Watercolour illustrator | screenprinter | Daniel Mackie

‘The DM collection’ goes live (and to Greenwich)

Watercolour illustration and screenprints by Daniel Mackie — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 10:38:27 +0000

At last I have my new shop up and running, The DM Collection from cards to screen prints, currently all my ‘Loss of Habitat’ animals are all either available as cards or prints. My limited edition screen prints are also available. The site all works with paypal so is easy to use.

I am also at Greenwich Market in south east London on Friday’s and Saturday’s where you can physically see and feel the goods! And speak to me about the artwork.
View the DM collection
View Daniel’s illustration portfolio

Can you hear those sirens calling you?

Watercolour illustration and screenprints by Daniel Mackie — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 10:47:22 +0000

The third in my ocean series of screen prints. This one is more of a waterman than a sailor, with a nod to the watermen on Hawaii who thing nothing of paddling a long board between O’ahu and Maui. This print is about the ocean. The figure is not really tattooed but his body is a frame for the waves and water within it. All beautiful things come with some peril involved. The Sea is an unforgiving territory that has claimed many lives. The two sirens on the figures legs bear witness to this, they are representations of mermaids that sing sweetly to lure sailors on to rocks. Like all the other prints in this series the figure faces away from us, we can’t know this mans face as we can’t fully know the ocean.
This print is titled, Ocean Swimmer.

This print is printed with 3 colours, light blue, black and white and printed on japanese Atsukuchi paper, which is only 57gsm, but don’t be fooled although this paper is thin it is very strong with a waxy finish which makes the ink stand up on it.
there are only 15 of these.
They are all available in the shop
view Daniel’s illustration portfolio

I can reach you over an ocean… nice octopus!

Watercolour illustration and screenprints by Daniel Mackie — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 09:45:46 +0000

The second in my ocean series of screen prints, this sailor heavily tattooed with an octopus and a peacock, strange combination you might say. But, the peacock is a symbol of immortality and the octopus although vaguer in it’s symbolic meaning represents reaching into a lot of things. I like the marriage of the two meanings. Old sailors tattoos are often in some way trying to protect or act as a trophy or an award, I like the idea that this sailor can stare out into the ocean unafraid of death and feel like he can go anywhere he pleases without any risk of harm.
This print is titled, Sailor with peacock

This print is black and white printed on japanese Atsukuchi paper, which is only 57gsm, but don’t be fooled although this paper is thin it is very strong with a waxy finish which makes the ink stand up on it.
there are only 15 of these.
They are all available in the shop
view Daniel’s illustration portfolio

The Ocean Series – Screen Prints

Watercolour illustration and screenprints by Daniel Mackie — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 09:23:39 +0000

I’ve been wanting to do these screen prints for ages. They were a struggle. I drew the positives on tracing paper with indian ink and it was a bit of a dark art calculating the expose time. But I got there in the end. There are three in total.

All sailors, all to do with the mystery of the ocean. There is obviously a very heavy japanese print influence going on, but they are also very much influenced by naval tattoos. This fist one for instance has images of swallows which have a symbolic meaning when represented as a tattoo. Back in the days before modern navigation birds would obviously represent land and tattoos of swallows, sparrows and blue birds came to represent a safe passage home. Swallows, maybe because of their migratory habits came to represent successfully sailing a certain amount of miles. There is another story that says that if sailor gets a set of swallows on his chest, if he or she drowns the swallows will come down and lift his soul up to heaven.

This print titled, Sailor with Swallows is black and white printed on japanese Atsukuchi paper, which is only 57gsm, but don’t be fooled although this paper is thin it is very strong with a waxy finish which makes the ink stand up on it.
There are only 15 of these.
They are all available in the shop
view Daniel’s illustration portfolio

Alpha male. Get the hell out of this guys back yard. Mountain Gorilla

Watercolour illustration and screenprints by Daniel Mackie — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 08:35:53 +0000

The estimated total number of Mountain Gorillas worldwide is 790. Oh dear. Guess what the reason for their decline in numbers is.

Habitat loss, the encroachment of settlements into areas where the mountain gorilla lives. Agriculture, pastoral expansion and logging have all impacted upon the gorilla population.

This situation is bad enough but it has been further impacted by the fact that Mountain Gorillas live in political unstable places, Uganda, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) All these areas have had War and civil unrest.

Tourists have had the unfortunate effect of allowing transmission of diseases from humans to the gorillas. Poaching is also a problem. Abduction of infants for illegal selling to zoos and as pets. This often results in other adult gorillas being killed in the process.

What a mess. If you were a mountain gorilla I’m sure you’d be at a loss for words by the seemingly systematic destruction of your people. Mountain Gorillas, no surprise are listed as critically endangered by the ICUN.

This illustration in progress is of the mountain Gorilla with his natural environment inside him.

