.000-08:00

November

2009-11-14T23:16:00.000-08:00

October

2009-10-03T04:53:00.000-07:00

SEPTEMBER

2009-09-03T14:29:00.001-07:00

AUGUST

2009-08-05T11:47:00.001-07:00

JULY

2009-07-13T06:58:00.000-07:00

JUNE

2009-06-07T00:36:00.001-07:00

May

2009-05-01T10:13:00.000-07:00

April

2009-04-12T08:36:00.000-07:00