Daniel Fishel {illustration+design}

Rich Tu Event Poster

2011-03-07T13:00:00.005-05:00

I was asked by the fabulous illustrator/designer Robyn Ng, to work on a collaborative poster for Rich Tu's talk at Swarthmore College. The idea for the poster was to make a crazy exquisite corpse amongst other artist (Jayson Atienza, Sam Wolfe Connely, Karen Demaio, Daniel Hertzberg, Lorraine Nam, Clay Rodery, Zejian Shen, Dadu Shin).

We were asked to draw a specific part of photo reference we were given but I ended up drawing the whole portrait that would later be dissected apart for a beautiful poster that explodes with color, and really great typography. It really does represent the intensity that is Rich Tu.

Final Poster designed by Robyn Ng
Big Thanks to both Robyn Ng, and Rich Tu, for letting me be apart of this interesting poster. I hope to work with both of you again in the future.

Web Store Coming Soon/Purchase originals

2011-03-05T15:00:00.003-05:00

I've had several requests over the past couple months for prints and wanted to let you know that I am working on it. I am pretty sure I found a printer I want to work with so I can create limited edition giclee prints of a few of my illustrations and paintings.

Along with that (which is why it's taking so long to set up a web store), I am producing other products that would be cool to own. I just got these great buttons from No Sleep till buttons yesterday, and I think Chris did a great job at making them. I printed the labels, cut them, and bagged all 100 of those you see in the picture above.

Stay tuned over the next couple weeks because I will have a merch give away to celebrate the online store opening...

Also, if you would like to purchase any traditional painting you see on my blog, just send me an email for pricing: Daniel(at)o-fishel.com

I'll even frame it for not extra cost in the style you see above.

"Optical"

2011-03-04T13:32:00.003-05:00

If you've been following my blog you'll notice that I've been doing a lot of small traditional paintings. It's all really in practice to make art work that will be in two group shows coming up. One show I have to make three pieces! Lucky the other one I have to only make one, but because of the hype the show will have, the pressure is still high to make something great. More on that later and back to the work....

So with this piece it's easy to pass it off as something that is often done a lot today (dots + ornamentation), but I wanted to kinda show the artwork I am referencing a little bit. I guess it's a way to reveal my process and open up. The artwork I've been looking at for reference is classic 20th century super designed record covers from here - http://www.projectthirtythree.com/

For this piece I've thought about the science of what are glasses. The human eye takes in light, reflects it and forms an image with color, much like a prism. I thought it would be great to make a piece of artwork that abstractly shows that without showing the human form.

"Optical" 8"x10" - Acrylic + Ink on paper mounted to board
This piece was submitted for a opening in brooklyn. I'll throw you the details soon if it's up for show.

Vanity

2011-02-24T15:00:00.003-05:00

Originally, for my Visual Essay Series, but I am re-working the composition of this piece for that. So instead I am using it for my black and white illustration portfolio.

Water girl

2011-02-23T15:51:00.003-05:00

I was recently asked by a designer at a book publisher if I was interested in doing a children's book about Ethiopian water girls. They were looking for someone who had a style that was contemporary, and an illustrator that was african american. I happened to have the right style and I am half Ethiopian (coincidence). Sadly, I had to submit a few drawings to show that I could take on the nature of a picture book and my styles a little to hip after it got to the higher ups.

Oh well, Next time! I got a pretty good drawing out of it.

Age

2011-02-20T18:30:00.003-05:00

5"x7" Acrylic + Ink on paper mounted on wood

Doubt

2011-02-14T00:21:00.004-05:00

5"x7" Acrylic + Ink on paper mounted on wood

Erin Supinski

2011-02-05T15:05:00.002-05:00

This is a portrait of illustrator/hand letterist, Erin Supinski, I did recently for a collaborative postcard for School of Visual Arts. Each person in the MFA studio has to draw someone else, and I got Erin. Not to sound creepy, but I really enjoyed drawing her hair, and it was really fun drawing those glasses of hers.

Just a thought: It's all in the subtleties

2011-02-03T14:41:00.003-05:00

More and more I've been using two kinds of black acrylic paint along with ink to do line work in what I do. One kind is a super cheap black that doesn't lay on as a solid black or carry a long line well at all. The other kind is a black that is 100% opaque and gives a nice line that isn't as fluid as ink, but gives a nice texture.

In between working on various projects, I've been working on my next mailer. While filling in a area with a pure black, it reminded me of abstract painters that paint black on black. Their work is purely about paint on surface and how we emote/react to the various surfaces that make the piece what it is. Lately I've been thinking about the subtle marks within a fill that makes for these mini abstractions within a representational piece. It doesn't make or break a piece from it's intention conceptually, but it adds a personal element or an observed purposeful element that I am trying to add to my work.

New Sketchbook Drawings

2011-01-30T16:46:00.002-05:00

All done on the subway going home (Sometime around 11pm-1am), or going to Manhattan (6am - 8am), in ink in a small moleskine sketchbook. Heres a few of my favorites from the last two weeks.

Egyptian Protests

2011-01-29T13:44:00.004-05:00

I had dealt with a bunch of stuff at my apartment that needed to be attended to and caught wind of the Egyptian protests in Cairo late via twitter. Late last night I sent the image above to the Times as a proposal image for a Op-Ed that would match it, and I looked at the Times website this morning and saw my friend Edel beat me to it. Next time I suppose, but I digress.

Mubarak has been in power for over 30 years and isn't yielding/listening to his peoples demands for change. In the image I wanted an show Mubarak's back facing us with a clenched authoritarian fist against as protesters start to burn down the city. I wanted to show that Mubarak not only doesn't care about what his people think, but also that he isn't going to deal with opposition lightly either.

Big Vision Empty Wallet

2011-01-27T19:11:00.003-05:00

I was asked by Alex Cirillo, one of the head folk at Big Vision Empty Wallet, to display some prints at their NYC Chapter opening last week. What's really funny about the entire thing was that I had gotten an email from my friend Will Varner, inviting me to the same event I was in. Total coincidence, and very cool!

