This is a poster that I designed for the Wilma Martinez Project:
Wilma Martinez Project
This was Wilma's first stab at starring in two roles simultaneously. From what I hear it's pretty raunchy.
Monday, July 6, 2009
Doppelganger Danger...
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Donald Ely
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11:49 AM
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Labels: acrylic, film, illustration, painting, Poster, Wilma Martinez
Friday, June 19, 2009
STYLE magazine "Summer Waves"
This was for STYLE magazine. The feature was on summer hair trends and the art director wanted something "retro feeling". I think it turned out quite nice. 

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Donald Ely
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9:56 AM
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Labels: bathing suits, digital, hair, illustration, retro, STYLE magazine, summer, trends
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
This is the latest piece that I did for Baltimore magazine's Charm City Chatter column. It was for the kid's group Milkshake's visit to the Lyric Opera house. Apparently they are HUGE and from Baltimore. I didn't realize how big they were when I got the assignment, maybe because my child is only 3.5 months old. Anyway, the idea was to make the kids event look like it was in a "grown-up" environment, hence the point of view.
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Donald Ely
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7:45 AM
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Labels: baltimore, baltimore magazine, children, kid's music, Milkshake
Friday, May 15, 2009
Elephants on Parade
This is on my promo piece (which you can see in a few posts below), but I figured I'd post it again in a larger size. It is featured in the "Charm City Chatter" column of the current issue of Baltimore magazine. The piece was to illustrate the annual march of the animals parade that Ringling puts together every year. The elephants march from the B&O Railroad museum to the big top. This year the parade happened a little later than usual and apparently there were kids in their pajamas there to see the large pachyderms. 
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Donald Ely
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1:29 PM
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Labels: B and O railroad, baltimore, circus, Elephants, parade
T-shirt update...
So, the people at Okayplayer said they loved my original design, but were torn as to whether or not they liked the Meshell portrait, so they asked me for a couple more versions featuring the monkey with headphones image that is on the cover of "Cookie". I redrew it to fit my style and added a few scratches and splats and this is the end result. I hope that I'm in the running to win the contest. 


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Donald Ely
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7:23 AM
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Labels: cookie, illustration, Meshell Ndegeocello, okayplayer, t-shirt
Monday, May 4, 2009
Okayplayer T-shirt Contest...
So, I have been a big fan of okayplayer.com for some time now. Online home of the Roots and fansite for okayplayer branded artists such as Amy Winehouse, Meshell Ndegeocello, Erykah Badu, Common, Talib Kweli, Jazzyfatnastees, SA-RA, J Dilla–the list goes on and I consider myself to be an okayplayer.
Anyway, they recently posted a contest to design a t-shirt to commemorate the year 2002 in honor of their 10 year anniversary. I chose to do a design for Meshell Ndegeocello's "Cookie-The Anthropological Mixtape" because I'm a big fan of Meshell's and other artists that released material in 2002 were already represented in one of the other designs. I came up with four designs. Here they are. Stay tuned to see if I win. 



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Donald Ely
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10:05 AM
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Labels: contest, design, digital, illustration, Meshell Ndegeocello, okayplayer
Friday, April 24, 2009
Random cuteness that is my son.
This is my son Jasper and these are the extremely late birth announcements that we are just now sending out (hence the 'Then' and 'Now' specs. I decided to keep with the circus theme and add my elephant illustration to the announcement.
Oh, and you can check out my wife's blog of our new addition here.
Friday, April 17, 2009
New Promo Piece...
So, I finally got around to getting a new promo piece printed. I'm going to try something different and send out a brochure as opposed to a postcard. Hopefully I can start getting bigger jobs. 

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Donald Ely
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9:20 AM
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Labels: design, hand lettering, illustration, Promotional
Thursday, March 19, 2009
City Paper Job Guide Banners...
So, City Paper will start a new website called "City Paper Baltimore Jobs"...pretty boring name, but here are some not-so boring designs I came up with to rest at the top of the pages. My personal favorite is the banner with the feet. I decided to use contour line drawings and I'm happy with the outcome.


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Donald Ely
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9:03 PM
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Labels: baltimore, City Paper, design, jobs, website
Monday, March 9, 2009
Obama comes to Baltimore!
This is the second piece that I did for Baltimore Magazine's 'Charm City Chatter' column. I was inspired by vintage state postcards and figured the concept would be perfect for Obama's visit to Baltimore on his trail to the White House.
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Donald Ely
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3:25 PM
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Labels: acrylic, baltimore, baltimore magazine, Barack, glitter, illustration, Obama, spot
Monday, February 16, 2009
OZ...
This is a piece that I did for City Paper. It's for a book review of the book "The Wizard of Oz and Philosophy: Wicked Wisdom of the West". I love the Wizard of Oz (story and the film) and wanted to do a piece that spoke more about Oz than the characters, and more about the fact that this book is a collection of Oz-based theories and not about any particular instance or character. I am pretty satisfied with the end result.
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Donald Ely
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2:51 PM
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Labels: acrylic, City Paper, digital, mixed media, Oz, Wizard of Oz
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Happy Birthday Jon!
This is a birthday card that I made for my great friend Jon. I just finished watching Disney's "So Dear To My Heart", which is where the lamb comes in. The piece is about cautiously making a journey and not giving up. Below the image is some hand-drawn type from the inside of the card.

