An Interview with Artist David Palumbo

David Palumbo is an award winning artist working largely in the field of fantasy and science fiction. His works have appeared in Magic: The Gathering, Heavy Metal Magazine. Marvel Comics, Lucasfilm, Upper Deck Entertainment, and Wizards of the Coast to name a few, as well as in fine art galleries in Philadelphia, New York, Chicago, London, and Paris. He hails from a family full of artists including his mother Julie Bell, his stepfather Boris Vallejo and his brother Anthony Palumbo.

What have you been up to since we spoke last (in 2013)? Are there any projects that stand out most in your mind as being most enjoyable and meaningful to you personally?

Hi, yes, it’s been quite a while! The biggest and most immediate project to come to mind since than was the 2020 Marvel Masterpieces trading card set. I was invited by Upper Deck and Marvel to make my own 135 piece card set in 2018 and spent the next two years focused on that. I grew up on Marvel comics and my mom worked on her own Marvel Masterpieces set in 1996, so besides the challenge of it I also found the project very personally meaningful. It really connected me with a lot of what brought me to drawing and making art in the first place.

Do you think being a nostalgic person has come in handy in your line of work as an artist?

I suppose nostalgia is such a big part of modern culture, it does not hurt to relate to those feelings. For me this is an ability to connect with and celebrate characters and stories that were important to me when I was growing up. But it’s also an appreciation for things past, be it classic illustration or analog methods and tools.

You have said your love of art from an early age was somewhat influenced by comics. What were some of your favorites and who were some of your first favorite artists?

Marvel was what I probably read the most, though I was also very taken with the early years of Image comics. But my favorite books that stand out in my mind were a little before my time, and that was 1970s Spiderman and X-Men. I would read from my dad’s collection and those were my favorites. First favorite artists were a bit more of my own time though: Jim Lee, Todd McFarlane, a lot of the original founders of Image. And a little bit later I came to find and appreciate artists like Frank Miller and Mike Mignolla who were stylizing in a different way from the typical super hero look.

You have mentioned that it is important to learn how light turns form. Do you think it would be fair to say that art in a way gives one the chance to play with light?

I think all representational visual art demands some understanding of light. Outside of painting, two huge interests of mine are photography and cinema, both of which have taught me a boat load about how light not only describes form but also creates mood and conveys emotion.

Do you still get antsy when you are away from art for more than a week?

I think less so, but I have found that when I’m out of my studio for too long it can be a struggle to get back into a flow. There have been a few times in the past decade where I was not painting for a long stretch and coming back always feels like there’s some big indistinct obstacle to navigate before things are really feeling natural again. I think of it like preheating the stove again or something.

How do you think you have evolved as an artist over time?

I find it hard to assess my own work, but on the inside I feel I’ve become more open to collaboration and feedback (in appropriate settings) and more concerned about my quality standards. I also continue to struggle with the balance of render and suggestion in how I handle paint. I look back on older pieces where I was occasionally more experimental with looseness and texture and want to explore that further now. I am attracted to energetic, abstracted, and painterly realism but I want to maintain precision in the process and that can be tricky to bring together.

As someone who has been a David Bowie fan from a young age do you still enjoy his work? Why do you think his work seems so timeless? Do you know if he ever was aware of the Italian Rolling Stone cover you did?

I’ll always be a Bowie fan, though I have to admit there are still quite a number of albums I’ve yet to listen to. I think something I really respect about him was his ability to follow his interests and explore new sounds while still maintaining his own voice throughout. I have to assume someone like him would not have seen every instance of a cover that featured him, but it’s nice to think maybe he did see mine.It’s a possibility anyhow!

As someone who enjoys painting figures the most, what do you find most fascinating about the human form in general?

I think figures and portraits are fascinating because we’re biologically wired to really see them deeply. The slightest changes in micro-expression or pose carry meaning. Bodies are full of so much complexity and subtlety which also relays a lot of information. I would extend this to other animals as well. Maybe studying this is a way of feeling connected with others.

What do you think of the modern ideal of beauty as it is? What do you think makes a person authentically beautiful?

I’m not sure what I’d say on the modern ideal of beauty. I do like that the traditional whiteness and thinness of it is being challenged. I don’t even know what makes a person beautiful to me though. Not in a simple explanation. Confidence and composure, warmth… and I suppose a sense of style doesn’t hurt.

What would you say is the best advice anyone ever gave you? Who was it?

I’m the type of person who freezes up when asked about “the best” this or that. But one good piece of advice that comes to my mind right now is from a woman who I met very briefly and don’t remember her name. She was decades older than me and had an excessively dramatic demeanor. She seemed like she had really lived a life. I mentioned that I was going on a trip with someone I’d only been dating a short while and she told me “be very careful, it’s easy to fall in love in beautiful places.” This was almost twenty years ago and I still think about it. I think it’s actually served me in all sorts of situations. How do you know when something is right? Is it real or am I being influenced by some fleeting and incidental factor?

What would you say is key to a life well lived?

I don’t know. Address the problems I guess. If something isn’t working, it needs to be identified and either confronted or made peace with. Maybe that goes your way and maybe it doesn’t but ignoring and suppressing only makes things worse. I do recognize though, sometimes being able to do this is a luxury.