Image © Daniel Mackie
View Daniel Mackie’s illustration portfolio.
Check out Daniels Shop

I Got My Fingers Tangled

Watercolour illustration and screenprints by Daniel Mackie — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 07:25:20 +0000

There is an interview with yours truly at the superb blog Tangled Fingers, there is even a Mugshot! I spill the beans on my inspiration. It shows some of my illustrations from conception to completion.
Check it out here

Here is a snippet,

“We at Tangled Fingers love how the strange proportions and collaging effect in Daniel’s work seems to bend space and time, each piece draws you deeper and deeper into a well crafted story. Daniel was kind enough to take the time to talk to TF about his work, process and inspirations.”

View Daniel’s illustration Portfolio

Boo hoo – The Nile Crocodile illustration

Watercolour illustration and screenprints by Daniel Mackie — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 10:08:08 +0000

Should we be crying over a Crocodile? Perhaps shedding some crocodile tears, just to pretend we care about its fate. apparently the myth about Crocodile tears comes from an anecdote first spread about by a man called Sir John Mandeville back in the 14th century. Crocodiles weep to lure their prey. But the bit I like is that they Weep While eating it! I had no idea crocodiles were so empathetic!
Anyway, here he is, the magnificent beast. The Nile crocodile. Part of my series of paintings about habitat loss. Although the Nile Crocodile is relatively secure and abundant in southern and eastern Africa, The same can’t be said in the central and western parts of its range. This is due to habitat loss and historical poaching.

Poaching Nile crocodiles for their skin was very popular through the mid part of the century. Skins are used to make anything from wallets to boots.
This illustration shows the crocodile with his natural habitat within him, the river and the crocodile hand in hand. You can check out my earlier post about this crocodile illustration here, and a bit about alligators in the sewers of New York here.

You can be sure that this chap won’t be shedding any tears if he eats you for lunch, You can tell he has no empathy by that cold green eye!
Images © Daniel Mackie
View Daniel’s illustration portfolio

Contemporary legend – Sewer alligator

Watercolour illustration and screenprints by Daniel Mackie — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 07:49:35 +0000

My illustration is of a crocodile. This story is about alligators. Alligators are often confused with crocodiles, they belong to two quite separate taxonomic families. However, I love the this story.

It goes like this: in the 1920′s and 1930′s families would return from holiday in Florida and bring back baby alligators to New York City, with the idea of keeping them as pets for their children. When the alligators grew too large for comfort, they’d be flushed down the toilet!

The alligators survived and lived within the sewers and reproduced, eating rats and rubbish, growing to huge sizes and striking fear into the hearts of New Yorkers, who were afraid of what lurked beneath!

This illustration is coming on nicely. As you van see, the head is nearly finished. I used a bit of wet-in-wet technique in areas here, blending the yellow ochre with the green.

Image © Daniel Mackie
View Daniel’s illustration portfolio

Birds, Repeating Pattern – Wagtails

Watercolour illustration and screenprints by Daniel Mackie — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 07:53:28 +0000

I saw some Wagtails catching flies over a river in a little village called Clapham and watched in admiration as they darted about. When I got this commission I thought immediately of those wagtails. This is the start of the drawing; it is a repeating pattern so the clouds line up top and bottom. This is the single tile and when it is copied and put next to its original it will repeat for ever! The idea is to get a kind of spiraling up or down effect going on. I’ll post up the final piece when I’ve finished it.

Image © Daniel Mackie
View Daniel’s illustration portfolio
View Daniel’s shop

55 million years old lizard that’ll eat you for breakfast! Crocodile Illustration

Watercolour illustration and screenprints by Daniel Mackie — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 09:55:24 +0000

Crocodiles are about 55 million years old, They live throughout the tropics in Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australia. They are the survivors, the closest thing to a dinosaur you will see that is Alive! Sea turtles are an older spices, they have been around for about 150 Million years, but they don’t really have the same kind of threatening menace that a crocodile does. Crocodiles look like they belong in the primeval soup and given the chance they will drag you in there with them and have you for diner with a nice leg of wildebeest for desert.

The word crocodile comes from the Ancient Greek κροκόδιλος (crocodilos), “lizard,” used in the phrase ho krokódilos ho potamós, “the lizard of the (Nile) river.”

The American Crocodile is considered threatened Due to hide hunting, pollution, loss of habitat, and removal of adults for commercial farming, it is endangered in parts of its range. In 1972, Venezuela banned commercial crocodile skin harvesting for a decade, as a result of 1950s and 1960s overhunting.

The Siamese crocodile Classified as Critically Endangered (CR) on the IUCN Red List

The Crocodile is an Icon of how life can prevail. At the end of the Eocene period from which it is first recognised to have come from (56-35 Million years ago) there was a massive extinction event called Grande Coupure or the “Great Break”. It caused widespread extinctions and isolated may spices forcing them to evolve. The crocodile Came through unscathed.

This is the start of an illustration of a crocodile. I’ve nearly finished the drawing , soon on with the watercolour.

images © Daniel Mackie
View Daniel’s Illustration Portfolio