My interest in special effects began when I was about 14 years old.  I had been drawing for my entire life up until that point and had dreams to be a painter or illustrator (my biggest inspirations at the time were the great Renaissance masters and Norman Rockwell).  However, when I saw "Jurassic Park" in 1993 my life was changed forever.  My eyes were instantly opened to an art form that I never really knew existed before that point, and it was all I could think about.  It haunted me.  I had an unquenchable thirst to learn everything there was to know about creature effects and special makeup effects, and I spent the next 5-6 years of my life studying the history and techniques of the industry. 
 
It's important to note that even though "Jurassic Park" was a groundbreaking film in regards to the use of CGI, it was the area of practical effects that was the focus of my passion.  It was the work of artists like Rick Baker, Dick Smith, Stan Winston, Rob Bottin and Jim Henson that consumed me during this point in my life.  Over the past decade we've seen practical effects take a major back seat to CGI in films and the industry is not what it used to be.  I still have a passionate interest in special effects, but in hindsight I'm extremely grateful for my current career path.  In addition to the lack of work opportunities in practical special effects, it's also not a very family-friendly line of work which is something that's very important to me.

I've always been a big fan of The Incredible Hulk.  It probably stems from watching the TV show when I was a kid, but I've become a big fan of the character in comics over the years as well.  I'd love to say something very intelligent about the literary genesis of the character or his metaphoric symbolism, but in reality I just think he's a COOL character with a very rich graphic history.  Guys like Jack Kirby and Sal Buscema are my heroes!

Quitting art school perhaps limited my growth as an illustrator, but I believe leaving art school created many valuable opportunities for me and was ultimately one of the best decisions I ever made.  The training at Kansas City Art Institute was top notch, and is an invaluable tool for someone hoping to better themselves as an artist.  However, I felt like there was a lack of attention devoted to preparing students for the "real world" after college.  I had plans to get married and raise a family (I've been married for 9 years now and have 3 kids!) and I didn't see myself making ends meet as a "gallery artist"...  And unless I wanted to go into graphic design, there wasn't much training available that I considered a practical investment.  Besides, the studios in Hollywood who were in my crosshairs didn't give a lick about where or how you were educated, as long as you could get the job done, and there wasn't an ounce of material offered at KCAI that applied to the skills needed for special effects work.  I spent a couple summers working in the trenches for a small FX shop in North Hollywood and learned a lot more than I would have learned in 4 years of art school.  Once again, I'm not discounting the value of art school education in any way, I'm only commenting on how it applies to field of special makeup effects!  Ultimately of course, through an unexpected series of circumstances, I found myself pursuing a career in the toy & collectible industry and working with another set of skills that would not have been cultivated in art school. 

Unfortunately my present answer is "no"....  Not because I don't enjoy other forms of art, but because I don't have the luxury of "spare time" these days!  The truth is I do have the time to work on personal projects if I really wanted, but my family is my priority right now and I try to spend every spare minute with my wife and children.  Thankfully, I do often get my creative "fix" through my day-to-day work, as much of the subject matter I get to tackle is pretty fun stuff.  I do look forward to spending more time on personal work when the kids are grown and I've got some more time to myself.

I'm a firm believer that the most successful superhero and/or fictional character artists are those who have a great understanding of real life anatomy.  I think it's crucial to study real human anatomy before attempting to portray stylized anatomy in a drawing or sculpture, as the understanding (or lack thereof) of the former will always show through in the latter.  Sometimes an artist will use comic stylization to mask their limited anatomy skills and the final product suffers from it.  I definitely think sculpting a realistic human form is more challenging than sculpting a superhero or fictional character, but a good rendering of a fictional character relies on the same foundation.

I believe techniques can be learned, but I also believe that there is such thing as God-given talent that can not be taught.  Without innate artistic talent, a person could never be taught to sculpt the Pieta or paint like Lucian Freud.  Having said that, I've always said that I consider myself a craftsman, not an artist.  I don't have the creative chops to call myself an "artist"...  I've developed a lot of technical skills over the years that have gotten me pretty far in my particular line of work.   But I don't have an ounce of the design sense or creative genius as guys like Nirasawa, Takayuki Takeya, Kazuhiro Tsuji, Thomas Kuebler, The Shifflet Brothers, Mark Newman, Jordu Schell, etc.  Those guys think so far outside the box that the box doesn't exist anymore.  Those guys are artists. 

Currently adorning my studio walls are a small collection of vintage magician posters (Houdini, Thurston, Carter the Great), a Tom Waits tour poster, a framed print from The Haunted Mansion (I've got a weakness for old-school Disneyland), some amazing artwork from my friend Adam Hughes, and about 200-300 crayon drawings from my children. :)

This is quite a loaded question as the method tends to vary greatly depending on the nature of the project at hand... But typically everything starts with a concept drawing and a plan.  For example, if I'm going to sculpt an action figure---  I'll get a concept drawing from the client.  Sometimes control art is created specifically for the project, or sometimes I'll simply be asked to use a collection of existing comic book artwork as reference.  I'm an absolute freak when it comes to reference no matter what the job is, I surround myself with as much printed reference as I possibly can for any given subject.  Once I've got the reference in place and have nailed down the details (such as pose, expression, size, articulation, etc) I will begin sculpting. 
 
For the actual sculpting process I don't actually have a specific method I follow, I'm very un-scientific when it comes to my traditional sculpting work.  The only "rules" that I generally repeat with every piece is to start with the broad strokes, so to speak, and gradually tighten it up.  As with 2D figure drawing, it's important to establish balance and gesture first and foremost, and master the overall form of the subject before thinking about any fine detail work.  Clean detail and "finesse" on a sculpture are things that often make the difference between a professional piece and an amateur effort, but without proper attention to the forms and underlying anatomy it's destined for failure.

The Vincent maquette is my own little tribute to director Tim Burton, who has always been an inspiration to me.  Very early in his career Burton made a short animated film called "Vincent" about a boy who dreams he is Vincent Price.  I adore the short film and made this little statue for a close friend of mine who's also a Burton nut.  The sculpting itself is a little crude but I think that adds to his character.  :)

This was a big challenge for me because it was the largest figural sculpture I had done at the time.  The size itself wasn't necessarily the big deal, but the fact that this piece needed to be molded and reproduced as a prototype---and therefore shipped in the mail (because I didn't have the facilities to mold it myself)---- meant that I needed to go outside my comfort zone a little.  Typically I would have used a soft oil-based or water-based clay to sculpt a figure that large, but since the final sculpture needed to be shipped and handled I had to use polymer clay which can be baked and cured to a rigid final state.  Designing the figure and rendering the anatomy was a blast, especially considering that I'm a huge fan of the character.  But there was a bit of a learning curve as I had not sculpted a piece that massive before with polymer clay, things like creating the support structure and modifying my oven to fit the mass of the figure were a little tricky!