Joshua Mowll


Photo of Joshua Mowll
Joshua Mowll was born in Britain in 1970. The son of a vicar, he went to boarding school at the age of eight, and from a young age notably loved art lessons - particularly drawing huge aircraft and military campaigns - and sailing.

After attending art school, Joshua worked in newspapers, illustrating everything from maps, space flights and medical procedures, to aircraft crashes, garden features and laser-guided weaponry.

Joshua didn't think about writing until after he'd worked in newspapers for some years. When he inherited the Honourable Guild of Specialists archive from his great aunt, he knew that the material had to be published. He says, "the complexity and number of the documents has taken some time to arrange into a publishable form. It's almost like trying to reassemble an odd assortment of mechanical parts into a working engine, (but without any kind of manual!)"

Author's Comment: My artistic career has long links with the graphics department of the national newspaper, The Mail on Sunday, based in London. I worked for them from 1994 until 2010, and I still contribute on a freelance basis. The flexibility required to work as a graphic artist in newspapers means I am used to delivering to extremely tight deadlines, whatever the job.

My second career as a novelist has opened up new illustrative challenges - namely developing and imagineering a whole 'world' for my characters to inhabit. The books are full length novels combined with complex retro-futuristic illustrations.

Over the last 2 years I have progressively moved towards CGI/3d software packages to achieve more complex and photorealistic results. I use a variety of CGI packages, as well as Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator.

I'm very keen to push the imagineering aspects of my work, as I really enjoy illustrating the fantastic and incredible as realistically as possible.

Nationality: British

Featured series by Joshua Mowll


Guild of Specialists - Age 11 & up