Derek Riggs

Derek Riggs (born 13 February 1958) is a contemporary British artist best known for creating the band Iron Maiden'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 also attended art school, but he was expelled after complaining about the course. 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. In 1992, however, the band decided to accept contributions from other artists for their next album, Fear of the Dark, 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.

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, 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 for his album Accident of Birth, Stratovarius for their album Infinite, Gamma Ray for their Power Plant 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.

In 2021 Riggs was inducted into The Metal Hall of Fame.