INH: I started joining in challenges about a year or so ago when I joined some forums and they became available to me. Working as much as I do, I had fallen into the bad habit of not sketching for my own sake. I felt stifled. My initial toe dip in the waters of challengedom were simply to get me doing a bit of sketching. Such is the friendly competitiveness of the scene, though it quickly escalated into giving me more than I expected.

a) It's great to be given a loose brief, saves you from having to provide the initial germ of an idea.
b) You still have the choice whether to take part if the brief doesn't inspire you.
c) Yes, you can be more experimental knowing that your livelihood doesn't depend on it.
d) You'll get good banter and feedback on the way, as well as seeing how others react to the same brief. The sheer variety of response and it ingenuity constantly surprises me. That feeds into my actual work too. And I've made some good friends through it as well.
e) You don't have to submit the final piece if you don't finish or just don't like it. There is no pressure except that which you put on yourself. It’s pretty liberating huh?

IA: What is it that gives you the sensation that an illustration is finished?

NH: Usually, it's that the clock comes and beats me over the head with both the big and the small hand. Apart from that, I come to a point where I can almost not bear to look at it. I am the worst at knowing when a piece works and can be left alone. I would still fettle every bit to a finish, despite the fact that I adore the painterly work of others and the freedom of its 'hinted at' quality. It must go back to that storytelling drive in me that wants to explain all the details about a character and their history. The word 'anal' springs to mind. Yet at the same time, I'm impatient about doing it. Go work that one out.

IA: How would you like people to see your artwork?

NH: Probably no differently than a lot of artists I speak with. It's an ego thing, in that we would ideally like to be admired for our skill, talent and have people like us too. And can I have an ice cream as well, with a cherry on top. Ego is a lot of what drives me as well I suppose. I want to get better and better at what I do, whatever “better” is, because it seems like I see others improving all the time, as well as coming out of the womb more talented than I'll ever be. Therapy beckons?

NH: Traditional: Caravaggio, John William Waterhouse, Stanhope Forbes, Lady Butler, Edmund Dulac, Norman Rockwell, Ian McCaig, Paul Bonner, Alan Lee (his older stuff), Rien Poortvliet, P, J Lynch, J,P. Monge…gosh there's just too many to mention.
Digital: Simon Dominic Brewer, Viktor Titov…here I go again, there's just too many to mention here too

IA: If someone offers you a classical painting for your home, whatever the price :-), what artist or painting would you choose?

NH: Lady of Shalott by J.W Waterhouse

IA: Can you tell us about your influences?

NH: That might be easier for someone other than myself to answer, like maybe that therapist I mentioned earlier that I might need. Pretty much everything I've ever experienced and every artist, film, book I've ever looked at. My sense of humor, passed on from my father to me (yep he's to blame), was heavily molded in that arena to like things like Monty Python, The Young Ones and the Lord of the Rings and the Gormenghast trilogy. Going to college has a similar effect on your thinking. That's where I found out about the American school of illustration influenced by the likes of Howard Pyle and N.C Wyeth. There's another whole raft of that type of illustration that I have immense respect for. And you tend to try and emulate what you admire.