Artist & Illustrator

David Schleinkofer

INTRODUCTION

I'm David Schleinkofer, a professional artist and illustrator with over 39 years of experience. I received my formal art training at Bucks County Community College and The Philadelphia College of Art (now The University of the Arts) in Pennsylvania.

Throughout my career, I've had the privilege of working with top advertising agencies, book publishers, magazine editors, and game companies across the U.S. My commercial work includes campaigns for notable brands such as Cutty Sark, Levi's, USA TODAY, Grey Poupon, Bailey's Irish Cream, and Tide. I've also contributed to television commercials, including a campaign for Schmidt's Old Time Bread.

In the world of toys and games, I've worked with major companies like Hasbro (Transformers), Milton Bradley, Mattel (Hot Wheels storybooks), and video game companies like Maxis (SimCity, SimCopter, SimTower) and Absolute Zero. I've illustrated several well-known science fiction book series, including Robotech and Battlestar Galactica for Simon & Schuster, Ballantine/Del Rey, and Ace Books. My magazine illustrations have appeared in Science Digest, Asimov's Science Fiction, and Cosmopolitan.

Between 1976 and 1997, I also created conceptual artwork for a children's sci-fi series developed for BBC America by Rick Sigglekow, one of the creators of Thomas the Tank Engine.

Today, I focus on fine art, creating landscapes, marine art, portraits (both human and animal), and still-life pieces. I also continue to illustrate book covers, including the Sue Henry Murder Mysteries series for The Penguin Group. My work has been sold to collectors worldwide, and many of my pieces are available for purchase through this website. My fine art can also be seen at various galleries in Bucks County, PA.

From a sci-fi illustrator's drawing board

There's usually one kid in every class who draws the most detailed dinosaurs or the truest-to-life pop stars - the kid all the other kids ask to decorate their copybooks.

In the early 1960s, David Schleinkofer was that kid.

At St. Michael the Archangel School in Tullytown, he was particularly in demand to sketch TV idols such as Sgt. Saunders from "Combat" and Samantha, the sorceress housewife of "Bewitched," for his classmates. His teachers put him to work decorating the blackboards with elves and Easter Bunnies on the holidays.

A couple of decades later, Schleinkofer had moved on to more sophisticated assignments, but he was still delighting little kids with his artwork. By the mid-1980s, if his classmates wanted one of his illustrations, they'd have to buy a box of Transformers, the hot new toy from Japan

Education

After graduating from Bishop Egan High School, Schleinkofer studied at Bucks County Community College, then at the Philadelphia College of Art (now the University of the Arts.) Like the nuns at St. Mike's, his teachers recognized his natural abilities and encouraged him to pursue illustration.

It was a tough field to break into. Art directors in New York City demanded a print portfolio. It seemed an endless loop - no work without published samples, no one willing to publish his work.

Mardi's connection

His wife and former classmate at Bucks, Mardi, was taking a class at the college with noted artist Alan Magee. She showed him one of her husband's sketches. Magee recommended Schleinkofer for a job that became one of his first print credentials; the artist also steered the young illustrator to an agent.

While hearing the "we like your work but you don't have anything printed" response from one editor, another, this one in charge of an auto magazine, overheard the conversation and invited Schleinkofer into his office.

Have you ever done anything about drawing cars or vans or anything? Well, we're doing an article on the van scene,' " recalled Schleinkofer, now of Lower Makefield.

The artist very much drew cars. A deal was struck. "I had a double page . . . and they never had used illustration before," the artist said.

Career

He was launched on a career out of New York City, where he drew for science fiction and games publishers and for the advertising industry, working for clients such as Cutty Sark, Tide, Milton Bradley and Mattel. He illustrated the covers for video games such as Sim City, Sim Copter and Sim Tower. He created the visual world of the "Battlestar Galactica" and "Robotech" novel series.
"I like the science fiction, because I like coming up with machinery, spacecraft, planet scenes," said Schleinkofer. "I always liked the challenge. When I had to come up with a scene for the cover (of a novel), that I liked the best."

Then in 1984 came a wave from the Far East that would mesmerize little kids. The Hasbro toy manufacturing company began making and selling a quirky line invented in Japan whose individual pieces twisted and folded to make vehicles and animals and other objects.

Schleinkofer was hired to produce artwork for the first Transformers boxes. His action-packed outer-space battle scene, in which a giant robot shoots it out with flying mechanical creatures amid orange explosions and a purple nebula, appeared on the back of the box.

"That's the famous one that everybody knows," said Schleinkofer. "They used it on bedsheets, lunch cans, puzzles, coloring books, Colorforms, everything. They used it, like, 12 years."

Exotic flying machines

Schleinkofer still dreams of exotic flying machines that soar into space, and still draws and paints them. This time, it's a fine-art preoccupation that also has produced luminous landscapes, marine scenes and affectionate portraits of his wife and daughter. The artist's work has been exhibited at Phillip's Mill, the Trenton City Museum, at Prallsville Mills; and in group exhibits with the Philadelphia Sketch Club.
Among memorable works is "MARS-WE made IT!," a sprawling Martian landscape upon which rest a spaceship and two astronauts, one rejoicing with arms upraised and the other planting the American flag. In true other-dimensional sci-fi style, a mothership hovers above a half-bowl-shaped escarpment while another craft soars into the sky.

Back on Earth, Schleinkofer paints the polar opposite of the barren Martian landscape in "Winter on Goat Hill Road," a scene of golden light and blue shadows that gracefully arc across car tracks in the snow. Numerous marine subjects capture this romantic mood of sky, laced with the clouds the artist loves to watch and paint, as sailboats tack across the water or rest at anchor.

Science fiction

The work that is dearest to his heart revolves around wildly imaginative flying machines. Though he loved "science fiction and Frankenstein and all that kind of stuff as a kid," his feel for mechanicals surely was honed when he visited his grandfather, also named David Schleinkofer and also an artist.
The elder Schleinkofer painted objects such as generators for a living, and scenes inspired by Norman Rockwell for creative expression. When his grandson was around, he gave him a pencil and paper and encouraged him to draw.

Recently, Schleinkofer sketched a new flying machine, this one something of a replacement for the space shuttle. The fictional craft is highly imaginative, with two sets of engines and a cargo hatch. He placed it high above the earth's horizon amid other fanciful transports, the kind of setting at which he excels.

It's where dreams, imagination and technology intersect in the mind of the artist, where limitless possibilities are a matter of course.

"You're almost in space now, and these three rockets would actually take off from the ground and go into space, minus the rockets they use today," he explained. "I figure it's going to be for the moon, so they can go up to the moon, and land."

Later life

"David Schleinkofer at work in his office, fully immersed in the world of his imagination. With oil paints in hand and a heart full of stories, he brought American history, faith, and everyday life to vivid life on canvas. Every brushstroke was a tribute—to his craft, to his values, and to the timeless moments he sought to preserve. Watching him paint was like watching a storyteller speak in color."

"David Schleinkofer wasn’t just an artist—he was a storyteller, a dreamer, and a deeply devoted family man. In his studio, surrounded by the scent of oil paints and the quiet hum of creativity, he would lose himself in the worlds he brought to life on canvas. But as much as he loved painting, David’s truest joy came not from the brush, but from the laughter of his family and the twinkle in his grandson’s eyes. He lit up in their presence, finding inspiration in their stories, strength in their hugs, and endless love in their smiles. His art will live on, but even more powerful was the legacy of love, kindness, and warmth he left in the hearts of those who knew him best."