artwork, ellwood daniels artwork
Welcome Aboard
Daniel Ellwood is an artist, illustrator, and animator with more than a decade of professional experience. Daniel has held solo exhibitions across the UK, Europe, & Dubai including shows in London, Berlin, and Amsterdam.
With an ever-evolving creative practice that fuses self devised techniques and digital, Daniel has created a distinct visual language in his work, incorporating masking the unknown, vivid colour, bold forms and psychedelic motifs.
All styles and themes of work overlap each other in various ways. On your journey through this site you will see works split in to four categories; Scalpel Art, Digital, Masks, and Animation.
Scalpel Art
This is where it all began. At the age of 15 my art tutor Mr Dare put a scalpel knife in my hand when I was struggling to achieve the perfect edge for an art project I was working on. Using a mount board as my base, which contained a 2mm cream core in the centre, I was able to use the knife to cut into the board and peel off the top layer to reveal a cream white underneath. This is where it all began.
Scalpel Meets Digital
After completing my Masters in Art & Design I began to study graphic design. Looking for a profession in advertisement and branding its was essential to learn the Adobe Suites and develop new design skills in a more commercial manner. New tools at the ready I thought it was only right to experiment with my traditional practice of scalpel art and marry the two together.
Digital Meets NFTs
When NFTs become the most trending form of digital art at the time I knew I had to jump on the band wagon. It seemed like this was going to be the future for digital art and how it was to be sold. I dipped my toes in with some success but most importantly it got me once again thinking about what direction my art could move towards. This was when I came up with the idea of 'The Masked Collection'. Using original scalpel and digital works and transferring these designs on to these custom collectible masks it was just another way to develop my ideas.
Digital Painting
Using a more modern techinque of painting with a selection of 'digital brushes' instead of the more traditional practice of paint and a physical brushes. Creating freeform lines and shapes with a compliment of rich colour and textures. This was a big step into diving into another type of art style yet still keeping attributes relating back to the scalpel work with the precise lines and the depth of each piece.
Animation & Video Modular Synths
During my Uni days I found myself developing 2000+ photo stop frame animations for my course projects using cut out pieces of card and moving them ever so slightly to create movement. From there I found myself deep in the electronic music scene surrounded by DJs and producers I saw opportunity to start working with audio and visuals. This led me to finding some real niche bits of equipment and that was my introduction to video modular synths.