The artwork was shown near the entrance as people came in from the cold lower east side weather. In the back were tables, music, and a bar (if your into that sort of thing) where people talked about why they were there, and what they were working on, ect. Big Vision Empty wallet is a non-profit that sets up events, bringing artist, film makers, actors, ect together and on a budget they can ethically agree on. Some cool short films were shown, and afterwords the place started to wind down.

Big Thanks to Alex, for setting up the event and including me in it. Photos by Dan Rock and Deneka Peniston.

Growth+Influence

2011-01-23T09:34:00.003-05:00

There's been a lot of chatter amongst my peers lately about young creatives influencing a little to hard on their contemporaries. Instead of jumping on the finger waging band wagon, I figured it was time to talk about my growth and influences through the last couple years. I don't think I have the authority to give advice but figured that it might be meaningful to some student/professional to hear. I bulleted my main points.

Understand why you started making art in the first place, and who you looked up to then.

It was the summer before my senior year of high school, and at the time I wanted to go to college to be a psychologist. I remember trying to figure out why I wanted to do it. I think it was mostly because I liked to solve problems. In the end, I come to the conclusion of equanimity or the fact that there will be times that I wouldn't be able to help someone. That bothered me. So I looked at my interests and knew my punk rock band I was in wasn't going anywhere so I looked to art. For me it was a way for me to speak my mind and solve some kind of problem somewhere. I really didn't know what I was doing.

At the time I was making these 30"x40" acrylic paintings on canvas. I lost my sight in how a big canvas=being an artist, when really clear ideas+your personal view point+getting it out there=being an artist. It would take several years of art school to come to that conclusion. Pre-Art school, I didn't know much about contemporary art. The only people I knew about were Warhol, Lichtenstein, MC Escher, and Da Vinci. Outside of that, I loved the artwork on all the Black Flag records by Raymond Pettibon, and Zines by Cristy Road.

While in art school: Set Goals, Try Everything, Learn about the Business.

When I went to the University of the Arts, I gave myself a set of goals.

1. Learn how to draw like a renaissance artist
2. Learn how to make things on the computer
3. Know more art history, and contemporary work
4. Understand design.

I was able to pretty much achieve all of these goals except the first one. I learned a hard lesion that you can only make things as well as you honestly can. I've struggled to try and draw and paint without using line. I can't do it. I kinda envy some artist who can do it well. I don't think it discounts what I create, it just means I have to use what I can do and continue to make that better.

I've painted for years in acrylic, and now mix traditional media with digital media thats almost seemless. Well I guess to me it is. For me, the drive to really learn the computer came from having class with Tom Leonard. He is a teacher I feel everyone should have. I was hesitant of going the digital route because of the whole "Is it art if its on a computer?" thing. He told me that it's worth exploring if I was interested in it. So for projects that he asked people to bring in pieces that were traditional, he let me have digital print outs of pieces. If it weren't for Tom, I would probably be more limited in terms of how to use a computer. After a lot of work, about three years ago, I was able to start to approach clients for work with confidence. A lot of that time before then though was spent making things I knew didn't work or led to dead ends. Be ok to fail, as long as you try again/something else.

While in school I tried everything I was interested in. I met Paul Romano, while in school and he talked about making cyanotype prints and vandyke brown prints in school. I thought that was cool so I went head first and spent two semesters doing that stuff. The thing I loved about the prints the most was how the outer edge of the print is so expressive in mark making, and the in your face cyan blue that just pops. I became friends with Mike Wohlberg, who ended up inspiring me to learn how to silkscreen, and learn design. He also gave me my "first illustration job" screen printing show posters for a venue north of philly, which led to doing artwork for a lot of bands which I am truly grateful for. I ended up meeting Yuko while in school and she gave a lecture on how she had to be real with herself on how she made artwork which came from directly living in Japan. Meeting these different people and trying all these things led to some direction to how I make art work today.

Also a lot of business knowledge I got came from reading books on the business of illustration and not so much in the class room, though it is briefly touched upon. So keep that in mind.

Always work hard to evolve your work and have a thick skin/Be mindful but not cautious when making art.

When I was in undergrad and even shortly after graduating, I worked hard at evolving my work into something more and more that was my own, while constantly being viciously scrutinized by my peers. I think the "tough love" that I got from my peers was hurtfully honest, and sometimes off base, but it added the pressure needed to try new things. It never feels good for someone to tell you that your work looks like someone else's work. It feels awful when more that 5 people tell you that your work looks like someone else's work! That's when you have to make the decision. Go left field and work entirely differently (fuck that), or they are full of it (wrong), or you stop for a second and examine your art, side by side with there's.

Understand that your work is within a specific family tree of artist. For me, Mines the "Conceptual/screen printy/somewhat painterly" group, and I know that certain comparisons are going to be made. To minimize and/or extinguish comparisons, you have to draw from your own personal experience, and your past growing up to bring that something else to the table. There will be moments from time to time, when you solve a problem honestly that it by coincidence is similar to someone elses work, just brush it off and move forward making new stuff. (ie: http://tinyurl.com/4zkjcmh )

Also, look back to what you loved when you were started to make art. Album art, Zines, Skateboards, and punk rock were the fuel for me, but I then added new context using art history to the mix. Rene Magritte, Marcel Broodthaers, Man Ray, Cy Twombly, Paul Gauguin, Dan Clowes, Lorraine Fox, Edward Hopper and Norman Rockwell are a few people I've been looking up these past 3 or 4 years over and over. Be grounded in the past just as much as knowing who your peers are.

Lastly, stay honest, humble/nice and hungry.

I always try to stay honest with myself, my friends, clients, anyone. Its 2011, and people will call your bluff using google. Humble is hard especially when each illustration job you get in like Christmas in July. I think other people can do a better job at what I have to offer, but I continue to make honest hard work none the less. I love what I do, and honestly believe that there's nothing better than this.

Art is work. So work hard, focus, and be true to yourself. If you really want this, have faith and keep working until it happens....and continue working to keep it happening.

Tomorrow. The Dream.

2011-01-16T13:15:00.002-05:00

Sketchbook ink drawings

2011-01-06T10:43:00.003-05:00

One of my New Years Resolutions I've made was to keep a ink only sketchbook. I'm a little envious of artist like James Jean and John Hendrix who keep tightly drawn sketch books that mirror or act as investigational studies before their finished personal or client work begins for the day. My sketchbooks work more like warm ups/loosen up or me trying to graphically translate people or things in a limited number of lines than showing real draftsman skill. Anyway, heres some of the better pages over the last month. Most of these were drawn on the subway, but a few are on location somewhere. Gotta love 4"x6" moleskines!

