Next up on Tor.com’s Best Professional Artist Hugo nominee profiles is…
Dan Dos Santos
Website
Tor.com Gallery
Instructional DVD (preview here)
“2008 was definitely a year of new beginnings for me. Not only did it bring the birth of my second child, but it also brought about many new artistic endeavors as well.
For the first time, I was commissioned to do work within the field of comic books and movies. These 2 genres hold great personal importance to me, and it has long been a goal of mine to try my hand at them. I was fortunate to be able to work on two different comic book titles, and 3 different major motion pictures, in addition my usual SF/F novel covers.
2008 also was the first time I had a cover hit the #1 spot on the New York Times Bestseller list [Patricia Briggs‘s Mercy Thompson series]. As an illustrator, the work itself is usually the most gratifying part of a job, but I have to admit… a little bit of public notoriety is pretty darn sweet. This particular achievement was also very important to me, since on more than one occasion I have lost commissions because marketing wanted to go with a “New York Times Bestselling” artist…which I was not.
A lot of great things happened in 2008, and one of my favorite parts had to be the creation of the Illustration Master Class. When you spend most of your time working at home, and your main motivation is a client’s deadline, it’s easy to lose sight of why you are doing this. Seeing seventy incredibly talented students working their hardest to succeed at illustration for no other reason than personal satisfaction was really inspiring. I think it reminded all of us (student and instructor alike) why we got into this field in the first place.
I can only hope that 2009 brings about as many wonderful opportunities and insights.”
Other 2008 Best Professional Artist Hugo nominee profiles:
Shaun Tan
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