Al Ward has always been drawing.  In the 50s and 60s he covered sheets of butchers’ paper with sailing ships, castles, Roman centurions, mountain landscapes and improbable trees.  As a teenager in high school he earned quite a few detentions chalking up caricatures of teachers and Ronald Searlesque fantasies on the blackboards and the side of the bus shelters. 

He began his working life in the early 70s juggling life as a professional guitarist and working in the art departments at Mirror newspapers and Maxwell Newton publications.  He learned the old ways of producing finished graphics with a Rotring isograph pen and using Letraset and toxic fixative.   By 1973 the musical career had taken over his time but for 40 years he saved a fortune producing his own posters, flyers and album covers.  He was also happily talked into doing all kinds of freelance graphic art from newspaper and magazine ads to business cards, product labels, greeting cards, shop signs and even a couple of illustrated restaurant menus. 

Issues with his left hand and wrist made playing the guitar and mandolin more and more painful and by 2015 he had transferred most of his creative drive over to the visual art section of his mind.  His right hand now works as hard on the drawing board as his left used to on the fretboards.  He has refined his techniques and used the extra time he has working up new skills with finer point pens and with watercolour.  He has also had fun working with computer programs to fiddle with the pictures in various stages of development.