2011

2011-01-01T00:00:00.001-05:00

Heres to a new year! Hand drawn and delighted.

Out of the studio

2010-12-22T17:46:00.001-05:00

I won't be in the studio from the 23rd through the 27th. I'll still take your emails if you have a project in mind for a longer deadline.

Best,

-Daniel

Thanks for another great year!

2010-12-15T12:31:00.002-05:00

2010 is almost done, and with 2011 creeping in slowly, I thought that I would do a little bit of thanking and reflecting on the work that I’ve done this year.

First of all, I want to thank every Art director/creative director/band/small business, that hired me this year. I really hope to work with you all again soon. I also want to thank all the returning clients that have worked with and created a great personal connection with. You know who you are, and its always great to get hear from you.

I really want to thank all of the art directors/creative directors, who have taken the time to look at my physical portfolio, and taken the time to talk to me about the work I’ve done so far or even just talk about the business at the illustration conference, AI party, or just random get togethers. Your advice, and guidance is a truly rewarding, and I appreciate you taking the time to talk to me.

I don’t want to name drop to much (since I have a really bad habit of doing that) but there are a few folk that I want to shout out to specifically for making this year exceptional. Huge thanks to Pete Ryan for making me a contributor on the interview blog called, Non-Slick. Now I have a platform to interview all of my favorite illustrators and art directors. Daniel Hertzberg, Victo Ngai, Dadu Shin, Robyn Ng, Katie Turner, You Byun and Tae Querney for all of the hang outs, exchange of advice, and down right nerdy illustration talk. Some West coast thanks again to Alyssa Deville and Chloé Yingst (I’ll send you stuff sooooon) for staying on their floors/beds at ICON6. Big thanks to all my brothers + sister on the 4 to 7 Club blog ! Major props to my studio mate’s. Sincere gratitude and thanks to Jessica Hische and Charles Hively at 3x3 magazine, for letting me intern with them this year. Huge thanks for these past two years to Robert Zimmerman, who runs Ohger. You’ve helped me out a bunch and I really appreciate that.

Many thanks to everyone who shouts back to me on twitter. It’s become a real tool to really be engaged with the illustration community around and about. Also I want to thank anyone that I might have forgotten, but I digress.

I finished an interview with Kali Ciesemier for the non-slick blog, which reminded me of when I first met Kali back in 2008 at ICON5. At the time, I was just going into my Senior year at the University of the Arts, and I was still trying to come to terms with what I wanted to do. My work back then was not that great, but to me, showed a lot of potential to become something better. I am still not interested in using the narrative form, but found something interesting through making conceptual images. Two years later, as I am months from finishing up my MFA in illustration, and reflecting on what I did and what I do, I have to say that I’ve come a long loooooooong way. I can only move forward, work faster, think smarter from here on, so I can reflect two years from now and say I’ve grown even more.

I hope to meet many of you, and work with plenty of you guys/gals in the New Year!

Best as always,

-Daniel Fishel

Visual Essay: Losing my love for Basketball

2010-12-13T22:40:00.003-05:00

At the top of the street where I lived were two basketball courts. When I was twelve, I used to play on those courts all the time with a bunch of late teen early twenty something’s. Like many youngens, I followed the leader for the most part. They cursed, I cursed, they spit, I spit. I drew the line at smoking, though I still wanted to look cool so I “smoked” candy cigarettes that I bought from the store. The store I am talking about was located not to far away from the basketball courts, acting as the focal point in the whole trailer park. If you needed milk, and didn’t want to run into town, you just went to the store right here in the park. It seemed really fancy to live in a trailer park that had a store, basketball courts and even a swimming pool but I was spoiled and didn’t care. Anyway, every once in a while we would go up to the store, and buy Sprites, water, or candy and continue on to playing more basketball.

The rule of the house I lived in was that I had to be at home when the streetlights turned on, so a lot of times I left in the middle of a game to go home. The older kids would continue on playing until it got to dark to play. One summer night, I heard loud sirens and people yelling outside. My parents got me out of bed so we could see what all the fuss was about. The store had caught on fire. My first thought was “where am I going to get candy cigarettes at now?” Later the next day, the fire department determined that the cause of the fire was from a lit cigarette butt thrown in a trash can that caused the flame. I got angry, and somehow made the connection that the older kids I hung out with were the cause of this. They were the ones that destroyed a good thing that everyone enjoyed. I stopped playing basketball that summer, picked up skateboarding and started listening to Black Flag.

Interrupting a quite moment

2010-12-13T17:44:00.003-05:00

It's not uncommon for illustrators to make an unsolicited piece of artwork for a section in a newspaper or magazine and try to sell that piece of artwork to them. Its more common for Op-Ed sections to receive these than monthly magazines, thought there are exceptions. I submitted my first unsolicited piece of artwork today, and it got rejected.

Oh well. On to the next piece...

Visual Essay: Beautiful Failure

2010-12-11T15:28:00.004-05:00

The best of times, and the worst of times. This is an illustration, that is part of my visual essay series. This one is about the beauty of and the foreshadow of failed marriage. I'll leave the full story for the printed book.

Visual Essay: A lifeguards observations

2010-11-19T20:21:00.005-05:00

I worked for seven years as a lifeguard in the trailer park I grew up in. Year after year, the other guards and I would see teenage girls getting pregnant. It was a bit of a moral epidemic in our neighborhood. Shamefully, the way we dealt with it, was that we all bet on who would be the next girl to walk through the gates with a baby stroller. Money was never really exchanged but the concept was there. For years I bet on the same girl. I don't know why, but I did. Maybe it was because every summer she had a different boyfriend, or maybe it was the friends she hanged out with. I always bet on her. Two years after quitting my job as a lifeguard, I did end up bumping into that girl while visiting home one summer. She was going college, focused in her studies and was making something of herself. I was relieved that not everyone would be anchored in the trailer park that I grew up in, within the fate I ignorantly doomed upon everyone. We all make choices, and we all make mistakes.

