I went to study illustration at Brighton College of Art in 1980 where I made large freehand perspective drawings of buildings. During my second year, I discovered the historical reconstruction drawings of the artists Alan Sorrell and David Macaulay. This was an important turning point for me and I began experimenting with my first cutaways and cross-section drawings to show how castle defences worked.

I started working as a freelance illustrator in 1985. Initially I thought I might work somewhere like the National Trust or English Heritage creating explanatory drawings of historic buildings, but I found this area too dry and limiting. There were many better opportunities for me in adult and children's publishing where I had some freedom of expression to try and bring subjects to life.

At this early stage, I often struggled as a commercial artist because I seemed to lean naturally towards wanting to put far too much detail into my work and as a result taking far too long. However, in 1989 I had a stroke of good fortune, the detailed illustrations I had been making for Mitchell Beazley and Octopus Books attracted the attention of Dorling Kindersley. I created a test piece for them of a cross-sectioned Ocean Liner which was a gatefold spread nearly 1m wide. Peter Kindersley told me ‘Take as long as you like.’

So I now had an opportunity to develop a highly detailed labour-intensive style of illustration that included lots of people and extra content. I found I could create an overwhelmingly detailed effect by simply going over my finished pencil drawing with a waterproof rOtring pen ink line.