David Cowles
You might be an artist when your choice in comic books is more about the creator than the characters. At least, that's true for David.
One of David's greatest influences: The Fab Four. “Whenever I need direction, creatively, I ask: What would The Beatles do?” he says.
“John Buscema was tops for me,” David says of the comic book artist he most admires.
From comics to movies to TV, there are lots of influences—and lots of retro—in David's work.
“Almost everything I see or hear can provide a piece in the inspiration puzzle,” says the Brighton, NY, resident.
David
Everything. And everyone.
Many of David's illustrations are caricatures of familiar figures. And despite the abstract shapes he uses to put them together, the result always bears a remarkable resemblance to its subject.
“A lot of it is practice, but also I've learned a lot from the masters,” he says.
“Miguel Covarrubias, Al Hirschfeld, Robert Risko and Pablo Picasso come to mind, but there are plenty of others.”
“The style doesn't always work for everybody, but I've mostly been lucky,” David says.
David started his freelance career in 1985, while he was a staff artist at the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, and he's been a full-time freelance illustrator since 1991.
Former Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Alan GreenspanHis early experience at a daily newspaper helped shape his signature style.
“When I started there I had a much more labored, cross-hatchy style,” he says.
“But I quickly figured out that that style took too long for the paper's tight deadlines, and it reproduced pretty badly with the printing technology of the day. So, I started to find techniques to work faster and simpler, and liked the results.”
Former White House correspondent Helen ThomasSo have a lot of people. David's work has since graced the pages of dozens of national publications—from Fast Company to Fortune, The New Republic to The New York Times, and Vanity Fair to Vibe.
His work will again be featured in promotional materials for this year's Xerox Rochester International Jazz Festival, for which he has illustrated the headliners for the past several years.
David has also done a fair amount of animation work, including several projects with the band They Might Be Giants. (Video below)
ABC's "Ugly Betty"“I was doing a pilot for Playhouse Disney and the band was going to do the theme song,” he says. “The pilot didn't make it past testing, but I checked in with [band member] John Flansburgh periodically, until a project showed up that we could work on together.”
That project, the band's DVD for children, “Here Come the 123s,” was the beginning of a long relationship.
But the animation work hasn't halted his career as a still illustrator and caricaturist. The portraits continue. And one of David's all-time favorite subjects?
“I've always enjoyed drawing Prince,” he says.
“His face and personality are so interesting that I can really push his likeness to extremes and still have it look like Prince.”
An artist who pushes his work to extremes. No wonder there's a striking resemblance.
See more: www.davidcowles.net and on Facebook
Say hi: dvdcowles@yahoo.com
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David has designed and directed award-winning videos for They Might Be Giants' DVD, Here Come the 123s, released in February 2008, as well as the band's DVD, Here Comes Science, released in September 2009. Watch the video for “Cells” from Here Comes Science, co-directed with Jeremy Galante.
Locally, David also teamed up with Jeremy Galante to co-direct a 2009 promotional video for the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra.