David Mattingly Sci-Fi Art

David Burroughs Mattingly is an illustrator and painter best known for his numerous book covers of science fiction and fantasy literature.

David Mattingly began drawing and painting as a small child, influenced by comic books, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and a wide array of artists from Jim Steranko, to N.C. Wyeth, to Jackson Pollock. After high school, he attended the Colorado Institute of Art at Colorado State University and later transferred to Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. After school, he worked at Walt Disney Studios, ultimately becoming head of the matte department. He worked on The Black Hole, Tron, Dick Tracy, Stephen King's The Stand and most recently I, Robot for Weta Digital in New Zealand.

While at Disney Studios, David began doing freelance art. His first published piece was the album cover for "The Commodores Greatest Hits". His first sale of art for a book cover was for "A Wizard in Bedlam," by Christopher Stasheff, published by DAW Books. In 1983 he moved to New York City, and a year later across the Hudson River to Hoboken, New Jersey.

David Mattingly has produced over 500 covers for most major publishers of science fiction and fantasy, including Baen, Bantam, DAW, Del Rey, Dell, Marvel, Omni, Playboy, Signet, and Tor. For Scholastic Inc, David painted 54 covers for K.A. Applegate's "Animorphs" series, along with the last 5 covers for the "Everworld" series. He illustrated the popular "Honor Harrington" series for author David Weber. He painted the latest repackaging of Edgar Rice Burroughs' "Pellucidar" books for Ballantine Books. He is a two time winner of Magazine and Booksellers "Best Cover of the Year" award, and winner of the Association of Science Fiction Artists "Chesley" award. Other clients include Michael Jackson, Lucasfilm, Universal Studios, Totco Oil, Galloob Toys, R/Greenberg Associates, Click 3X and Spontaneous Combustion.

After 20 years of traditional painting, David bought a computer ten years ago and has mainly worked digitally since then, preferring the powerful new tools that working digitally offers the artist. Most of his work today combines digital painting, and elements generated in 3D programs. For more information check out the David Mattingly official website

Below is a limited selection of his work in science fiction, for more artworks please see the book The Art of David B. Mattingly: Alternate Views, Alternate Universes by David B. and Cathleen Cogswell Mattingly. The book contains over 100 color illustrations done by David Mattingly.

Note: All artwork and images copyright © David B. Mattingly. Please do not use images without the permission of the artist.

Website: David Mattingly Illustration

Art Book: The Art of David Mattingly