DANIEL FISHEL
Interview with the US artist

Daniel Fishel is a talented US artist.

More precisely, Daniel Fishel is an illustrator and a hand letterer/designer.
Living is New York, his work has been featured in countless medias and galleries. No, he is not related to Danielle Fishel.
More about the multi-talented artist Daniel Fishel.
Buy his artworks.

Winners And Losers painting by Daniel Fishel

Winners And Losers painting by Daniel Fishel

PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF
My name is Daniel Fishel and I am an illustrator/designer living in Queens, NY. After attending undergrad at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, I moved to New York to pursue a graduate studies degree at School of Visual Arts and a career in illustration. Clients I’ve work for include the Los Angeles Times, Nylon Guys Magazine and No Sleep Records. When I am not working I am usually biking around my neighborhood, listening to records, looking up youtube videos of Boston Terriers or occasionally answering emails by people who think I am “Danielle Fishel”. You know the actress that played Topanga in Boy Meets World.

Daniel Fishel draws an empty street beautifully

Daniel Fishel draws an empty street beautifully

HOW WOULD YOU DESCRIBE YOUR WORK?
The work that I create, I consider to be conceptual illustration. Not so much in the purest form where I am drawing puzzle pieces and rubix cubes all day for business magazines, but its more on an emotional level. Typically the work I create is about a character that is being confronted by another character or it’s interacting with something in the space. I use metaphor, color, the placement of the figures on the page and sometimes lighting to better tell the story being told.

Lifeguard Observations by Daniel Fishel

Lifeguard Observations by Daniel Fishel

PLEASE SHARE WITH US YOUR WORKING PROCESS
It doesn’t matter if the piece I am working on is for a magazine or for the gallery wall. Often times the process for me is the same. If I am working with a magazine, I am taking the content they provide and distilling the content into a sentence. From that sentence I try to take the subject matter and a personal frame of reference that I can bring into the piece. The same thing goes with a painting I would do for a gallery. Instead of taking the content from a magazine, I have to build my own conceptual narrative to build an image. The difference here though is for a gallery piece I am making a physical painting, where as for an illustration, I am compositing linework overtop of swatches of paint, lino block/silk screen textures, and ink washes in photoshop. The difference is six to eight hours for an illustration versus twenty to thirty hours for a painting. I guess it takes longer to make a painting for me because I am more conservative about how I lay down colors because theres no command + Z in real life.

Daniel Fishel artwork

Daniel Fishel artwork

HOW DOES YOUR ENVIRONMENT INFLUENCE YOUR ART?
Living in New York is some what of a wanderlust. I am constantly engaging with a large variety of people, eating lots of different foods, and hearing tons of different music from all over the world. It all adds to my visual vocabulary that I wouldn’t have if I had continued living in a small town in Pennsylvania.

Daniel Fishel drawing for Allison Weiss

Daniel Fishel drawing for Allison Weiss

WHO ARE YOUR INFLUENCES?
Cy Twombly, Raymond Pettibon, Mia Christopher, Cristy Road, Rene Magritte, Cuban Poster Art, 80’s/90’s Skate Decks, and hundreds of gig posters I’ve seen over the years.

ANY LAST WORD?
Unguard, I will let you try my Wu Tang Style.