June 2012
2 posts
5 tags
Social Media's cool, E-Dating is not - LA Times
I had the pleasure of working with Wes at the LA Times again, but this time it was for a section of the newspaper called ‘LA Affairs’. The article I was given to work on was about a millennial/hipster who is down with being wired into her smart phone/twitter/instagram/you name it but can’t get down with online dating.
Her reasoning is that everyone posts pictures of...
6 tags
Riding Bikes. Driving Cars. - Honolulu Magazine
Here’s my latest piece for Honolulu Magazine’s “Afterthoughts section”. This month, I illustrated an article about Mikes personal dilemma. On one hand he is a huge supporter of riding his bike every where in the city, but as he get’s older he starts to see the benefits of owning a car. He can drive his friends everywhere, and make grocery shopping much easier too....
May 2012
1 post
Fade to Black: VOL 1
I made a zine of some of my favorite works that would translate well in black and white. After sending a couple out to a few art directors and some friends, I got a lot of positive feedback. Soooo I thought I would make more zines to sell online for cheap…..
2 tags
Lack of Police Presence - Honolulu Magazine
For May, I was asked to illustrate an opinion-driven piece for Honolulu Magazine’s “Afterthoughts.”
The article described the lack of police presence in Honolulu’s up and coming China Town. The authors used Otto of Otto’s Cakes (a famous local cake shop) to show how drug dealers are threatening local merchants to move out of the neighborhood.
Otto attempted to...
April 2012
4 posts
Davids Discovery
I was approached a few months ago by a non-profit to create sample images for a children’s book. The director of the non-profit believed that my work would bring a more mature look to a children’s book, making it less traditional.
I do not see myself as an illustrator for children’s book, but am open to trying something new. Sadly, I was not chosen but I love the images I...
Stairway to Heaven - Honolulu Magazine
This month I was generously given some breath-taking photographs to use as reference for a column I illustrate for Honolulu Magazine, “After thoughts”. The story is about a trail called “the Stairway to Heaven” which consists of 3,922 metal stairs bolted to the side of lush mountains that stretch miles.
Unfortunately, the Hawaiian government has banned walking on the the...
1 tag
Alumni Stories - Notre Dame Magazine
Recently I had the pleasure of working with Kerry at Notre Dame magazine. The series consisted of shot stories written by alumni. This a dream job for me because I believe that my work fits well with a lot of content, but short stories go the extra mile in terms of visuals. The above image is for a story about how distance is created in a friendship due Facebook’s false representations of...
March 2012
5 posts
50 Shades of Grey - Boston Globe
I am very pleased to share a cover that I did for the Boston Globe’s “G Style”. I’ve been wanting to do one of their “G” covers for a while after I saw illustrators like Kali Ciesemier, Tim Goodman and Martin Gee’s beautiful covers for the publication.
Anyways, I’m really lucky to work with Catherine again on this cover, who is really great to...
It's harder to talk about Race with Obama in...
Talking about racial ethnicity has always been a funny topic for me. Mostly because when I tell people that I am Ethiopian, I usually get rattled off of a long list of ethnicities they thought I was (Latino being the usual first assumption.) As fun as it is to play twenty questions every once in a while, it was interesting for me to be assigned an article for the Washington Post about how...
1 tag
What you get for buying cheap bank stock -...
I had the pleasure of working with Phil on a piece for the Bloomberg View. The article is about how buying bank stock may still be cheap but that there are all sorts of problems that come along with it.
On Sale Gold bicycle = Bank Stocks.
Click here to view the image larger…
Read the article here…
Daylight Savings
Don’t forget to turn your clocks ahead one hour. Summer is getting closer and closer.
1 tag
Quonset huts - Honolulu Magazine
I hope everyone had a great leap day!
Here is the latest piece I completed for my monthly “After Thoughts” section in Honolulu Magazine. Mike wrote a story in this month’s issue that tells of his love for the old Quonset huts that are native in Hawaii. After much research I discovered that Quonset huts were used in the late 1800’s/early 1900’s when military was set...
February 2012
6 posts
2 tags
Reminiscing - The Globe & Mail
I had the pleasure of working with Cinders at the Globe & Mail for a piece in their “Facts and Arguments” section. She assigned a narrative story about a man reminiscing about his childhood in Port Credit, Ontario while with his wife, two year old son and dog. The overall art direction was to show the family walking around their neighborhood into which, it is alluded, they could...
2 tags
Hitting the Mark - Paradigm Gallery
Hitting the mark - 9”x12” Acrylic and ink on paper mounted to board You can purchase my piece online here
I was asked to be a part of a group show at paradigm gallery, where the theme was having a lack of confidence in terms of creating artwork or having lots of confidence. All in all the theme was loose enough so that every artist in the group show could make a really great piece...
1 tag
Too Many Whistle Blowers
I totally forgot to blog about this piece. I did work for Levi, the art director of Nexus magazine, who is associated with the University of Toronto law program.
The article focused on the incentives given to those who whistle blow on their companies and the influx of these clients to lawyers. So, now lawyers have to find new ways to sift through the poor information to find out who is really...
