Hamish Blakely grew up sketching. Eschewing colors and paints in favor of black-and-white renderings, Blakely did not seriously pick up a paint brush until he attended art school at the Wimbledon School of Art and Kingston University. Blakely’s first serious painting was a portrait of his father, which ignited his love for the medium. After this, Blakely gave up sketching and was drawn to painting figurative work. Following the completion of his studies, Blakely became an illustrator, for which he received a national award.

Blakely now commits himself to painting people, and claims that the painters who most inspire him are Caravaggio, Velasquez, and Rembrandt. Blakely draws inspiration from everything around him, even the Sunday supplement of the newspaper, but he mostly enjoys painting the details of the human form, like a sharp jawline or a turned neck.