This month’s cover artist, Phil Moss, gives us the lowdown on his process...
Tell us a bit about yourself…
I’m an artist living and working out of Basford, Notts, at the moment. I work as an illustrator for Games Workshop and do my own art outside of that as much as time allows.
What was the inspiration behind the cover?
I go down little arty/study rabbit holes all the time, and when the cover brief came through several loose ideas I’d been working with just seemed to naturally fit. I’d just potted up this year's sunflower crop and brought in last year's dead heads, I started a local course in ceramics and... I’m not sure about the doll heads! I find the split in people who find old decayed things either unpleasant or beautiful quite interesting, and I’m poking that particular jellyfish a lot at the moment. I haven’t got an actual jellyfish, though I would like one.
How does it compare with some other projects you’ve worked on?
My day job is largely figurative and narrative work, illustrating an idea or a story. To have something to work on that would be more just of itself is a change.
What was the biggest challenge that you faced in creating the piece?
Finding the time to do it! Most of my illustration work is digital as well, this piece is probably the biggest traditionally painted image I’ve made in a long while. It’s led to me creating much more traditional art though which is great.
Tell us about some projects you’ve worked on in the past…
I guess, unless you know anything about Warhammer, my claim to fame is that one of my illustrations trundles around Nottingham on the side of a tram, and I’ve drawn on a few toilet walls in your favourite bars. But getting to make art alongside my colleagues at work is the thing I’m most proud of, the artists there are fantastic people and it means a lot to put my work out there alongside people I really admire.
What have you got planned for the future?
I’m pursuing more of my own art these days. I'd like to do more things locally, and I’ve taken up ceramics again because no one can make me do that on a computer. Like every artist in their mid-thirties I’ve gone back to drawing what I drew as a kid, things I find in my garden mostly.
Is there anything else you’d like to tell the LeftLion readers?
Yeah, while I’ve got a platform I guess I’d like everyone to stop giving wasps such a hard time, I think they’re quite fun.
Where can people check out your work?
I’m on the Instagrams at @phil__moss (that’s two underscores, dunno who the one underscore guy is, but I hope he’s good).
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