John Lewis Chapman was born in Blackburn, Lancashire, England on September 11, 1946. His parents were William, better known as Bill, and Alice Chapman. During John's early years, he was very much aware that his older brother, Michael, had quite a talent for sketching. He would sit at his side, fascinated, for hours on end, just watching his brother produce drawings of cars, ships and aircraft. It was at this point that John felt a compulsion to start sketching.

At the age of eleven, John started attending Bangor Street Secondary Modern School in Blackburn. The art teacher there was Peter Shackleton. At the time he had recently achieved celebrity status by selling one of his paintings to Barbara Cas...