John Berkey was an artist that spe­cial­ized in sci-fi con­cept art. He worked on early Star Wars art­work, and did dozens of book cov­ers for authors such as Arthur C. Clarke and Isaac Asi­mov. Any time an artist can have a sloppy paint­ing style and still cre­ate imagery that is so solid it makes me rethink my own meth­ods. I hold on too tightly to per­fect lines and smooth gra­di­ents – I need to embrace chaos!

There’s a large gallery of his work at Net-Cafe