Moving to Tumblr...

It's only natural, but I find myself and my work more relevant/interactive in the tumblrverse. So I have moved my blog here-> danniwudoodles.tumblr.com. Enjoy the new location, and if you have a tumblr, add me! :)

some recent doodles from the summer

Hey, I just started my senior year at CCS this past week and I realized that I haven't done a real blog update in awhile. My apologizes, but here are two sketches I did as of late. Stay tuned for some really cool projects going into the following weeks (movie, promo related), and more updates (freelance work).

I'm not dead. I'm just outside, biking.

and working... currently in the office weekdays and studio/outside weekends. painting, sketching, biking..... and cooking up a storm too.*

something I am currently painting in memory of Ray Bradbury. RIP, I will love books forever.

 

I have been biking almost everyday now, as the weather gets hot and the riverfront is the only thing cool besides the pubs and etc. I bought this rare art book about Andrew Wyeth's 15 year portrayal of his neighbor, Helga, in paintings and drawings. My new House Industries Font Catalog came in the mail... I am working on some letterpress designing and etc at the moment. I also got a cool old tobacco tin as a business card holder. Until I can get/make a fabric/leather one for myself, this will do. 

 *this is creepier when people outside your family tell you you're going to make a man happy because you can cook and clean and bike. 

Letterpress Promo Stickers

So my last project in my intro letterpress class was to make whatever I wanted. I decided to make sticker sheets after looking at my vintage labels book for inspiration. My sketches have been mostly just icon/logo/comics based while I was in class and my professor Bryan was very helpful with critique and suggestions.
Here are the plates from the wonderfully local photoengravers and diemakers at Owosso Graphic Arts:

 To be honest, the offset crazy prints were much more interesting to me. mis-registered things can be really neat. I plan to make more of these sticker sheets in the future and hopefully I can do more designs with more funny awkward themes.
 This weekend, I'm going to the Logan Center at the University of Chicago for the Comics: Philosophy & Practice Conference. Three days of amazing things and I'm definitely going to be scripting/sketching things for future comics/books. Hopefully I'll get to meet some of my idols at this event and even more so, meet fellow cartoonists/artists/illustrators/writers/publishers/etc- all the creative people who make up the industry from what it was to what it is to what it will become.

 I'll be updating more often since the summer has started, so bear with me and the slow updates since I've been working around the Student Exhibition at CCS (Illustration is on the 10th floor and it's open to the public until May 25th). Also a lot of life happened.

If my 3G works in Chicago, I'll be making tweets about my trip and more info about this blog, my art, and the people I meet. Please follow @wudanni if you want.

Always, Forever & Other Lies

I spent forever trying to figure out a title for my book, and came up with this. Still fixing some things to design a cover layout for the book, but these posts keep me motivated to finish this project! :D

More to come!

Thank You/Hugh letterpress project

My "Thank Hugh" cards are done! :)

HUGH is a housewares shop inspired by mid-century design and classic bachelor pad living that brings some old fashioned sophistication to contemporary spaces, a reference to Detroit's heyday and style (the architecture in the D alone is worth a trip!).

Since the success of its pop-up store inception in 2009 and 2010, HUGH has won the Hatch Detroit Competition ($50k 1st place prize!) to become a permanent retail venture right in my Midtown neighborhood, located at the new in-construction Auburn building down in the Cass Corridor area. Currently, HUGH plans to open in the fall after construction completes in August.

For the 3rd project in Letterpress, the goal was to produce something that would require multiple, consistent editions for someone/some place (like a real client job, falling under designing stationary, letterheads, business cards, labels, etc). As a student that now considers Detroit a second home, I wanted to promote HUGH because it represents one of the many positive additions to the development of the city and community.

The editions are done and trimmed, but I want to take this assignment even further in the future. In the process, I learned a lot about proofing. and proofing. and more proofing.

Here are some thumbnails and process shots of my printing. :)