Artist of the Day: David Palumbo

David Palumbo

LOCATION: Philadelphia, PA, USA
PRIMARY MEDIA: Oil on panel
EDUCATION: Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art [2000-2004, painting major, non-degree program]
MAJOR PROJECTS:
Aliens and Prometheus cover illustrations [Dark Horse Comics]
Illustrated edition of Salem’s Lot [Cemetery Dance]
Re-Cover [personal project painting new covers on old books]
WHAT IS THE MOST VALUABLE PIECE OF ARTISTIC ADVICE YOU HAVE EVER RECEIVED, AND FROM WHO?
This is a tough one, because I’ve been fortunate to be exposed to many accomplished painters and absorb a great deal of valuable advice over the years. Probably one of the most important that shaped my approach came from Burt Silverman who was describing his thought process on painting a portrait. I’m paraphrasing, but it was something along the lines of, “I try to make each new brush stroke the most important stroke for the overall piece, so that if I were to stop at any given time that piece would have a consistent level of finish.” At the time and for several years afterwards, I worked with the process of finishing area by area to a tight render. When I eventually started allowing myself to aim for a more painterly quality, I’ve kept Burt’s philosophy in mind as a strategy to breathe life into the work, and help in saying what’s needed and nothing more.
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