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.