On leaving school he attended the Norwich School of Art and Design for a year’s Foundation Course after which he decided to pursue a career in classical portraiture.

To fulfil this wish he trained at the Charles Cecil Studios in Florence.  The tradition here stems directly from the leading ateliers of nineteenth century Paris and extends back through the French and British schools to such masters as  Van Dyck, Velasquez, and Titian, finding its conception in the theory and practice of Leonardo da Vinci.  Students are schooled in a rigorous programme of life drawing, still life, plaster cast drawing and portraiture.

Crispin spent three years in Florence learning how to draw  in charcoal and later how to paint in oil.

On leaving the Charles Cecil School  in 2001 at the age of 22 Crispin began taking on portrait commissions.