from the portfolio of David Michael Friend

About


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Inspired by nature, humanity, the unbelievable and the ridiculous, I conjure a fantasy land just shy of reality with dreamlike inhabitants, using mediums from pixels to paint to sculpture to photography.


As a freelance artist working in the Greater New York area since the mid-nineties, my work began in the world of broadcast; learning graphic design, traditional animation, rotoscoping and creating illustrations for commercials. From there I helped create worlds and characters for a range of companies such as Mattel, The Jim Henson Company, Marvel Entertainment, Sesame Workshop, Saturday Night Live and The Cartoon Network.


I've gone on to advanced my world building skills by art directing children's television shows. I've lead design teams at SpeakeasyFX's on their Emmy winning Sesame Street segment, Abby's Flying Fairy School, art directed two seasons of Space Racers and recently headed the designs for Fairy Tale Forest, a retelling of the Brothers Grimm's Jorinda and Joringel.


With my illustrative background and love for story telling, I have also created a handful of books such as Blueberry Mouse (Alice Low / Mondo Publishing), Daniel and the Great Bearded One (Richard W. Friend III / Mondo Publishing), The Squampkin Patch: A Nasselrogt Adventure (J.T. Petty / Simon & Schuster) and Clemency Pogue: The Scrivener Bees (J.T. Petty / Simon & Schuster)

My short film Moonfishing, part of Heather Henson's Handmade Puppet Dreams series, can be found along side the collection on Amazon Prime.