Giant Robot LA | Post-it Note 6 show

2010-11-14T11:59:00.003-05:00

I am very excited and humbled to be invited into the Giant Robot LA | Post It Note 6 show, curated by Mark Todd and Esther Pearl Watson.

For the post it notes I am submitting, I thought I would take random images from my sketch book and killed sketches to be made into painted images. Some pieces are deep, meaningful and have a back story, while others I made because I thought they would make a cool images with loose interpretations.

The Opening will be at Giant Robot in Los Angeles, CA on December 11th. Huge thanks to Mark and Esther for inviting me to be part of the show.

"Focus" - 4x4 Acrylic, Blue Lead Pencil and Ink on a gessoed post it note

"About the other night" - 4x4 Acrylic and Ink on a gessoed post it note

"Foresight" - 4x4 Acrylic and Ink on a gessoed post it note

"Midnight Oil" - 4x4 Acrylic and Ink on a gessoed post it note

"Fall Reading" - 4x4 Acrylic and Ink on a gessoed post it note

Buying Local for the Holidays

2010-11-10T10:25:00.003-05:00

I love getting work from Jamie Leary, over at Grid Magazine. He always gives me tough assignments to wrap my head around and make an image that follows suit. In the december issue of Grid Magazine, I worked on an illustration about the writers holiday dilemma.

When he was younger he was able to go all over the world and buy "exotic" gifts for his friends and family at home. Once he got alittle older with college loans, a house payments, ect, he wasn't able to be a gift searching globe trotter anymore. So the article takes a turn in pushing the idea of finding things you buy locally as being more "exotic" than things you buy from a store. In most cases when you buy something from the store, it probably has traveled 3000 miles before getting to you. Most things these days aren't made in America, or Philadelphia as the article points out. So by buying something made in Philadelphia, makes it a little more special.

After a few roughs were submitted, Jamie choose the sketch of two presents sitting next to one another. One in holiday packaging, and the other as if it was mailed. Jamie made the suggestion of adding luggage labels. I was pretty nervous when designing the labels, since I have never did anything with type for an editorial job, and was in fear of the piece falling a little flat by using type to push an idea. In the end, it benefited the piece, and my anxiety lifted. I added alittle bit of screen printing zips on the sides to frame the illustration, which gives it a nice finished touch.

Huge thanks to Jamie over at Grid Magazine! - http://www.gridphilly.com/

Tangled in your own thoughts

2010-11-06T20:49:00.006-04:00

I was talking with some studio mates today about how I want to do Op Ed work, but have to make some examples that show how my work translates to black and white. So in an hour and a half I made this.

Thursday night I went to the SVA Theater, and saw a lecture given by Dash Shaw, a young comics/illustrator/animator who had some interesting things to say about his process. Actually he worka the same way I do for the most part. The only difference is that I am using the polygonal lasso tool to cut and build my piece where he took a cue from old school animators. Instead of piecing it together, why not build the image like an animation cell. One layer is all the paint, one layer is the line. Simple and fast.

I tried doing that with this piece and it turned out quite successful I think. It's just funny that I never thought of making pieces in this way sooner. I saved atleast an hour or two on the piece putting it together this way.

Detail

Fresh Sounds of Fall

2010-10-27T17:00:00.004-04:00

My good friend Evan Weiss, who plays in the band Into It Over It, has been putting out a slue of 7 inch split album records these past couple months. I told him that they were like pokemon, and I was trying to catch them all. The 6th one comes out on No Sleep Records with another long time friend of mine Koji. So I am really excited to pick that up. Also the new Aficionado record is amazing that also came out on No Sleep Records....

Anyway, the image above is my next mailer image. Its about all of the amazing records I've been purchasing lately or the "Fresh sounds of fall" as you will. After making this image it reminded me alittle bit of my friend Katie Turner's work. I don't know why, but it might be due to the rawness of materials.

Easy to Say, Oceans Away

2010-10-18T12:36:00.002-04:00

I often don't like to do work that is a little to literal. Once in a while though, you do get a job that comes along where the piece is more about making a great image than a conceptual heavy image. This is a UK tour poster for the bands I Call Fives and Maycomb.

Confitte Wallet: Save it for a rainy day

2010-10-12T10:37:00.012-04:00

Last May/June, I was lucky enough to work with the awesome brothers that run Confitte, based out of Buenos Aires, Agentina. Their mission statement says "We are a young design label, which seeks to merge in their products that we believe are important values such as innovation, quality, art and respect for the environment."

The assignment was simple or so it seemed. The art direction was, do whatever you want, as long as it has something to do with nature, and hand lettering that had a message dealing with money. I struggled for days until I finally came up with a solution that best served for the product. Something I always strived for, was to take the spontaneity/experimentation of my sketch books and then in turn apply it to my illustration work. Working as a conceptual illustrator tends to be less liberating at times when trying to make new, bold artistic choices and take liberties in new directions without straying to far from what a client would expect from you.

I am confident that I was able to break new ground with my work from this assignment and created new opportunities in which my illustration work could exist, outside of the magazine pages, and merch tables at punk rock shows. I am extremely excited, held my breath for many months until the product went live until showing off this true labor of love.

Fun fact about this project: I work digitally doing my illustration work, but for this project I hand painted the whole thing in Acrylic. I don't see much of a difference between this and my regular work do you?

You can purchase my wallet, or some of the other finely illustrated wallets here: Tuenda Linda web store

TIENDA PALACIO

POSITIVO

Malba Musuem Shop

More to come sooooooon

2010-10-11T02:35:00.002-04:00

Hey Everyone,

I know it's been a while since I updated my website and such. I usually try to update it every month or every other month, but it's been 4 months! That book I've been working on was huge project, that kept me behind, but I will be updating within the next two weeks.

Till then here is a little snippet of a personal piece I am doing, thats part of my thesis.

Thanks for stopping by.

Lack of motivation

2010-10-07T15:31:00.002-04:00

For my thesis at SVA MFA Illustration I am creating a series of short stories, and making a single conceptual image for each. When I say short I mean 500-2000 words short. Anyway, here is a set pieces about my sisters lack of motivation. Out of the 25 sketches I sent my advisor, I really liked four of the sketches and went straight to finish. After discussing the pieces my advisor, we came to agree that they aren't there yet in concept, though they are nice images in whole.

