I had the priveledge to be included in Jonathan Woodward’s 12 week challenge for illustrators.  As part of week four he presented an ‘inspirational’ interview with myself.  Mostly about my views on working as an illustrator and what has worked for me.

Check it out:

http://zero2illo.com/2010/04/12-week-challenge-inspiration-an-interview-with-daniel-swartz/

Hey all!  Now out in Barnes & Noble and Borders Bookstores, the newest Bookmarks magazine!  This cover was a fun experimentation with texture and a different color pallette.  The style is a lightened version of my Digital Books piece.

 Go pick up a copy today!  Get great art and great book reviews all at the same time!

You can also check out the publisher’s site at: www.bookmarksmagazine.com

Daniel

I was recently informed that I was accepted into this years Society of Illustrators West show! (48)  They selected my Digital Books piece which can be seen here.

It is really exciting to be in this show two years in a row!  It’s also great feedback as this piece was a big risk and stretched me a lot in the way I use design.

Keep Drawing!

Daniel 

2009 was fantastic year full of great projects for a wide array of clients.  I can’t let you in on everything but next Christmas, look on the shelves of a major retailer for some really great pre-school oriented art!

 Thanks again to all the clients, fans, friends, and family that made this last year possible.  And most of all - thank God for the incredible ways He is using me…last year was beyond my wildest dreams!

 Keep drawing!

Daniel

Just in time for the holiday season I am making available a set of illustrations available for purchase as prints and posters.   I have had enough people request prints that I felt it was time to set up a way for people to have my art at an affordable price.

I am using CafePress for this for two reasons: it’s a commonly used system so hopefully more people are familiar with their interface.  Second, they aren’t extremely expensive prints so more people can afford them.

 I hope you find one you like to give as a gift or have as your own.  If there are illustrations that you would like considered to become a print, feel free to drop me a line!  If enough people request one I’ll add it to the store.

Have a very merry Christmas!

Daniel

I’m excited to announce a fantastic new client: Bookmarks Magazine.  It is a book-review magazine that comes out bi-monthly and is available in Barnes & Noble and Borders across the U.S.

 This was a really challenging piece for me as I worked to push a more ‘handmade’ quality yet still create everything in vector so that it is resizable.  Also daunting was the cast of characters.  There are about 25 full characters and then a smattering of 1/2 characters.  Just trying to make that many people unique yet consistent in the same composition was a huge challenge.  The original underdrawing took nearly 8 hours. (I admit I had to do it twice because I’m a perfectionist.

The best part of all was that Bookmarks previous to this piece had only used stock illustration!  It was a big risk on their part to begin working with an illustrator to step out of their comfort zone but they were ecstatic about the results!  They were great to work with and I look forward to doing future pieces for them.

You can see the piece here.

I am very fortunate to have a new interview with myself has has been posted on VectorTuts.com!  They are part of the Envato network and provide a wide range of digital art tutorials and inspiration for many of the popular software suites, e.g. Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.

It was a lot of fun to do.  A lot of advice that I wish I would have understood when I was a younger illustrator and I tried to give an idea of what my process is like.

http://vector.tutsplus.com/articles/interviews/interview-with-daniel-swartz/

Check it out and all the other great resources there!

If you want to read more you can always see my ‘About Me’ page here.

Dan

I’m happy to announce that all of the Explore books, created for the Spiritual Formation Department of the Wesleyan Church, are finally out!  The books are meant to be used in children’s programming for 4-6th graders and they teach the basics of Christianity, very cool stuff.

This project was great to work on and the people were amazing.  I’m happiest with the interiors, of which you can see some here, here, here, and of course here.

Available for purchase from Wesleyan Publishing House.