A Chigwell painter has revealed how he made the career leap from accountancy to art during the pandemic.

Born and raised in Chigwell, Will McNally left his job in the city in the midst of the pandemic to pursue his dream of painting.

“The pandemic gave me the push to leave my job and start full-time on my artistic career,” he told the Recorder.

With his portraits rising in value by more than 58 per cent between March and October 2020, Will said he has been dubbed “the new Banksy” by several critics and been compared to Andy Warhol because of his neon representation of stars and movie characters.

He started drawing at a young age but kept it hidden from his friends, fearing they could think he was "a nerd”.

At about 15 he surprised his family by painting the Kray twins for his auntie’s charity event.

“This is my blessing. I have been given a gift in life, so I always give back to charity,” he said.

Visiting a gallery in New York a few years ago, Will said the owner was “mesmerised” by his paintings and decided to display some of them.

From there he has painted for royalties, Universal Studios and others.

Will’s work has attracted art collectors' attention because of its reinvention of world-famous celebrities, movie characters, and public figures with a sense of humour.

For example, his work was featured in a recent edition of Playboy Magazine; the piece showed the Queen wearing iconic Playboy bunny ears.

“I want to reach out to a different audience and try and get the work out there and inspire people to paint and potentially do something that they love,” Will said.

He is currently working on a special collection of superhero-inspired works.

Private collectors have already bought the works, Will said, and there is an exclusive Iron Man piece coming in the next few weeks.

“It is like a musician or a songwriter, you have to be in the mood and right frame of mind to create certain pieces,” Will said.