Between Kennedy and Dee Dee Street

2010-09-19T03:30:00.005-04:00

Since January of this year, I have written, edited, drawn, re-drawn, painted, re-painted, scanned, re-re-drawn, re-re-painted, a story for my book project class to be exhibited in the SVA MFA Illustration's Book Show. (click the link for more info)

My story is a young adult picture book. It's about a punk rock girl who hates her neighborhood, hates her family, hates New Jersey, and wants to see it all burn. When she finds a random record in her room, it leads her to meet someone who could give her power.... for a price.

Below is a 6 out of the 19 or 20 spreads I painted for the book. You can click any of the images to enlarge them.

DOUBLE RAINBOWS + BLACK CATS

2010-09-18T00:47:00.002-04:00

I was asked by the fine folk over at Faesthetic, to provide two images for their 13th art zine. The theme was luck, and the images had to be in limited color. Purple and Black. I did my best and proved to myself, that I need to get better at doing purely two colors. None the less the process was rewarding, and I made some interesting, somewhat experimental pieces out of it.

Conquering Bad Luck/Double Rainbow all the way!

Failing To Avoid Bad Luck/Its Everywhere!

The Only Place I Know

2010-09-12T19:57:00.002-04:00

Sometimes you make a personal piece that you can't let go of until it gets published somewhere. Thats sorta what happened with this CD cover I did for Citizen's split album with The Fragile Season. I did a piece based on an article I read in the Atlantic, called "My Life in Sales", which is about a travel sales men, who didn't like his job but couldnt see himself doing anything else.

Other than that, this is one of the first new pieces in the new painted style, that I am pretty proud of. The bands wanted an image that was about feeling misplaced in a small town, and separate.

I am pretty sure the pre-order is going up next week. Check out Citizen , and The Fragile Season.

New Tool

2010-09-12T13:36:00.003-04:00

I recently found out about Calligraphy pens. Now I am able to "rock out" in a more diverse way with my type!

Kick up the jams!

2010-09-08T01:00:00.001-04:00

Even though these last two weeks have been crazy busy, with the finalization of my long term summer project, I was able to finish a portrait of Adam Coralla, for The Stranger.

Coles Phillips, 1921 Life Magazine Cover

The inspiration for this piece comes out of my love for the graphic cut outs (or as poster artist call "The Fade Away") that Coles Phillips, was known for.

When Aaron contacted me to do the piece, he told me, the portrait was for a positive review of Adam Coralla's Stand up work. After doing some research I found out that Coralla is also a podcaster, who has one of the most downloaded podcast's on iTunes. After hearing all about that, and after looking at some photos, I couldn't stop thinking of Adam Coralla being a south Philly lounge singer from the 1950's. Blue suit and all. After submitting sketches, Aaron pretty much felt the same way.

Another big thanks to Aaron for contacting me for another awesome job! This image should be in todays The Stranger (seattle, wa).

Detail

For my friends in their senior year in Undergrad...

2010-09-01T21:21:00.002-04:00

WORK! DONT STOP.

While on facebook, I saw a few status updates along the lines of "Senior year, the beginning of the end" or "School starts tomorrow, you don't know what that means!" For me, I do know what that means. I am along with everyone all over again as I start my second year in my MFA courses at School of Visual Arts.

I've learned several things after leaving undergrad, doing work for clients and so forth. By all means, I am not trying to say that I know more than someone whos been in the trenches for 10+ years. What I've found is that if you really want to be an illustrator, you have to really want it. I mean REALLY want it. This summer, I took on a full time job to supplement my income while I keep pushing, and I can see how easy it is to give up. Working strange hours to make a deadline and then feeling dead when you are working a day job the next day. The thing I am saying is, dont give up, just make more work everyday and dont stop. I am getting to a point now, where I never want to work a day job again in my life. I just want to make conceptual pictures for publication and galleries.

One last thing, if you love drawing and painting one way, dont sell out doing something you don't like to be "marketable". There are so many people out there that need illustrators and so many variations of jobs out there, that everyone can get work.

So for your senior year, make work that you would want to see used out in the world. Make it with passion, craft it with love, and turn out only the best. Art is work, Dont stop making it.

Special Delivery

2010-08-30T21:58:00.004-04:00

If you haven't seen the animated web banner I did recently for Capital New York, you should go check it out.

I was asked by Art Director, Tom McGeveran, to produce a web banner that illustrates Obama getting an advance copy of Jonathan Franzen's new book, while going on vacation. The image is a play off of the book cover itself. Obama getting the book from the very bird on the cover. For the final I gave him a still version and I bit the bullet and sent over an animated gif version to see what he thought and he went for it!!!

In the end, I learned a good bit about doing web banners. What to do, what not to do. I actually drew Obama full scale for how this image was originally supposed to be drawn.

Big thanks to Tom for contacting me to do this awesome piece.

Woah 3D!!! - Paradigm Gallery (Philadelphia, PA)

2010-08-21T14:56:00.004-04:00

On August 27th I will be part of a group show called WOAH 3D!! at The Paradigm Gallery, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

The only stipulations to be part of the show was that it had to be Stereoscopic. Reason being is, when you show up to the gallery, you are given 3D glasses, and your mind begins to explode!

Hope you can make it to the show!

detail of the 3D effect

Poker Face(s) Overlayed

2010-08-18T08:07:00.001-04:00

Last week, I got an email from the awesome Aaron Huffman, out at Seattle's, The Stranger. I was supposed to illustrate a different article, but when an article about Lady Gaga came up, he had me switch gears. I have no idea what the article is about, but he told me that it was about the different personalities that Lady Gaga has developed. He had an idea of what the final image should look like but I sent a sketch to him and said that this would be the better approach and he went for it!

Thanks again Aaron for working with me with this super fun assignment. I can't wait to do another one.

click to enlarger

Style Upgrade/Young Adult Book Preview Page

2010-08-06T21:30:00.003-04:00

click images to enlarge

After having lots of awesome portfolio reviews with great criticism, from illustrators, Art Directors/Creative Directors, teachers, and friends, I decided to take on the next step in my career and ask some hard questions. How does my work differ from others in the market place? Where do I want to see my work in 1 year, 5 years, ect? How can I get there? What are my strengths and weakness'? Sounds like "Once in a lifetime" by the Talking Heads.

