Engine room

About

01OriginalEvery piece hand-created from scratch.

02AI-freeNo AI anywhere. This is an AI-free zone.

03Every eraBiplanes to jets, every generation of flight.

04Real rootsEach one loosely based on a real aircraft.

Derek Johnson — Don't dream it... be it!

Derek Johnson taking a stroll on Dartmoor Exactly that: "Don't dream it... be it!" — the words of Dr Frank N Furter in the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Great film.

Born and raised on the far-off shores of Luton and heavily influenced by the sea... oddly... taking up surfing and windsurfing at an early age before the family packed up their backpacks and emigrated to Weymouth. Now married and living in the fabulous resort of Exmouth in Devon.

Between scribbling I am the partner and technology director at Cirrus Design Studio Ltd.

Code and art have gone hand in hand since Leonardo da Vinci built his first web app and painted the Mona Lisa, so it's not unusual. I started as a landscape painter and cartoonist, and the chibi aircraft collection was spawned after buying a tablet and trying to learn how to draw with the damned thing. Eventually I got to grips with it and started folding my own illustration techniques into the digital age. Airbrushing was less dirty and effects easier to render, leaving the door open for what I enjoy most — detail.

As an artist I rarely clean brushes, so the digital age has played up to my laziness.