Known for his colorful paintings, most often depicting strong women, Dan's work spans a variety of genres including novels, comics and film. He has worked for clients such as Disney, Universal Studios, Saatchi & Saatchi, Scholastic Books, The Greenwich Workshop, Penguin Books, Random House, Tor books, UpperDeck, Wizards of the Coast, and DC Comics.
Dan has been the recipient of many awards, including the 2007 Jack Gaughan Award for Best Emerging Artist, the Chesley Award winner for Best Paperback Cover of 2007, and Gold and Silver Medals from Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art. His illustrations have graced the #1 spot on the New York Times Best Seller list numerous times.
Aside from freelance illustration, Dan also enjoys teaching. He has lectured all over the country at various workshops, and is the founder of Muddy Colors. He currently resides in Greensboro, NC where he lives with his Wife and two sons.
Matania at work. Short video http://www.britishpathe.com/video/fortunino-matania
Holy Crap! This guy is really good. I myself draw with little or no reference but Matania is from another planet. Thanks for sharing this Dan.
Did I read this correctly? He REMEMBERS what everything looks like and uses no ref whatsoever? *hangs head*
Not to detract from Matania's ability, which is beyond ample, but he is not the first artist to make the claim of painting purely from imagination and unfortunately he will not be the last. In my career, I have met many artists and they can usually be classified into 2 categories: those who enjoy sharing and teaching their methods, and those who wish to keep their working habits secret. My assumption for the latter is the artist can either be insecure, or to build a mysterious persona amongst his audience in order to feed an insatiable ego or to assist in the sale of their work. Below is a link to an extremely well written illustration blog which I highly recommend to anyone, if you aren't reading it already. This particular entry deals with a couple very well known artists to have made this claim.
http://illustrationart.blogspot.com/2013/06/making-peace-with-machine.html
Well if he does “remember what everything looks like and uses no ref” this isnt smth to look up to. Nor is it a skill that we should aim to obtain. This guy's brain just work on other frequencies. It is smth you are born with not smth you learn. Yes it is rare and yes it does help a lot. Yet it is not what makes this drawing so awesome. What does make it great are his drawing skills, his sense of motion, composition and so on. And these are all things we can learn, and things we have to work for- that is what he's worth being respected for.
Thanks for the link!
He's very clearly using a model as reference in the video, even if not for the horse (which he had likely drawn many of before). So I tend to think the article is a bit misleading. If he didn't need reference for this image, I would assume it to be very familiar subject matter, which is proven by his body of work. ..Not to discredit his talent, it's truly amazing, and I truly admire the confident persona he exhibits while drawing.
I think there's something to be said about learning to rely on one's visual memory and imagination. So many artists are handicapped by the necessity of direct reference. It seems the imagination requires exercise just as any other skill. Once mastered, if you can dream it you can draw it.
I totally agree with your statement. But, I really do think Matania is one of the few who could do this.
I've met a few others.
Does that means he NEVER used reference in his career… doubtful.
But I'm certain he's done more than enough straight from his imagination. He was too prolific, and much too fast to be dependent on reference.
The way Matania revised the rider's leg, from drawing to painting, makes me think he did this one as he claims.
Why can't you be bothered to write 'something' yet spell and don't abbreviate all of the other words?
Why can't you be bothered to write 'something' yet spell and don't abbreviate all of the other words?