Martin Handford spent much of his childhood drawing, and his earliest influences were cinema epics and playing with toy soldiers. After art college, he began working as a freelance illustrator, specializing in drawing crowd scenes for numerous clients. He now gathers inspiration from a huge variety of sources: films, visiting museums and art galleries, reading comics and books, and collecting ephemera and trivia. He is fascinated by crowds and is attracted to their vibes, patterns, and details—especially humor. Gradually, from all this meticulous research, the inspiration for a picture emerges, which he embellishes with his own ideas to create astonishing scenes. Each picture takes many months to draw. “As I work my way through a picture, I add Waldo when I come to what I feel is a good place to hide him," he explains.