David Lee Anderson became a working artist early in life - at age ten, to be exact. "I knew I had a talent for art from kindergarten on, and winning $60 worth of art supplies for my school in a 4th grade art competition clued me in to the financial rewards possible."

Art may have been in his blood, but he was inspired to pursue science fiction illustration by the single most influential SF film ever made - Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. Anderson saw its original release, and the film's visual design sparked his imagination. The sky's been the limit ever since.

All the Marbles.

"My first influences were N. C. Wyeth and the Brandywine artists, whose illustrated books I read in my grandmother's collection," Anderson recalls. He also cites Maxfield Parrish, Robert McCall (famous for the 2001 movie poster), and Syd Mead, whose visual designs have sparked the imaginations of thousands of filmmakers and millions of SF movie buffs in Alien, Bladerunner, Tron and Johnny Mnemonic.

"I was aware of Syd's work years before his movie designs," Anderson says. "I also loved the work of Roger Dean, the British illustrator who did the Yes album covers. Robert McCall made me want to work in color. Dean's work affected my sense of color, with bright flat primary shades and airbrushed background shading."

Anderson uses an Iwata airbrush for his own background and highlighting work - on a recommendation from legendary illustrator Kelly Freas. "I use acrylics thinned with water," he says. "The mixture flows through the airbrush well, but it's thick enough to stick to the surface."

Glider.

His process involves traditional and digital media, with emphasis on the traditional. "I use brushes and acrylic paint on gessoed masonite boards. I draw the design with pencil and paint over it." He favors acrylics over oils for color work - a preference developed out of practical necessity. "I like the organic quality of oils, but I'd been a commercial artist for ten years prior to doing illustration, and that meant you had to do art very quickly," Anderson says. "Acrylics dry immediately and are easily cleaned up with water and alcohol."

Only when the piece is finished does Anderson enter the digital realm. "I scan the image at 300dpi into Photoshop, then tweak it with various tools, getting rid of flecks and reflection highlights, smoothing the image without changing it significantly. For some publishers, I do the graphic design for the cover art as well."

Outward Bound.

Art does not stand still, and so neither do artists. Anderson is no exception; he's understandably excited with the new destinations his work reveals - including Gentlemen Broncos, a Fox Searchlight indie directed by Napoleon Dynamite's Jared Hess. "They're using five of my paintings for the opening credit sequences," Anderson says.

The film's logline is right up our genre alley: a teenager attends a fantasy writers' convention, where he discovers his idea has been stolen by an established novelist. A little too close for comfort, perhaps? Or a sure bet for fans of Hess' more recent Nacho Libre? Either way, Anderson says, the film "should be of interest to the science fiction community."

Anderson's own work remains relevant to the science fiction community, and shows no signs of slowing. His illustration for the classic Steven Utley and Howard Waldrop reprint In the Shubbi Arms appears in this issue.