I've always drawn, as far back as I remember. Given enough pencils and scrap paper, I would vanish off into a world of my own for hours at a time - looking back, that must have been an absolute godsend for my parents. Over 30 years of working as a freelance artist later, not a lot has changed - it's still where I feel at home and everything else I do is in pursuit of more time with my pencils.

I never intended to become a charcoal artist though. I've always been very detail orientated so I'd gravitated towards graphite, but something was still missing. Then one day I happened to pick up a pack of charcoal pencils and Boom. I still had the fine lines and precise control but now I could also get the intense shadows and high definition I needed to really show people what I saw. 

I have favourite subjects that I return to again and again, like my beloved crows, but I study everything - always seeking to learn more about the world so I can develop new techniques. My wildlife work informs my monster drawings, the reflection in a droplet taught me how water distorts and inverts. It's partly why I love commission work so much, because I never know what I will be asked for next and it turns up subjects I may never have got to by myself.

If you want to know how all this looks from the picture's point of view, here's my one and only self portrait.