After much debate, I decided that I needed to change the way I made images. After 8 months of playing around with traditional materials, I figured out how to do what I already do, but enhance it in a way that has the look and feel of a painting/linocut/silkscreen. The result turns my hard edge images into softer organic images, more in step with many of my influences.

Along with taking some steps outside of my comfort zone, I took on another challenge. Writing, and illustrating a narrative young adult book for my SVA MFA Illustration class for Marshall Arisman and Carl Nicholas Titolo . I am not going to talk about the story line or show more images just yet, but the image here is the last page in the book. All I will say is, the book is about punk rock, New Jersey, Anarchy, apathy and......acceptance.

Look for a new portfolio of works in September. A few clients I proposed this style went with it, so why not you? (I'll show their works soooooon)

Sketchbook

2010-08-01T07:36:00.004-04:00

on my flight to Los Angeles! Smooth riding.

On the (M) train going home, I drew this.

POST: ICON 6 | LA & Illustration + Animation

2010-07-23T18:57:00.006-04:00

What can I say! It was really great getting off the east coast and checking out what I am missing on the sunny side of the country, where palm trees exist. It was my first time flying anywhere, and I have to say that I had alot of fun flying. The thought of being 30,000 ft in the air going at a constant 500+ miles per hour is alittle frightening but when you look out the window, it seems like your going 20 miles per hour. Flying is, and will forever be a surreal thing to me.

I had a chance to hang out around Union Square in LA, which is much different than Union Square here in New York City. Less people, and more character. It took me 3 hours to get from LAX to the Mission subway stop in Pasadena, and then another 45 minutes to walk to the hotel. I know now that I need to rent a car next time I go to Los Angeles. The conference over all was well worth it. Less show and tell and More insightful and educational stuff this year about illustration from the past, present and the controversial future when it comes to digital devices for illustrators.

Thomas James at Escape from illustration island is doing a great job covering and discussing the animation issue. If you've been following my blog, you will know that I am a futurist and am in full support of illustrators also being Animators. Its the same issue people struggled with when Milton Glaser called himself an "Illustrator + Designer". Graphic designers still don't recognize Milton as a designer. Its another tool that illustrators can use and venture into new creative waters. I don't think illustrators will pursue animation the same way traditionally trained animators would, but instead use low tech ways of making an illustration+Animation as a product to sell. In September I will be showing my book I've been working on for 6 months and will have a E-Book version of it in January (maybe sooner). All in all, It doesn't matter the medium. If illustrators are telling stories, it doesn't matter if it's a still image or an animated one. Illustrators will continue to find and fill the need to tell stories and draw portraits of people.

Some of the more memorable moments of the conference was Wayne White southern comfort of a presentation, John Hendrix dressing up as John Brown (below), Craig Yoe clearing the room of all the BYU students by claiming comics is what took him away from being a minister, and best of all just hanging out with new illustrator friends, old friends, and internet friends now real friends.

Big thanks to Alyssa Deville and Chloe Yingst for hooking me up with places to stay while at ICON. I owe ya both.

Exercise in Style

2010-07-11T00:02:00.002-04:00

I believe that once in a while you have to pull out a piece of reference and go through a line of styles. It's healthy I think to have alittle bit of fun and get out of your comfort zone alittle bit and try everything from what you do to the most abstract ways to describe a form like a Charles Harper illustration.

On a side note I will be unavailable for new work from the 14th through the 18th, since I will be at ICON 6 in Los Angeles, CA. (Yeah Brawh!) I already have a few projects on the stove till the end of August, but I am not adverse to take new work if the deadlines are quick.

Also in early september I am updating my website with 99% new work. The portfolio you see wont be there, and possibly in a new format. I may change the typography on the website as well but thats something I will think about.

If your at ICON this coming week, come around and say HELLO! Also, a big thanks to Alyssa Deville for letting me stay at her place during the conference.

inspiration of the month

2010-06-22T21:32:00.003-04:00

Needlecraft magazine illustrations from the 1930's

Recap of the Made in America Show

2010-06-20T19:42:00.002-04:00

Made In America from Ian Mosley-Duffy on Vimeo.

The show is down, but a video is here to recap the works at the opening. If you want to purchase a piece I had in the show, please shoot me an email.

Who Shares Wins

2010-06-14T22:18:00.000-04:00

Website Design For Artist

2010-06-14T09:24:00.003-04:00

Other than print design for posters, t-shirts, and record packaging, I have been doing alittle bit of web design. I am still fairly novice to it all, and don't really feel like I could code a clients website that isn't an artist just yet. When I pick up some more knowledge on php, My Sql, and a better understanding of javascript, I might be more open to doing web design, more openly. Here are two examples of web sites I coded and designed in collaboration with the artist.

Wes Benson

Sean Talamini

Hype + Bikes

2010-06-10T21:26:00.001-04:00

Beam me up, Soupy!

2010-06-08T16:29:00.005-04:00

I love working with The Wonder Years. Those guys know what they want, but still leave room for creativity. I got an email from Dan "Soupy" Campbell, while him and the band was on tour in the UK. Soupy asked me if I could put the Philly Skyline in a circle, throw their name around it and do something on the outside. With this shirt I used a design solution to solve their visual problem than an illustration solution. I've really been loving those drawn out old school rays lately.

This Shirt will be out while they are on tour this summer (I assume in the states.)

This Friday

2010-06-02T14:10:00.008-04:00

Photo from phrequency

I was graciously asked by my good friend Brad Haubrich to be part of a group show at the newly renamed TRUST gallery, located at 204 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA. The show consists of a lot of fresh talent, a couple Ohgers, and a few pretty established folk (Jude Buffum, Mark Price, and Nose Go to name a few).
The theme of the show was "America". I was told it could be about anything about America, and that it was pretty loose to how I could interpret it. I struggled with this because I didn't want to make something serious, political or economical. I had so many ideas that were political/economical, but wanted to keep it laid back.