1 tag
Allison Weiss + Rachel Cantu go on tour
Allison Weiss hit me up to do a tour poster that also translated into an awesome website so you can check out Allison or Rachel anywhere on tour.
I did the illustration, Allison did the print/web design for this project.
My favorite part about working on this piece was playing around with and loosely translating stuff with painterly brush strokes so that the car would be more of a focal...
The Charters are coming...
I finally got a chance to work with Elizabeth at the Nashville Scene. She gave me a tricky article about whether or not charter schools were going to be good for the city of Nashville. She proposed the idea of a teacher writing out “The Charters Are Coming” over and over like she’s in detention and the students are monitoring her.
Like always, I try to thrown in my best...
January 2012
3 posts
Benefits of Good Sportsmanship
I had the chance to work with the lovely people at Southern Poverty Law. I was given the opportunity to do a piece for their magazine called “Teaching Tolerance”. The article they had me work on was about Sportsmanship in football. Specifically, how rivalry is totally fine except when it leads to poor sportsmanship, in which case it can be really hurtful. In the full page image that...
Confidence....Paradigm Gallery
A few weeks ago, I was kindly asked to take part in a group show with a stellar line of folks. If you don’t have anything to do this friday in Philadelphia, please swing by Paradigm Gallery to check it out.
I was able to take a few quick photos of the piece before getting it out the door. Here’s a preview of what the painting looks like.
1 tag
Seattle Met: Womens Health Annual
Happy New Year, Everyone! I received a wonderful phone call a week before Thanksgiving to work on a series of nine pieces for a special insert in the Seattle Met/Portland Monthly. I worked with André Mora at the Seattle Met on this huge project, and he is probably the most laid back, easy going, art director I have ever had the pleasure of working with.
Typically, I like to show my process in...
December 2011
7 posts
2 tags
Later 2011, Hello 2012!
“RELAX, the world isn’t going to end in 2012” - Honolulu Magazine
I have to say it, THIS YEAR HAS BEEN INCREDIBLE!
Most of it has to do with so many of the amazing illustrators I have befriended in real life and through twitter, Without your guy’s support and friendship, I wouldn’t know where I’d be. Huge thanks to the many art directors/musicians I have...
4 tags
I've got Allison Weiss' back!
If you help Allison Weiss break the $30K on her kick starter I will mail you this drawing a week from today. :)
1 tag
Arizona Iced Tea x Art Basel
A week before Thanksgiving I received a call to collaborate with Arizona Iced Tea. They asked me to do a window display mural for one of their PR events at Ricochet Lounge during Art Basel in Miami, FL. They loved my personal work and wanted me to do whatever I wanted to do as long as I put Arizona Iced Tea somewhere in the image.
The window display is loosely based off of one of the pieces I...
1 tag
Collaborate
This is an image I made for a poster that switched gears last minute. I wanted to trim it down a bit and show it on my blog because I really like it. The image is about the collaboration between two musicians. Hence, the connected guitar neck. Cool right?
2 tags
Valencia posters - part 2 of 2
This is the last of two posters I worked on for the band Valencia. This poster originally was going to be for a show they were playing in New York but decided to cancel that show and have two posters for their Philadelphia show.
1 tag
Paint it Pink.
Here’s some new artwork for Decembers afterthoughts section in Honolulu Magazine. For the past few months I’ve been illustrating the afterthoughts section with Cody (the AD), which is geared towards thoughts/concerns/ruminations about living in Honolulu. This months article is about how beige and/or desaturated Honolulu’s buildings have become in the past fifteen to twenty...
November 2011
8 posts
Icelandic Sandwich - Nylon Guys Magazine
Sometimes it’s good to get hired to just draw something and not think too much about what it means ya know? I don’t think I can do it all the time but when food is involved I’m always down! Props to art director, Chris Segedy.
Want either of these canvas prints?
As of 10:47 am, I am giving away both of these 24” x 37” canvas prints that I picked up from the Lands End Canvas PR thing I did. If you live in the 5 boros of New York City, shoot me an email and set up a time today or over the weekend/next week to pick them up. : daniel(at)o-fishel.com
...
False Memory - Arris Lofts Gallery
“About Last Night” - 9”x12” Acrylic and ink on paper mounted to board
I am going to be in a group show at the Arris Lofts, in Long Island City (Queens), NY this friday in a show called FALSE MEMORY. In this piece, I wanted to re-explore and flesh out an idea that I painted originally for one of my Giant Robot post it paintings. Also, I wanted to play with implied shapes,...
Lands End
Lands End hosted a PR event here in New York City as a huge promotion for their new spring line of clothing called “Lands End Canvas”. The people at Lands End were super generous, and were probably the coolest people I have ever worked for. They even blew up some of our artwork to display.
Keith Negley , cecilia ruiz, John Malta, and myself painted whatever we wanted oon huge...
