I’ve never been a slave to an artistic temperament. This is because I need food, warmth, and shelter, and if I waited for the Muse to cooperate before I created anything, I’d die of exposure and starvation. Having worked for newspapers, TV, and commercial clients, I’m used to a deadline, so I can saw off artwork by the yard when I have to.
All that being said, there are definitely some paintings—usually speculative ones—that take a long time to find their way out of my head and into the world. As a case in point, I’m currently painting the character Ripley from Aliens, having first decided to do so in 2019, when I rattled off the colour sketch below. Now that I’m in a short hiatus between commissions and beginning the illustrations on a second children’s book, a Sigourney Weaver caricature is finally erupting out of me like a larval extraterrestrial long past its due date.
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