Derek Riggs (born 13 February 1958) is a contemporary British artist best known for creating the band

Iron Maiden Iron Maiden are an English Heavy metal music, heavy metal band formed in Leyton, East London, in 1975 by bassist and primary songwriter Steve Harris (musician), Steve Harris. Although fluid in the early years of the band, the line-up for most ...

's mascot, " Eddie".

Career

Born in Portsmouth, England, Riggs is a self-taught artist, both in his traditional painting and in his digital work. He began drawing and painting as early as he can remember. He also attended art school, but he was expelled after complaining about the course. Riggs' most famous achievement is his work with

and his creation of Eddie, the band's mascot and subject of their album and single covers. Riggs' first picture of Eddie was originally entitled "Electric Matthew Says Hello," and was actually painted for a possible punk cover. Iron Maiden's management came across it while looking through Riggs' portfolio, and asked him to add hair to the figure to make it look less punk-like. The resulting picture was used for the debut album, ''

'', released in 1980, and Riggs went on to work with Iron Maiden throughout the 1980s and into the '90s, creating many of the band's famous album covers. In 1992, however, the band decided to accept contributions from other artists for their next album, ''

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'', resulting in much less input from Riggs in recent years. For a long time, Riggs did his paintings with acrylics and alkyd, which is a fast-drying oil-based paint. However, after realizing the chemicals were affecting his health, he switched to digital painting in the early 1990s. His choice of software include Bryce, Strata Studio Pro, and

Photoshop Adobe Photoshop is a raster graphics editor developed and published by Adobe for Windows and macOS. It was created in 1987 by Thomas and John Knoll. It is the most used tool for professional digital art, especially in raster graphics editin ...

. Riggs has also designed the cover of '' World's Only Female Tribute to Iron Maiden'', the self-titled debut album by the all-female tribute band,

the Iron Maidens The Iron Maidens are an American heavy metal band from Los Angeles, formed in 2001 as an all-female tribute act to English heavy metal band Iron Maiden. The band currently consists of drummer Linda McDonald, bassist Wanda Ortiz, lead vocalis ...

, a piece which was inspired by the '' Killers'' album, featuring a similar "Kinky Sex Shop" which featured in the ''Iron Maiden'' artwork. He has also worked with Iron Maiden lead vocalist

Bruce Dickinson Paul Bruce Dickinson (born 7 August 1958) is an English singer who is best known as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Iron Maiden. Dickinson has performed in the band across two stints, from 1981 to 1993 and from 1999 to the present d ...

for his album '' Accident of Birth'',

Stratovarius Stratovarius is a Finnish power metal band. Formed in 1984, they have released sixteen studio albums, six DVDs and six live albums. The band's line-up has changed many times, with no founding member left since the departure of drummer Tuomo ...

for their album '' Infinite'',

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for their ''

Power Plant A power station, also referred to as a power plant and sometimes generating station or generating plant, is an industrial facility for the electricity generation, generation of electric power. Power stations are generally connected to an electr ...

'' album, Artension on their 2004 album '' Future World'', Gillman on their 2003 album Cuauhtemoc, and with many other bands and companies most of which are featured on his website. Riggs currently resides in Riverside County, California, US. He has

seasonal affective disorder Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a mood disorder subset in which people who typically have normal mental health throughout most of the year exhibit depressive symptoms at the same time each year. It is commonly, but not always, associated w ...

Tribute

As a fan of Iron Maiden, game designer Tim Schafer named the main character of 2009's video game Brütal Legend Eddie Riggs, which is a combination of Eddie The Head and Derek Riggs.

References

External links

*
A 2010 interview with Iron Maiden artist Derek Riggs
{{DEFAULTSORT:Riggs, Derek Artists from Portsmouth Iron Maiden (band) 1958 births Living people British horror artists British album-cover and concert-poster artists British science fiction artists People with mood disorders British character designers