Discover how eight-time Hugo Award-winning artist Bob Eggleton struck out on his own after giving up on art school.
Who was your first artistic crush?
Because my mother was British we went over to England a lot. I can never forget seeing these amazing Bruce Pennington covers on the old Pan Science Fiction line of books. Bruce really set me alight. The thrill was this past November I got to meet the man himself at the Brighton World Fantasy Con.
Do you remember the first image that you thought you'd nailed it?
I sold my first professional sale when I was 15. I painted an English landscape in the Cotswolds for a family friend and they paid me well. My first sci-fi painting was inspired by a lot of British sci-fi artists of the day. It's dodgy looking, but it was also my first cover image for a German publisher in the early 1980's.
Escape from the Rim: "This piece was my first science fiction painting. Until this painting I primarily worked in ink and pencil"
What was the first bit of praise you received that spurred you on?
It came when I got to meet an artist named Eric Ladd, who made something of a name for himself around 1978. Eric told me to start "really painting" and do this stuff. He loved what I did. Then I went to the World SF Con in Boston in 1980, put up some drawings I did for fun, and won Best Amateur Artist.
And first knock back?
Back in 1979 a professor of modern art told me I had no talent and I should do something else. It drove me into a deep depression because I had this silly idea that to be any kind of artist I had to go to art school. He was one of the reasons why I left school.
What was the last thing you painted, and were you happy with it?
I am, at this point, pretty happy with my work, relative to what it is. If it suits the job and the client is happy that makes me happy. I have gotten more into fantasy and that makes me pretty happy.
Bob Eggleton is a eight-time Hugo Award-winning artist, specialising in sci-fi, horror and fantasy art. A huge Godzilla fan, he worked as creative consultant on the 1998 blockbuster. This article originally appeared in ImagineFX magazine issue 106.
