Tripwire Talks To British Artist Andrew Sawyers About Volume Three of His Art Books

Drawing The Fans In

Tripwire’s contributing writer Paul N Neal recently spoke to British rising star artist Andrew Sawyers about his latest art book…

TRIPWIRE: You’re currently promoting your third book of artwork. Before diving into the details of the book itself, can I just ask if you would describe yourself as a prolific artist?

ANDREW SAWYERS: Thank you for the opportunity to talk, needless to say, I’m a fan of Tripwire, the continuing professionalism of the publication’s journalism, it’s synonymous with impartiality and integrity and goes a long way to support the industry, and that’s very healthy thing.

Ha! “Prolific” is possibly a word, not necessarily a negative word, but has connotations I’m not necessarily comfortable with. Prolific to me, has a connotation of celebrity, renown or fame.

I’m still very much me and while I enjoy the artwork being out there, I don’t object to that being prolific but would gladly eschew the whole hoopla with being prolific online.

I recognise that a lot of people, a really large number of followers cheer on and support what I put out there. It’s certainly growing and building into something, so yeah, in the truest definition I’m prolific…what that means to me, what it gives me is an energy, an enthusiasm to keep going, keep exploring, improving and raising the standard and finding that final style, that definitive visual presentation.

I still get excited and enthused about art, not just my own, but others – and returning to your original question, that proliferation has put me in a position to work with others, engage with others, support the scene and contribute to it all.

TW: Along similar lines, would you say you are a fast artist. For example, in general, how long does it take you to complete a cover compared to a story page?

AS: I can still do a finished page a day, historically due to other working commitments this often had to be squeezed in after work or on days off.

But yeah, a page a day fully inked or even painted a day.

Just to get some consistency, I’ve moved more towards a schedule of working up full pencils and partial inks on sequential pages, often having five or six ready to go in as little as four to five days. I then spend the remainder of the week either finishing the inks or if painting them another four or five days.

What I’ve found with the absolute avalanche of work recently completed its accelerated the learning process and I’ve picked up lots of new techniques, tricks and tools – which visually have made the pages more interesting, for mood and tonally.

Cover work, some earlier work really fell short of the mark, so I really try and go all in and spend no end researching the greats as to what the standard should be.

Covers, about four to five days, I’m really pushing up that level of polish, detail and composition – I don’t want to fight the covers furniture, so really try and produce something that works with the publications layout.

Either way I’m still pretty fast, as you improve things take longer, but with repetition that speed builds back up. I think it is best to look at work as a marathon and not a sprint. That said, it’s also healthy to lose yourself in the moment and let that energy hit the paper and see where it goes.

TW: As mentioned your latest art book is the third in a series of books I gather. Is this the end of a trilogy, your Return of The Jedi of books? Do you feel they show a storyline, a distinctive change or development in your style or your approach to your art?

AS: This is the end of the beginning, in as such I won’t personally return to doing another art book, and if I did it would be a very, very long way off.

But yeah, it’s the ROTJ of my art books – I like that and I think people will walk out of ‘the cinema’ happy like we all used to. It certainly shows a timeline, and within the constraints of actually physically putting a book together, some pieces have been moved around, but otherwise it essentially shows almost chronologically my work over 2025 into 2026.

Most notably it shows a real leaning towards paint, exploring colour, different subjects and at the very least, people should see that desire to improve. I’m my own worst critic, and maybe that’s a good thing. I’m often surprised what people really lean into with my work and what they don’t.

Flipping through the print file, it does tell a story, not in the traditional sense. It’s almost like watching an evolution, as such I’m proud of that and stand by it.

TW: Can you describe for your fans in a little more detail what they should expect from Volume 3? Are there any specific pieces included you are especially proud of?

AS: Well, there’s a lot of private commissions, lots of double page spreads. A vast amount of it painted or predominantly painted.

There’s some pages of sequential work in its original inked form alongside the painted pages.

One of the pieces in there I’m proud of, well all three versions of it are in there – I hope people will get a kick out of comparing the three and seeing that progression, I’m very proud of the Conan piece I produced exclusively for this book. It has its flaws, but it’s really him, it was a watershed moment, and I had real fun finally getting him down as I wanted him to look. He’s actually the third scan as I went back in to work on a few things – it’s not perfect, it never is, but there’s some things I learnt walking away from that will drive forward future work.

The Elvira is another one, that’s actually based on a real model, and is for a charity auction (fingers crossed it raises some good money for that)

What can fans expect? Well, it is hardback, over 95 images, stickers, bookmark and a dust jacket!

TRIPWIRE EXCLUSIVE: Above is the never-before-seen dust jacket to Andrew’s latest book.

TW: How can people preorder or support your art old and new?

AS: Not just me, but all artists or illustrators, hit that like button, share that post, comment on it, show friends and family – not to give us a fuzzy warm serotonin fix but it really helps drive an artist’s profile to get work and establish an audience – visibility in today’s world, particularly social media is vital, everything else after that takes care of itself.

The book itself can be preordered from my store (preorder finishes at the end of March) from here: https://s23familia.bigcartel.com/

TW: For fun, and without saying Judge Dredd, is there a single movie poster or album cover from the past you would have liked to have had a crack at illustrating? 

AS: I remember a time that album artwork or film posters had to be equally as cool as the music or the film – just look at the Indiana Jones posters or Biohazards Urban Discipline DigiPak. Now everything is that photoshopped blue and orange schtick, not very imaginative or engaging.

Funnily enough I was meant to do the new Biohazard LP – the guitarist had a really strong idea as to where he wanted it to go and I was fully onboard and sadly communication fell apart and despite being a fantastic album had really stock imagery style cover.

If I could work on something that has been previously released, I’d say Robocop – I think people might be surprised just what I’d turn in, there’s a lot to draw from in that film and could be visually ‘arresting’. Blade Runner and Predator spring to mind too!

Musically, I wish it was me who’d done the Bolt Thrower ‘Realm of Chaos’ album the guy that painted that absolutely nailed it – and I did get to work with them later in life.

Now I really like this one, but I’d like redo Suicidal Tendencies ‘The Art of Rebellion’ just to put my spin on it – working with Danzig would be great too.

TW: Can you share with Tripwire a handful of images from your new book?

AS: Absolutely.