Rising Stars: Meet Daniel Gorman of Ohio

Today we’d like to introduce you to Daniel Gorman.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
At an early age, I knew I would have a career as an artist in some way. I always loved to draw and had a lot of support from both family and teachers who recognized and encouraged my ability. I graduated from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1999 with my BFA in Medical Illustration. I worked primarily as a Medical Illustrator the first 12 years out of school, but during that time, the need to branch out and pursue my true love, which has always been cartooning and sequential story telling took over, and in 2006, with the help of a mentor, Robert Kraus, I began to create fan art imagery and attend comic cons setup in artist alleys around the country. In 2010 I got my first published work as a Sketch Card artist for Braygent Marketing. In 2011 my first published comic book work appeared in FemForce #158 published by AC Comics. Since then I have done published work on a lot of well known properties and have work in books released by Dark Horse, Caliber, Second Sight Publishing and Antarctic Press, just to name a few.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
A career as an artist is never a smooth road. You encounter a lot of rejection, and being discouraged can derail your journey very quickly. Imposter syndrome is a real thing, and was my biggest hurdle to clear just to get started. What I learned early on is that I love doing the work and to not do the work for anyone else but myself. I create the things that I want to create. If other people happen to enjoy those things as well, great, but if not, the only person I’m worried about disappointing is myself.

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My niche is Medical Illustration where I create demonstrative exhibits for Medical Malpractice and Personal Injury cases. Indie Comic Book Illustration and Hand Drawn Sketch Card work for Trading Card Sets. I’m most proud of my work I’ve done for my home town AA Minor League Baseball Team, The AKron Rubber Ducks. I get to write and draw a comic book for them every year. I’ve been doing this for six years and I love it! I think the thing that sets me apart is my deverse background and wide range of skill sets that I can apply to any creative problem. I’m not just a Comic Book penciler. I’m a painter, designer, Illustrator and storyteller all wrapped up into one.

Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I think one perception is that because I do work on an IP, I know everything there is to know about that property. For instance, I have done A LOT of Star Wars Sketch Card work over the years. But that doesn’t mean I know every character I’m drawing or the complete history of that character. Sometimes a job is a job. I’ve done a lot of Game of Thrones Trading Card work. I have never watched a single episode of the show and have never read the books.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://dangormanart.com
• Instagram: @gdanArtist
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/dangormanart
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel-gorman-31a27820/
• Twitter: @gdanartist