TorDot Wallpapers

This week, Dan Dos Santos and Raymond Swanland.

TorDotCom.

Since I have a school lecture fresh in my head, and since all up and coming illustrators want to know how to get their work noticed, I thought I relate how these two guys came into my radar.

I met Dan Dos Santos at the Society of Illustrators. He is friends with artist Steve Stroud, who is friends with rep Richard Solomon, who is friends with rep Gail Thurm, who I know through Shannon Associates. One night, at the Society, Gail invited me to dinner with the lot of them. Dan was keen on sf/f illustration, asked great questions, and later sent me a kick-as portfolio. I've been working with him ever since. (And I've been friends with Steve an Richard ever since.)

Raymond Swanland -- I saw his work in Spectrum for two or three years running and always liked it, I kept sorta looking out for a cover to work on. One day I was in the offices of National Geographic and the art director pulled out a new poster that Raymond had done for them -- a depiction of the layers of Rome. I was suddenly good-naturedly jealous. I wanted to work with Raymond. I found a cover for him fairly quickly after that.