If there is an interesting news story I do like to get on it as soon as possible and come up with an interpretation/response to it. Of course I really try and understand it first, specially this one as I don't know much about stocks. I saw a great opportunity with the stock chart sudden rise to represent the motion of the stone slung up to Goliath by David and the illustration pretty much drew itself form there! I'm happy with the drawing of Goliath especially as I actually tried to draw his form first and then drew the drapery on top. The 'stonk' was also a great coincidence that it worked well as a sound effect. I was really proud of this idea, although it didn't do as well as I thought it would on instagram.. but who knows what does well and why on that platform! More then number of people I look at certain people who's likes I really value as well as comments I really value. Here's the wikepedia article on this.. 

And ofcourse this was the original sketch in my little book... 

Haven't had time to get into a personal illustration for some time now! This one just came on a whim, you can see the original sketch idea below. 

In the original sketch you can see the monster is walking like a Frankenstein and a scientist in the background taking notes.. but it didn't get the stationary stuck at home idea across. And as you can see I really wanted to get that eye on the digital devise to work! This probably has no significance but I came up with this idea while changing my baby diapers. 

So this was a challenging one! The client really wanted something in the Greg Capullo style which is not my style at all, and mix it in with these cats (it's for her husband's birthday)... I'm pretty happy with the end result!

Did some research on Threadless to see what Masks were doing well and it seems like themes of Space and Isolation and Pets were definitely common there. So I remembered I had this illustration and so I put it up there to see how it does! No harm in trying right? You can buy this at https://daneshm.threadless.com/designs/space-camel/accessories/face-mask/premium

I've started watching the youtube video 'Will Terry's Top 5 Tips on How to Make a living as an artist' and the first point is about improving your craft. He suggests creating a 'hero wall' of your favourite artists and comparing your art to theirs and seeing what doesn't measure up. So these are the things I found that stuck out the most for now, and luckily there are 7 of them, so I can work on one thing a week..

Must have a target of filling a certain amount of pages per day, lets start with 3 pages per day... date the pages, and keep them together, and after a month see what progress you've made in your illustrations.

MONDAY: OBJECTS
Paying attention to all the objects in the illustration, giving everything life and personality, not just the main characters. Study seemingly boring objects around you and give them life.

TUESDAY: ENVIRONMENT
Know where the horizon line and be aware of the perspective you are working with..Do environment studies with horizon line and perspective awareness

WEDNESDAY: HANDS
Study hands from life, from photos, from other artists, and draw them from imagination.

THURSDAY: SHAPES
Push shapes and designs a lot more...  Study things on a 2d level.. compositions you like, just study the shapes on a flat level.

FRIDAY: VOLUME
I think doing longer studies of objects or people can help in this

SATURDAY: WOMEN
Study women from life, from photos, from other artists, and draw them from imagination.

SUNDAY: DRAPERY
Study drapery from life, from photos, from other artists, and draw them from imagination.

I have no idea if these will sell, or why anyone would buy them! But it was fun to do, and fun to imagine someone wearing the combination of the shirt and mask, there is one customer for sure, and that's me!

You can buy these things at ​https://daneshm.threadless.com/

There was an incident at a supermarket in Canada where an aggressive customer refused to wear a mask and went on a racist rant, it was inspired by this cartoon... oh no sorry, it's the other way round, this cartoon was inspired by that incident.

This came idea came up when I was chatting with fellow illustrator Andrew Dorland at a RAID (artist collective) social distanced bbq on Monday. 

I also got a letter on Instagram detailing that perhaps it was culturally insensitive to depict a man with blue face paint on the left. This could be taken the wrong way, as a political statement saying that Scottish people have been acting like this in the pandemic. Really, my only purpose was to make the revolt as dramatic as possible and have a point of reference that people could relate to (braveheart movie) and make the situation even more ridiculous.

Spent Sunday at the Center island in Toronto.... Thankfully it wasn't actually this crowded.. while we were there...  well this is summer in 2020, who woulda known.

This is a strange one, I spent all morning thinking of an idea.. came up with this, then the penciling and inking was fine but spend ages on the colours! I didn't have a clear idea when I was drawing it and thats why it took so long. Somehow I need to have the decision made in advance, or perhaps do some rough colour sketches and choose.  Anyways, a frustrating experience! In the moment my drawings always seem bad to me, and as time passes and I look back, I realize they're not so bad after all.

Do the colours work? I don't know, I experimented with so many. The colour choice was important in this one as it helped with the message. In this case, maybe. I don't want to ruin this cartoon my overanalyzing it. It is what it is, time to move on!