Mick Wiggins is an award winning professional illustrator who specializes in book and editorial illustration. He is the illustrator of the complete John Steinbeck series from Penguin Classics US. “Starting out years ago, I painted with oils, but eventually shifted to a digital format back in the 1980s. As the technology matured over the decades, my style drifted to its current state. Technically, I feel like I work pretty simply: sketching in pencil first, scanning, and building the image in Photoshop.

As a hangover from the previous century, I still use a mouse (as opposed to a tablet stylus), which is probably the source of the screen-print or woodblock feel for much of my work. With a mouse, one kind of carves shapes, rather than drawing them, which takes away the immediate and sensuous line that drawing by hand gives. Any sensuality that does come through seems to have a slightly more formal, starchy feel.” “I have a couple of sources of textures I use: most commonly an old piece of papyrus that has a peculiar weave I like.

I’m liking the random noise generators these days, and the textures that can be derived from them.”