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Donald Ely
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9:03 PM
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Labels: birthday, d, disney, greeting card, happy birthday, Jon Macnair, lamb, So Dear to My Heart
Thursday, February 5, 2009
DAN DEACON!
This is my latest illustration that I did for the great people over at Baltimore magazine. They have started a new column called "Charm City Chatter" (about stuff going on in and around the Baltimore area) and to my surprise they asked me to be the regular illustrator for the column! The first assignment was for Dan Deacon's 'Round Robin' Tour and below is the result. Enjoy.
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Donald Ely
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10:31 AM
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Labels: baltimore, baltimore magazine, Dan Deacon, illustration, mi, portrait
Monday, December 22, 2008
Life's Circle
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Donald Ely
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6:37 PM
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Labels: adolescence, digital, family, fatherhood, illustration, love, lust, pen and ink
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Fertilization
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Donald Ely
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10:13 PM
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Labels: conception, fatherhood, fertilizing, funk, illustration, kink, mixed media, nude, pen and ink, sex, space, veins
Monday, August 18, 2008
Pittsburgh City Paper: Back to School Issue
This is an assignment I got from Pittsburgh City Paper for a cover feature on Student Protest for their back to school issue. For the inside I was assigned four spot illustrations concerning different college student related issues.
Scan of printed cover with type will come when I receive my copy in the mail.
Cover
Cover without Text
Spot Illo: Rising Tuition
Spot Illo: The Expanding Campus
Spot Illo: Preferential Treatment
Spot Illo: Duquesne's Problem
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Donald Ely
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8:25 AM
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Labels: campus, college, controversy, Duquesne, illustration, Pitt University, Pittsburgh City Paper, protest, same-sex, school
Sunday, August 3, 2008
Georgia Anne Muldrow
This is a cover and illustration I did for the online magazine Scheme. The piece is of the beautiful Georgia Anne Muldrow whom I first heard this past February after purchasing New Amerykah Pt.2. Georgia makes some of the most atmospheric, thought-provoking, unconventional music this side of planet earth that I've heard in years. Enjoy the new piece.

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Donald Ely
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2:20 PM
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Labels: acrylic, digital, Erykah Badu, Georgia Anne Muldrow, hip, illustration, pen and ink, Scheme
Thursday, May 29, 2008
OVERLOAD
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Donald Ely
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7:27 AM
1 comments
Labels: body, funk, funkadelic, illustration, p, sex, space, summer
Monday, May 5, 2008
?uestlove
Below is the cover for May's Scheme magazine which features an article about ?uestlove of the Roots. If you haven't done so already, go out and pick up Rising Down their new album just released last week. Not only is the album art great and full of impact, the content is rich. Enjoy.
And the uncropped no-logo version below...
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Donald Ely
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6:56 AM
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Labels: hip-hop, illustration, roots, Scheme
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Saturday, April 19, 2008
Kinetic Sculpture Race...
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Donald Ely
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11:06 PM
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Labels: City Paper, digital, illustration, kinetic, pen and ink, race, sculpture
Friday, April 18, 2008
Madonna: Hard Candy
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Donald Ely
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11:40 PM
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Labels: 4 minutes, collage, glitter, hard candy, illustration, madonna, pen and ink
deeply rooted
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Donald Ely
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11:10 AM
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Labels: acrylic, family, history, pen and ink, roots
Monday, April 7, 2008
LIVE at the Renaissance

I did this flyer for an event promoted by Scheme magazine (Check previous posts). If you are in the DC/Metro/Baltimore area attend this "semi networking event where people can enjoy great music from the 80's through the 90's with a mix of the current Little Brother, Cool Kids, Lupe Fiasco, Cromeo, etc." And guess what, it's FREE.
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Donald Ely
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7:45 AM
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Labels: digital, Live at the Renaissance, pen and ink, Poster, Scheme
Kidz in the Hall

Thanks to Dale Coachman and his magazine Scheme for whom I did this for.
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Donald Ely
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7:09 AM
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Labels: acrylic, hip-hop, illustration, kidz in the hall, pen and ink, Scheme







