Meet the Illustrator: David Wyatt
Starting with Triss, David Wyatt has taken over the duty of creating the cover artwork for the UK editions of the Redwall books.
Born on November 28th, 1968, David Wyatt grew up in a small West Sussex town and developed an early love of the countryside, reading, and comics. Wyatt attended art college at a young age, and drew for a British comic titled 2000AD. Although the lessons he learned while at art college would later prove to be invaluable, the experience made him miserable for the time being, and he spent much of his time avoiding class tutorials, sitting by the Thames River and learning to play the guitar.
After leaving art college at age 18, Wyatt ventured into rock music, playing the guitar in many bands. He was ultimately unsuccessful in his attempts to "make it," so he moved to Devon, where he would work on his illustrations full time. Now working primarily as a children's book designer and illustrator, David Wyatt has had the pleasure of working on books by many authors such as Philip Pullman, Diana Wynne-Jones, Alan Garner and now Brian Jacques!
David Wyatt does the vast majority of his work on his Macintosh computer, patching together scans of sketches and other odds and ends. Although he is largely a computer-oriented artist, he admits to bringing out the acrylic inks and watercolours now and again. David credits Alan Garner books, the countryside, Catweazle, Dartmoor, and everyday life to be his biggest inspirations.
Some of David Wyatt's other work includes Terry Pratchett's The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, and contributing images to Pratchett's Discworld. The CD packaging for the band 'Arena' is also Wyatt's work.
David Wyatt currently lives on the edge of Dartmoor in Devon, which is a constant inspiration for him. See his website at www.david.wyatt.btinternet.co.uk.
