At age 19, Wilson dropped out of Kidderminster School of Art, and returned home to pursue a course of self-education, studying the work of Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528).
[1] Taking a number of jobs, including secretary to the managing director of the Liverpool gymnasium, he continued his artistic endeavors.
In 1894 Wilson was introduced to the publisher John Lane, who gave him a commission to design and illustrate Miracle Plays by Katherine Tynan Hinkson in a series of black-and-white line drawings.
Subsequently he was invited as a contributor to the newly launched "The Yellow Book', which ultimately published thirteen of his drawings.
After 1905, he abandoned line drawings in favour of colour and half-tone, and moved into the fields of natural history and mythology.