Yinka Shonibare: in the studio

Yinka Shonibare is a British-Nigerian artist and Royal Academician. The 53-year-old, who studied at Goldsmiths and was nominated for the Turner Prize in 2004, explores race, colonialism and class in his work, using painting, sculpture and photography. In 2012, his large-scale installation Nelson's Ship in a Bottle was displayed on the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square. Shonibare has now created an enormous wrap consisting of more than 160 black and white photographs to cover the facade the RA while the building is being renovated ahead of the RA's 250th anniversary in 2018. RA Family Album, 2016, features photographs of, among many others, David Attenborough, Michael Craig-Martin and Mary Beard.

I am in the studio at unconventional times. I get up at 9am and usually go to bed between midnight and 2am, depending on how late I'm working. I prefer to work late.

I do important things immediately after breakfast, such as my physio. I use a wheelchair, so I need to keep fit because it's not good to sit for long periods of time. Then I look at my post and deal with emails. Sometimes there are things I need to research, so I try and do that before I go into the studio.

I have a small studio at home in Victoria Park. The studio door opens right out onto the garden, so it feels as if you are actually outside. This is where I do my drawings and come up with ideas. I also do a lot of reading in there because I like the light. It’s a very peaceful place. Psychologically, spending time in there removes me from the house.

The other studio, which is bigger, is more for coordinating. It's an old warehouse on a corner of Broadway Market in east London. It faces the canal and you can see the boats go past. There is also a small gallery here, so it is a more sociable space. Because of the nature of my work, I collaborate with a lot of people. This is where we all meet.

Luckily, the people who work in the studio keep it presentable. The paperwork on my desk at home does pile up – but I know where everything is.

• Robert Crumb: in the studio

I like to listen to music when I work. There’s a radio station called KCRW Eclectic 24 I've taken to because it plays all kinds of music. The wide range of sounds keeps me focused and absorbed in what I'm doing.

I tend to work for long periods of time. I do have breaks but, once I'm focused, I can work for at least two to three hours without stopping.

I have the work of other artists in my house – not mine. Well, maybe one of my prints, but mostly I collect friends' work. I have work by Angela de la Cruz, Bob and Roberta Smith and a photograph by an artist called Hew Locke.

I'm very interested in lots of other art forms. It's not just visual art I take inspiration from. I like theatre, design, dance and architecture. I'm working on a major architectural project in Nigeria at the moment.

I tend to work on many projects at the same time – works on paper, sculpture, installation, public art. All these things are happening simultaneously.

I don't actually think a piece of work is ever finished. There's always something more that can be done. I'm constantly thinking about what more can be added or removed from a piece to complete it, to make it better. Sometimes it's simply a case of trying to judge when you have done enough.

Sometimes I produce better art than at other times. Sometimes the ideas are – how shall we put it – c**p. There are times when your creative juices are plentiful, and then there are times when ideas are sparse and you don't have such a rich well to draw from. But I can't explain that logically.

• Rachel Howard: in the studio

Things change when art becomes your job. Suddenly you have deadlines and you have to be professional about it. You have to train train yourself to deal with this. We all have various things happening in our lives all of the time. If you have a downer in your personal life, you still have to work, so you just work. You have to get through it. I mean, it takes years to master that but when you get to a certain point, you just work regardless.

If I wasn't being paid for making art, I’d still do it anyway. It's more than a job, it's your lifestyle. The boundaries between the personal and professional are blurred because there’s a spiritualism in art. It's linked to your persona, to who you are.

Art is about making connections. My ideas are shaped by things, events, performances, even by current affairs and politics. And then I have an archive of things in my head as well, be that literature or mythology. It’s about linking all that together.

The invention of the iPhone has been very useful. If I have an idea in a very odd place, I will put it into my notes because you can't forget things. Sometimes, of course, you look back at something and think, 'no, that's rubbish, I'm not going to use that.' At other times, the idea is great and you can build on it and develop it. Lots of ideas require more research into other areas.

I was part of a book club in Brick Lane until recently. But I haven't actually read any fiction for a while because I'm currently researching African and Christian religions, looking at faith and religious iconography. I'm not religious myself but I'm fascinated by belief.

I belong to a number of private members' clubs. I'm also a member of the Royal Academy and often there are events I have to attend in the evenings. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, though, I try to fit friends and other activities in, to catch up on my personal life.

I get at least seven hours of sleep a night. I love my sleep.