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Andrew Bell was born in England in the late 70s and spent his early years moving from house to house and country to country. His family finally settled down on the east coast of the US where he spent the majority of his youth. Andrew kept himself busy with an unlikely combination of skateboarding and computers. These artistic and technical influences came together when he attended the School of Visual Arts in NYC in the mid 90's, majoring in the emerging field of computer-based artwork.

Unwilling to give up the dirt and “aromas” of NYC for the sunny skies and bustling studios of California, Andrew made a living doing interactive design and programming for companies such as Marvel Comics. He later followed some former Marvel cohorts to Nickelodeon, where he eventually held the rank of senior designer. After several years of monitor tanning, he decided he needed some other outlet for his creativity -- something that existed in the real world and not just on monitors and discs. He began to doodle between computer crashes, and then at meetings, and then on the subway... and before he knew it he had a pile of monster drawings.

Combining his computer skills with a recently renewed passion for drawing he created a website where he could show off these monsters, and where he forced himself to draw one every single day in an effort to resuscitate his traditional artwork skills. This little project, entitled "the Creatures in my Head", was a hit. Thanks to the encouragement of friends, family and online fans he went on to create an original drawing every day for three years straight, being late only once due to the massive East Coast blackout! To date Andrew has over 1,200 original creatures under his belt (or in his head, as the case may be).

Spurred on by his popularity as an illustrator Andrew made the transition from comfortable salaried designer to hungry overworked independent artist, and he's loving it! He continues to update 'Creatures' on a regular basis while working on paintings, sculptures, toys, books, art shows and more! Andrew plans to spend more time focusing on the fine-art side of his creativity in 2006 and beyond.

Andrew Bell is a participating artist in this February's "Chubby Bunny" show at Gallery Nucleus in California. He will be presenting his own 'chubby' along with a huge roster of incredibly talented artists! Keep an eye out for more artists from the show!

Andrew's thoughts on production:
Up until earlier this year I was in a pretty normal entertainment conglomerate production environment: someone comes up with a good idea, someone else takes credit for it, 4 people come in and slowly destroy it, and you are left holding its lifeless corpse. My time at Nickelodeon really wasn't all that bad though, by the time I left I was a Senior Designer enjoying an unusually large influence on the creative direction of many major projects.

Since then my project production techniques have pretty much gone out the window! I no longer have a "project manager" to go to when I need to know what needs to be done when. Being your own boss, AND the client can make it difficult to stay on track. I sometimes find myself with a 20 item to-do list and another 20 half-finished project. I've since forced myself to get more organized and better at project planning, sometimes I even know what I am doing a full year ahead!

As a professional independent artist I spend a lot of time on the business and promotions end of things rather than the actual creative production side. This is an unfortunate but necessary side effect of running your own show. Hopefully the time spent on business and promotion will allow me to grow, expand and eventually shift some of those responsibilities to others.

I've had the good fortune of being surrounded by artists in similar situations, some who have 'made it' and others who are just starting out. I've learned countless production techniques and business lessons just hanging out with some of my best friends, you can't ask for much more than that.

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