No.

These days I just use 3DS MAX and Photoshop, occasionally Premiere.

Some. I've dabbled with Painter and experimented with an early version of Z Brush. I've never used Maya or Lightwave. I've got nothing against these other programmes, but I find 3DS MAX and Photoshop do everything I need at the moment.

In my spare time, lunch hours etc. My favourite time to work is late at night when the house is quiet.

Mostly from what I see around me, and found objects these days.
Music can often inspire an image, such as the Satie series, Rockcrawler (drum & bass), Shopping List (Bevis Frond) and Golden Void (Hawkwind).

When I was a kid, I was heavily influenced by English illustrators such as Patrick Woodroffe, Rodney Mathews, Ian Miller & Michael English. I was also mad on comics, espescially 2000AD, and the movie Star Wars.

Whilst at art college, I was looking at the work of film makers such as Jan Svanmajer, the Brothers Quay, Bergman, Tarkovsky and Peter Greenaway. Also underground comic artists such as Dave Sheridan, Robert Crumb, Hunt Emerson, Sergio Aragones etc. As well the Pre-Raphaelites, H.R. Giger, Durer, William Morris, Schiele, Alphonse Mucha.

Nowadays there are a whole host of artists that I admire on the internet. Check out the Links page.

Nope. Usually when I start a piece, it takes on a life of its own and I tag along for the ride - I never plan ahead. Sometimes I will jot down ideas on sticky notes or scraps of paper so I will remember them, but I usually lose them anyway.

It's quick and easy to set up, no easles, big canvases and materials everywhere. The images can be easily manipulated, altered and deleted. One model can yield many images and you are not constrained by any annoying real-world factors such as gravity or material properties.

All images tend to have a cold, hard-edged c.g. feel. It's not as easy to be as spontaneous and immediate as it is with a stick of charcoal or a brush. You are removed from the image you are creating. Nothing can replace the creative process of working with hands-on traditional materials.

When I was working in restoration, many of the timepieces I had on my bench had been hand made over one or two hundred years ago. Some of the tools I used could be 50 or 60 years old (my watchmakers lathe dates from the 1930s). The people who I worked with (Silversmiths, Jewellers, Engravers etc) were true crafstmen in the traditional sense of the word. Many of them had spent their whole life honing their art, yet were incredibly humble.

Now I sit behind a computer all day using programmes that can become obsolete in a couple of years. The tools that I use are all mass produced and I have very little knowledge of how they work. The Internet is full of stunning imagery created by kids half my age.

Having being involved with both these worlds that are so exactly opposite to one another has certainly given me a unique perspective on my profession and on my life.