hesir's profile

I’m an illustrator/designer (themeparks, visitor/heritage attractions, exhibitions etc), 37, single, and an insomniac northerner (born in Withernsea, East Yorkshire) now lost in the south (Halstead, Essex). I moved here following ten and a half idyllic years in my favourite city, Norwich.

Over the years I have sold fish, sat in holes, been frowned at by old ladies, balanced empty glasses and made sure elves were fireproof before sending them to Finnish Lapland; all for money…

I now draw pirates (amongst other things) for a living.

Regardless, I’m currently looking to relocate back to East Yorkshire or thereabouts, any help job hunting would be more than welcome. I’m here to post the odd doodle and some prose with any luck.

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I’m an illustrator/designer (themeparks, visitor/heritage attractions, exhibitions etc), 37, single, and an insomniac northerner (born in Withernsea, East Yorkshire) now lost in the south (Halstead, Essex). I moved here following ten and a half idyllic years in my favourite city, Norwich.

Over the years I have sold fish, sat in holes, been frowned at by old ladies, balanced empty glasses and made sure elves were fireproof before sending them to Finnish Lapland; all for money…

I now draw pirates (amongst other things) for a living.

Regardless, I’m currently looking to relocate back to East Yorkshire or thereabouts, any help job hunting would be more than welcome. I’m here to post the odd doodle and some prose with any luck.

I’ve travelled with work a great deal (Europe, Scandinavia and the US – well Florida [strange pastel coloured place, they dislike people who walk, but I liked the Pelicans.])... and I’m supposed to be getting out to South Africa later this year. I have hitchiked a lot (no really, a lot) in this country, but overall would still like to travel more.

I’m learning to play the guitar and the banjo and have these ridiculous aspirations to be a writer.

Likes include:

Mythology, pre-Tudor history, Irish/European fiddle music, trawling for and buying second-hand books, traditional pub names, Goulash, the size of St. Bernard dogs heads!, frosty mornings & snowball fights, rock & blues bars with duke-boxes, reading on long bus journeys, flying during sunrise, lists, The Baltic Coast, women with accents, subtitled movies, biting comedy, arguing about “Art”, watching “Black Books” and “Spaced” with friends, walking around cities for the first time, learning something new, red-heads, hitch-hiking, Drew Barrymore’s wierd smile, liver & onions with bacon, irony, contemporary resonances in mythologies, Ben & Jerry’s ice cream at the cinema, unpacking, first kisses, elephants!, discovering the origins of words, my job, the sound that jackdaws make, just sitting outside cafes with a book or good friends, green eyes, stuff that works, seeing the blue or orange flash of a kingfisher on the water, road-trips with friends, army boots, pelicans, sketchbook doodles, unconditional friendships and affection, museums, boats, monumental sculpture, the eerie labyrinthine maze of fact and fiction that is the internet, women with Mohawks & tattoos, castles, “magical-realism”, lighthouses, olives & scotch-eggs (the prince of foods).

My dislikes:

Turnip, trifle, spiders, “reality” TV, pretty much everything about Robert Kilroy Silk… and midget gems.

I’m an enthusiastic reader of both fiction and non-fiction, with an avid interest in the arts, history (particularly Viking & ancient Mesopotamian) and comparative mythology.

I haven’t owned a TV for about six years but when I did I enjoyed “Black Books”, “Spaced”, and I like what I caught of “Deadwood”, “Rome”, “Vincent”, “CSI” and from way back… Bagpuss.

Music? Rock/Indie/Punk/Prokofiev/Folk & Blues, Gothic Americana… basically any music with fiddles and guitars…

i.e. Mark Lanagan, Tom Waits, William Elliot Whitmore, Daniel Perrson, Jay Munly (& the Lee Lewis Harlots), Thirty Pounds Of Bone, C.W. Stoneking, Seasick Steve, Strawfoot, Woven Hand, 16 Horsepower, QOTSA, Foo Fighters, The Twilight Singers …the list goes on…

Books? All Time Favourites?

The Deptford Trilogy & The Rebel Angels – Robertson Davies
Outside the Dog Museum – Jonathan Carroll
American Gods – Neil Gaiman
The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay – Michael Chabon
The Forgetting Room – Nick Bantock

...and then in no particular order,

The Death and Life of Miguel de Cervantes – Stephen Marlowe
The Good Fairies of New York – Martin Millar
Norwegian Wood – Haruki Murakami
Baltazar and Blimunda – Jose Saramago
Grendel – John Gardener
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater – Kurt Vonnegut
Long John Silver – Bjorn Larsson
Name of the Rose – Umberto Eco
One Hundred Years of Solitude – Gabriel Garcia Marquez
The Three Musketeers/Ten Years After – Alexander Dumas
Iron Council – China Meiville
Labyrinths – Jorge Luis Borges
Hawksmoor – Peter Ackroyd
The Alienist – Caleb Carr
The Falls – Ian Rankin
The Last Kingdom & The Pale Horseman – Bernard Cornwell

…any of the “Rebus” novels by Ian Rankin
…any of the “Hap & Leonard” novels by Joe R. Lansdale
... any of the “Burke” novels by Andrew Vachs
…any of the Conan stories by Robert E. Howard…
and the Gresham books by MArtin Stephen.

...and of course the collected H.P. Lovecraft and Poe.

Favourites films?
The Fisher King
Brotherhood of The Wolf
Silverado
Bringing Up Baby
A Very Long Engagement
A Touch Of Evil
Quills

...again the list could run and run.

So that’s me in a much too large for a regular nut nutshell…