Danger in the Family
I had the pleasure recently to work with the talented Brandon Reese, who is not only the art director of Guide magazine (kids christian magazine), but is also an amazing illustrator. The brief I received was pretty straight forward. The piece is about a family that is going through a rough divorce but, the father is the one who is pretty poisonous in the grand scheme. He threatens to crash the...
1 tag
That moment....
…when you’re finishing up a piece and you realize that your going to lose a lot of detail in something that looks so cool.
1 tag
Conrad Black - Corporate Knights Magazine
Conrad Black is a former wall street CEO, who is imprisoned for corporate fraud. Recently, Corporate Knights Magazine asked Conrad to write an essay on how the Occupy Wall Street protesters could make a better, more legitimate stance to get what they are demanding. Co-Art Directors Jack and Pete contacted me to check on my availability to do a conceptual likeness portrait of Conrad Black.
I am...
The last of summer fun...
It’s November and I am still being reminded that it’s no longer summer. I was hired not too long ago to do a piece for American Lawyer. The illustration would accompany their summer associate survey (a fancy way of saying summer interns) for 2011. From what I was told in the past few years it was pretty gloomy for the interns as law firms weren’t really hiring as much, but from...
October 2011
7 posts
The Auction Project Catalog #1
“Secrets” - 20”x20” acrylic, ink, and conté on paper mounted to board
The Auction Project Catalog #1 launches at TOMORROWLAND 1368 North Miami Ave, Miami, Florida 33136
Sunday, November 6th, 8:00pm - 12:00am
This coming Sunday the piece above will be a part of an auction catalog. The catalog includes a variety of artist’s work that is representational,...
Old vs. New
I recently had the fine opportunity to work with Nicole over at the Improper Bostonian for an article about Old Luxury versus New Luxury. The article states that old luxury is seen more and more as these suite and tie formal places. New luxury places are seen as simplified/hip establishments that sell simple things that are made to look luxurious.
Putting a hot dog on a silver platter seemed...
Live painting for Lands End - NOV 9th
I’ll be live painting with John Malta, Keith Negley, and Cecilia Ruiz at the High Line Stages for Lands End spring line up show case. RSVP and you can come in to look at some new threads, have some snacks and even join us as we do a huge collaborative piece.
Redrawn
My friend Marcos wrote a blog post a while back saying that on occasion he will take jobs that he has done in the past and tweak them. He did not do this because he made mistakes but because it would help him become a better artist and create a better piece. I would much rather move forward, do a piece, learn from it and continue on to the next work of art.
Back in 2009, the second magazine...
Now Selling Prints on Society 6!
You can now purchase prints, canvas prints, ipod/iphone/ipad/laptop skins on my new Society 6 print store. They do really good high quality printing, and will ship everything to you as well. I will be adding more prints over time.
Ursinus Magazine
A few months ago I had the pleasure of working on a cover image with Kate, editor of Ursinus Magazine. It’s a magazine associated with the small college based out of Collegeville, PA.
When Kate approached me with the article for the cover I was pretty excited. Basically, the article deals with researchers better understanding between the brain, body and showing scientific evidence of the...
I love tear sheets!
Whether an art director offers, or I ask, it’s always cool getting printed copies in the mail for recent work I’ve done. I am familiar with the look and feel of most of the publications I promote to. So, when I get copies of publications that I normally don’t see on the news rack/already subscribe to, it’s always great to see the pairing of illustration collaborating with...
September 2011
11 posts
Valencia posters - part 1 of 2
I recently had the pleasure of working again with the Philadelphia based band, Valencia, only this time I worked on two show posters that are going to be silk screened. I am still waiting on the time and the venue in New York City before showing the second poster. So in the mean time I thought I would show the first.
Sadly, These show posters came to be because the band is breaking up. They...
After thoughts
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of working with Cody over at Honolulu Magazine. The piece I did was for a really short section called after thoughts. This article was about the stuff we find when we are moving. Specifically, the story was about Mike, a writter at Honolulu Magazine, moving from one cubical to another and the personal history he uncover from the past seven years.
In all of my...
Neighborly Disagreement
New Mailer Image (with process)
The Auto industry is in trouble - Used or New nothing is selling fast enough.
I was asked by a friend if I could post a little bit about the process and thoughts going into the piece so here we go. I wanted to create a piece about the current state of auto industry that I could relate to. I grew up in a small town and alot of times I would see the product of grown men’s frustration...
I'm giving a lecture!
Oh yeah! Things are about to get wild! I was asked to come in to UArts to talk about the basics of getting your start as an illustrator but I am pretty sure we will end up on tumblr looking at images of boston terriers for an hour instead. None the less I am glad to talk about the best ways to promote your work (post cards, emails, tweets) and some ways that I am still leery about that...
We aren't who we used to be/Cleaned up
Here’s a piece I’ve wanted to do for a little while.
What Hurricane?
This is an image for an image coming zine promotion that I am working on, that hopefully will be a quarterly zine that I put out. For my thesis project I focused on writing stories that reflected my adolescence. With this zine, I hope to reflect more on stories from the present. This image is about how I am snarky dismiss that hurricane irene would be doing any real damage in Queens, NY but also...