Mark Poole
Art is an ever-evolving journey for this painter
Tell us a little about your background as an artist. I have always doodled in sketchbooks since high school, mainly influenced by comics. I studied art at the University of South Carolina, but was mostly selftaught by simply just persistence. I read and purchased a lot of art books from artists like Jim Burns, Michael Whelan, Roger Dean, Bernie Wrightson, Larry Elmore and Keith Parkinson. The internet was young back then so most resources were printed. I learned by going to museums and small sci-fi/ fantasy conventions.
Is the genre of fantasy/sci-fi a focused area for your art or do you work in wider fields? Fantasy, sci-fi and comics have all been very influential in my interests and visions. In the early years I painted for many genres including wildlife, interior renderings of companies, and product illustration for NASCAR. These were freelance gigs to go along with regular work, but my heart was always in fantasy and sci-fi.