David Burroughs Mattingly was born in Fort Collins, Colorado in 1956, and is the son of John W. Mattingly, the inventor of the "Water Pik." David began drawing and painting as a small child, influenced by comic books, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and a wide array of artists from Jim Steranko to N.C. Wyeth to Jackson Pollack. David attended the Colorado Institute of Art , Colorado State University, and later transferred to Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. After graduating, he worked at Walt Disney Studios, ultimately becoming head of the matte department. He worked on The Black Hole, Tron, Dick Tracy, Stephen King's The Stand and most recently I, Robot for Weta Digital in New Zealand.

While at Disney Studios, David began doing freelance art. His first published piece was the album cover for The Commodores’ Greatest Hits. His first sale of art for a book cover was for A Wizard in Bedlam, by Christopher Stasheff, published by DAW Books. In 1983, David moved to New York City, and a year later across the Hudson River to Hoboken, New Jersey.

David has produced over 500 covers for most major publishers of science fiction and fantasy, including Baen, Bantam, DAW, Del Rey, Dell, Marvel, Omni, Playboy, Signet, and Tor. For Scholastic Inc, David painted 54 covers for K.A. Applegate's Animorphs series, along with the last 5 covers for the Everworld series. He illustrated the popular Honor Harrington series for author David Weber. He painted the latest repackaging of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Pellucidar books for Ballantine Books. He is a two-time winner of Magazine and Booksellers Best Cover of the Year Award, and winner of the Association of Science Fiction Artists 1992 Chesley Award for Cover Illustration of a Magazine. Other clients include Michael Jackson, Lucasfilm, Universal Studios, Totco Oil, Galloob Toys, R/Greenberg Associates, Click 3X and Spontaneous Combustion.

After 20 years of traditional painting, David bought a computer ten years ago and has mainly worked digitally since then, preferring the powerful new tools it offers the artist. Most of his work today combines digital painting and elements generated in 3D programs.

David is married to Cathleen Cogswell, and they share their home with three cats, Annie, Jackson and Glinda.