Well, my first paying job was some Robin Hood illustrations for a school textbook. I drew Robin as a cross between Errol Flynn and Jimmy Hill, but was instructed to de-lengthen his face so he looked more like Kevin Costner. Grrr. By rights though, my first actual published work was in computer games mag Zzap! 64 a few years earlier. They ran this great competition: draw a picture of a cyborg on his day off. First prize was a tiny Toshiba CD player. I won!
2) Who or what inspires you?
My girlfriend has a fantastic brain, and comes up with all sorts of great off-the-cuff stuff which helps fill in the blanks as well as setting me off in interesting new directions.
3) What would be your dream job to illustrate?
An illustrated collection of fairy tales for kids who think they've grown out of fairy tales. There's so much more meat in those stories when you can really let rip with them. Either that or a mad, inventive, funny sci-fi romp.
4) Tell us a bit about the illustration you've sent?
The closing pages from 'Damienne Hobbs Reflects', a nonsensical wordless comic strip produced for the first issue of New British Comics ( http://newbritishcomics.blogspot.com - it's onto issue 3 now, and going from strength to strength). Basically a long, time consuming experiment that was slightly brain-melty but a lot of fun!
5) What can we expect to see from you next (what are you working on)?
Currently working on b&w interior illustrations for several teenage books, all of which happen to be very ghostly and/or very creepy, which means I'm happy as a pig in the proverbial. Just finishing off a promotional poster for Scholastic, too. Plus lots of personal projects/pitches that I'm dying to get stuck back into as and when.
6) If you hadn't become an artist what do you think you'd have ended up doing?
Something equally precarious! I'd say a musician if I wasn't already a failed one.
7) Where can we see more of your work (web links)?
http://www.nelson-evergreen.com
http://nelson-evergreen.blogspot.com/
Absolutely great stuff!
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