I apologize for the bad photograph. I was in a rush from Manhattan to Philadelphia yesterday and didn't light these right. I wanted to get into hand painted lettering, and did so referencing sayings that are common in America. I lettered these in a way that was inspired by folk art and old signage which I think it pretty cool.

The piece above is 18"x24". I struggled for a while trying to come up with what image would work. The best thing I could think of was to paint an image representing the pursuit of happiness. What can be better than a guy restringing his guitar with rays of the sun?
If you want to come out and see these pieces in person, purchase one of these pieces, or see all the other works at the show...

Trust Gallery - June 4th @ 6pm
204 Arch Street, Philadelphia, PA.
Email for inq. - made.in.america.show@gmail.com

Made in America

2010-05-30T01:52:00.004-04:00

I am going to be part of a huge group show at the TRUST Gallery (formerly the Fuel Gallery, that was also formerly the MTV Philadelphia Real World house), with artwork that is about AMERICA!

If you are in Philadelphia on Friday June 4th, come down to 249 Arch Street, and see some really awesome work. I wanna thank Brad Haubrich for inviting me in to group show.

I will reveal what I am up to later this week for the show.

Sprung a leak

2010-05-26T07:45:00.002-04:00

Content Leak

Even with alot of great features, it still seems that people are refusing to e-readers. I think it particually has to do with the physical nature of a book. You can hold it, you can turn a page, make notes on it, ect. It's nostaglic, and even iconic. With the internet though, it gives more and more of a chance for fine pieces of literature to be stolen through internet piracy.

I wonder if their are any safe guards to how books are bought and placed on to these e-readers, or if they are as freely transfered as music is on the world wide web?

...your kind of type

2010-05-23T09:47:00.000-04:00

Lately my sketchbook has been more hand lettered and patterned than drawing from life. Though I don't regret that at all, I have been busy with my book, personal projects and a few projects at bay that I havent had a whole lot of time to devote to life drawing. I'll change that in the next week or so but till then here are a few of my favorite pages.

Click the images to enlarge them.

Tired? Join the club.

2010-05-12T15:02:00.000-04:00

A bunch of other fine illustrators and I were joking on twitter about how tired we were late at night and how we should "join the club". Well, we did.....We formed the club.

Check out that blog for more informal postings. Still blogging here.

Out There

2010-05-11T19:24:00.000-04:00

This is a fragment of an unfinished illustration I stopped working on. The piece wasn't working so I started with a fresh idea. It still looks beautiful and has weight conceptually even thought it's not what I would call a "finished" piece of art.

Connect/Reconnect (Diversify your Connections)

2010-05-10T22:00:00.000-04:00

I often think about a few of my friends who are pretty baller in the business and try to articulate how they got successful. More often then not it usually comes down to...

1. Working hard/producing a lot/120%/Go the extra mile/Unique personal work
2. Lots of Promotion/Being seen at events
3. Being really nice to everyone
4. Supporting others in the business, especially those young and just getting out of school

but most of all...

5. Diversify those you are around with.

So why should illustrators hang out with graphic designers/web designers/animators/and other creative types? Well, other than venting over the usual "freelance" drab, we can talk about what excites YOU about what you LOVE TO DO, how we can HELP EACH OTHER, and how we can flux with the ever changing market. So what do I want to do?

I am calling you all creative folk. I don't care if you build lego houses in the Hamptons, do graphic design for wine bottles, Mix DJ tracks for skateboarders to rip up the ramps, paint hand lettered signs, or even consider yourself a champion pumpkin carver (yes I've met one). I want to talk to YOU!

If your in the NYC Metro area on a WEEKEND, and you want to hang out and digress email me: mail(at)o-fishel.com

Like the song by 7 seconds: Walk Together Rock Together.

Getting Positive

2010-05-03T20:41:00.000-04:00

One dorky thing I have on my studio wall, is a list of 20 Art Directors names that I really want to work for, and 10 of which I want to get my work in front of and work with this year. I was completely caught off guard when one of those A.D. off my top 10, called me on the phone. Who called? Catherine Gontarek from the Pennsylvania Gazette.

The article that she asked me to illustrate was about a unique masters program at U Penn, called Positive Psychology. The idea of the program was to learn about various philosophical texts that talk about what "the good life" was, and how to engage others into more positive thinking that would lead to living a better life. I am posting half the sketches I sent to Cathy. Most of the time I send three or four, but I felt the need to really hash this out and work with her on the article. She liked the idea of the women on a bicycle and the metaphor of using tools to bring upon happiness, so I went with that.

Originally, I had a pony tail on the lady, but Cathy thought she looked alittle man"ish". So I made up the hair photoshoped it into the painting.

Thanks again Catherine, for working with me! Hope to to work on another assignment for you soon. If your interested in reading the article Click Here

So What

2010-05-02T12:56:00.000-04:00

Grand Central Station

2010-05-01T19:12:00.000-04:00

Click on any image to enlarge it

In 2008, I was very lucky to scrap together enough money to stay in New York City for an entire week for the ICON5 illustration conference. I stayed at a hostile on the upper west side for $30 a night, while my peers stayed at the Roosevelt hotel at a discounted price of close to $200 a night. Everyday I would take the number 1 train to 42nd street, and took a shuttle to Grand Central Station.

Every time I would show up to the station, I would see different bits of detail, and ornamentation from past that would bring new life and appreciation of what is being done today.

For the last fifteen weeks, I took the time to do some drawings of this awesome station, doing a drawing or painting once a week. These are just some of the few pieces that I really enjoyed and I wanted to share. I tried to focus on understanding how to create a short hand for expressing how something looks without going to head strong into the detail.

Blood, Sweat and Silk Screen Ink

2010-04-26T21:07:00.000-04:00

So yesterday I finished screen printing the 12"x12", 3 color, Balance and Composure / Tigers Jaw posters, to only be sold through the pre-orders via no sleep records.

I am not going to lie. I hurt so bad printing alittle over 100 of these bad boys. I havent printed in almost a year, so my arms kept failing on me. Alas, they are done, and I am pretty proud of the final product and glad to see it go to finish.

A big thanks to my friend Barb, down at NYU who helped me out printing these things. She is the one holding the print in the classic "heres the print" pose.

You should go to the Ely

2010-04-17T18:11:00.000-04:00

clean studio set up at SVA MFA

It has been almost a year since I graduated from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and alot of my friends there are now seniors. As I scroll through my facebook and twitter feed, alot of them are getting really excited for the departments big event. The William H. Ely Exhibit!

The exhibition is of 4 pieces of art, per student, in a series for a specific target market. This is the first time students had to research a market head first, and make a series of works for their "dream client". Everything from posters for the Philadelphia Zoo, Editorial illustrations, interactive book jackets, and so on were made.

If your an Art Director in or just happened to be be in Philadelphia, you should go to this event at Hamilton Hall on the Corner of Broad and Pine street, Center City. I sadly, will not be attending. I had planned on going but grad school/pro-illo work has been kicking at my heels, keeping me from going down to the City of Brotherly Love.

So Please, Go support the future of illustration tomorrow from 3pm-5pm.

Energized

2010-04-14T08:50:00.000-04:00

I had the pleasure of working with Jamie Leary over at GRID Magazine a few weeks ago. This time, he needed me to do a quick turn around. He said I could go straight to finish and could do whatever I wanted but I supplied sketches anyway. Sketches the next day, the final the following morning.

You can read the article for free online, over on their website. The illustration is about the writter, who wanted to build his very own solar powered home, but ended up building a passive solar powered home. The difference you ask? Active=Powers your home, Passive=Just heats your home. I liked the juxtaposition of a house in a flower. Both gaining something from the sun.

Thanks Again Jamie!

Thanks to Everyone who Purchased the TIGERS JAW record

2010-04-08T20:46:00.000-04:00

All 30+records sold out in a few days, and if you didn't get a copy, sorry. Thanks again to Chuck from Tiny Engines Records for being an awesome dude, for giving me this project.

Going away to College

2010-04-02T20:46:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I sat down with my roommate Matt, and we got onto the subject of attending college in terms of Today versus Ten to Fifteen Years ago. One thing we both thought was interesting was how when we were in middle school, we were told it was ideal to go to college because honestly, what can you do with just a high school diploma? Fast forward today, when it comes to job hunting after college, it seems that a lot of places are looking for either “3-5 years experience” and/or a masters degree attached to your resume. Matt has been struggling to find a part time job anywhere really in New York City while he is attending school. Even to be someone who walks dogs needs a B.A. in something.

This isn’t an unusual kind of story. A few of my friends from my hometown, who got degrees to become teachers, accountants, and so on, that seem safe to get jobs with benefits, just aren’t as available as they were five to ten years ago due to the economy. I read the graphic novel “Breakfast Afternoon” by Andi Watson, which pretty much is the same thing. Two lovers get laid off, they are struggling to find work, the one goes back to school, finishes and then cant get a job because she doesn’t have experience or the next degree up from that to get one.

It just seems like people are getting the degrees that they need to achieve a better life, but no one is getting in the door.

Life Lessons as old as....trees

2010-03-16T20:45:00.000-04:00

acrylic on wood panel

Two things that I am strongly interested in are metaphor and hand lettering. I wanted to push my skills in both area's, by starting to create a series of hand lettered "Things to never forget/Life Lessons" on wood. I particularly wanted to push my skills beyond the punk rock scrawl/scratch lettering that I often do for record jackets/posters, and try pushing more ornamental, whimsical, diverse lettering.

This is the first in the series of painted typography I have done.

Balance+Composure//Tigers Jaw

2010-03-10T20:44:00.000-05:00

Heres another fine job I did for No Sleep Records. This is another design that will be used as a web advertisement, as well as a design that I will be screen printing. These 12"x12" Screen prints will be sold through the pre-orders for the split album release for the bands Balance and Composure and Tigers Jaw.

Update: Pre-order/buy it here:Click Here

Update II: Sold out! Thanks!

Edge Magazine Interview

2010-03-02T20:43:00.000-05:00

I just back from Philadelphia, visiting the old undergrad school talking up a storm and picked up a few copies of Edge Magazine. In this issue, I along with many others like Tim Durning, Joe Game, and former teachers Mark Tocchet, Jon Twingley, and Tim O'brien were mentioned in an article about why the illustration department at the University of the Arts pumps out great artist.

I was pretty flattered to do lend some of my input and was even more flattered to see a full pager of one of my illustrations!

I want to thank Mark Tocchet, the Chair of the illustration department at The University of the Arts, for recommending me as one of the folk to do the interview and I also want to thank Kevin Kauffman for doing the interview and including my illustration in the interview.

Here's a preview of something I am working on.....

Books Books Books

2010-02-23T20:43:00.000-05:00

My camera broke on thursday, and I still haven't got my new one in the mail yet. So I am sorry for the poor quality photo above.

I am working on illustrating a book that I wrote right now. I am not going to get to much into the story or anything, but it is my reasoning for the lack of massive amounts of new artwork. I am working on a thing or two right now outside of my book project, but I won't get into that until it's ready.

Spirit Desire

2010-02-16T20:42:00.000-05:00

I had the pleasure of working with Chuck from Tiny Engines Records on a really awesome project. Chuck asked me if I was interested in doing illustration and design for a limited edition run cover that would be screen printed for the last Tigers Jaw release, "Spirit Desire". I was happy to accept the job so I forwarded over some sketches. Out of the 5, they liked two of them.

When I create a sketch for a client, I don't want my brain to get in the way of my hand. In art school, they often told me I was lazy or I didn't show I care about the sketches and it made them feel like "Why should I care about this piece you COULD create, if you don't show it worked out?" This isn't true at all. I feel like if I get to caught up in the detail to early on, that I will loose steam as I go to the finish.

So I got an email back saying they like the one with the girl with the swirls but they like the guy with the smoke coming out of his neck. So I finished both. The guy with the spirit smoke coming out of his neck is going to be the 7" wrap around and the other illustration is going to be a poster that the band is going to sell on tour.

test

2010-02-14T13:28:00.001-05:00

test

First Post//Time Travel

2010-02-13T20:39:00.000-05:00

This is the first post on the new blog. If your feeling nostalgic, and want to look back on "the good" (relativity recent work), The Bad (a year and a half ago's work) and the ugly (so 2008), then check out my blog spot.

Engage