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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Hirudo's LiveJournal:

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    Sunday, July 20th, 2008
    9:01 pm
    Hee!
    I am amused to discover that a new vampire series from HBO,True Blood , is debuting on my birthday in the US.

    I'm also pretty damn pleased that inspiration finally struck for the story I need to write and draw for Accent UK's Predators anthology. I'm calling it 'They Licked the Platter Clean'. It'll be interesting to see if I can manage the particular storywriting problems that short comic stories present.
    I should really be drawing the Misty stuff at the mo but, dammit, it took six months for this inspiration to finally hit, so it gets priority today!
    Friday, July 18th, 2008
    10:47 pm
    *does the happy dance*
    I am now on my six weeks of summer holiday as of this afternoon, and to cap it all one of my work colleagues reckoned I was in my mid twenties. Obviously all that virgin blood is paying off.

    Main plans for hols are to draw comics, sew and make stuff.

    The Top Secret Assignment was finished earlier this week and handed over to the client yesterday, and now I've just got to do my Misty story by the end of the month. Trying a different technique with that one so we'll see how that goes.

    Dammit, I had slightly more interesting things to say but my brain's gone to mush.
    Monday, June 30th, 2008
    6:12 pm
    *squee!*
    My flatmate has just given me a bag of fabric! It's a beautiful black heavyweight upholstery fabric; sort of like a velvety chenille with a wavey pattern, that has a slightly irridescent sheen to it. Looks like a couple of metres worth. Apparently one of his friends works for an architectural company and she gets sent samples.

    Given the weight of it I might make it into a jacket.

    Cor, it really is quite stunning.

    Lol, I am doing artwork too, not just slobbering over all my fabric stash!
    Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
    7:35 pm
    Just to prove that goths can wear white......
    Here's a pic of me from last Saturday night when I went to Rockabaret;



    No way would I wear this dress without the corset though- it'd just be too much white for a chubster like me to carry off, and it'd end up being all a bit too much Michelin Man methinks ;p

    Meanwhile Radiohead are playing a gig a few 100 yards away tonight in Victoria Park. Due to the freaky acoustics of our block of flats though I can sit out on the balconey and hear everything incredibly clearly. On the downside though this place is crawling with indie kids and has been for hours now- there were tons of them walking from Mile End tube as I left work shortly after 4pm today.
    Wednesday, June 18th, 2008
    3:11 pm
    Argh, last night I dreamt of Amy Winehouse, which was utterly bizarre. I think it's her hair and the fact that it's reaching Hewligan's Haircut proportions......
    Friday, June 13th, 2008
    12:00 am
    Lol! Dan's managed to get Alan Dale's (Jim Robinson from Neighbours)autograph this evening, as he was drinking in the same pub as us.

    Dan! Scan it in and post it on your LJ! Both sides ;p
    Tuesday, May 27th, 2008
    3:13 pm
    Finally! More Dragon Empire.
    So a while ago I posted the pencils from a page of Dragon Empire - You can view the original post and the page here

    I had several of the finished pages from DE in my portfolio at Bristol this year but I think hardly anyone on my friendslist here will have seen those, so here for your delectation is the finished painted page;



    Yep, this is fully digital painting (done in Photoshop)and, yes, that's the style that DE is done in. It's possible I may still need to lighten these up as my print-outs for Bristol were a bit on the dark side, though how much of that was due to the printer I've no idea. It's one of those things that seems tricky to get right when you're new to digital painting, but I'm working on it.

    And before anyone asks- yes, I did pick one of the most visually obtuse pages on purpose. I guarantee it does make perfect sense with the caption boxes on it!
    Saturday, May 24th, 2008
    10:01 pm
    More Eurovision
    Oh yes, I'm cheering for Iceland.

    Also; is it just me or did Portugal's entry sound like Army of Lovers' 'Crucified'?
    7:54 pm
    Do not disturb.....
    I is watching ze Eurovision!
    Saturday, May 17th, 2008
    5:56 pm
    I'm sat in the living room today with Rob's ancient laptop, trying to catch up with some long overdue replies to emails (if you've been waiting ages to hear from me you might finally get a response!) and watching some stuff on the DVR that I've not had the time to watch.

    One of those things is part 2 of the film 'Flood' and, oh my god, I have to say it's absolutely abysmal. Awful acting, characters that are terminally stupid, irritating and jerky camerawork- oh, the list goes on! It's the film equivalent of chomping down on bacofoil. It's so bad I think it's making me grumpy. Can I clench my teeth and make it through to the end, or will I throw something at the TV? Time will tell.
    Thursday, May 15th, 2008
    8:55 pm
    Argh, have lost loads of time this evening on Photoshop Disasters. Some gobsmackingly bad stuff.

    And just as I was writing this post we had a blackout in Bethnal Green, followed shortly by loads of fire engines wailing away up the streets.

    God knows what's going on- I'm going to bed!
    Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
    9:40 pm
    Post Bristol part one
    Blargh.....

    Back at work today after getting back from the Comic Expo some time between 8-9pm last night. I'm pretty brain dead today, as well as feeling bloated and sluggish from all the fast food and drink that I had the past couple of days, so right now I'm quite envious of anyone who had today off ( I'm looking at you, Dan and Skinner!), especially as it's still so nice outside.

    My ideal day today would have been a nice long lie-in, followed by sitting on the balcony with an ice-cold drink (probably not alcoholic though!) and reading comics and magazines that have been waiting to be read for ages. Oh... and catching up on all my recorded TV.

    Hmmmm, maybe I'll do that tonight, as I'm certainly not up to anything that requires me using my brain.

    Aaaaaaanyway.....Bristol was fun, although over and done with alarmingly quickly. Mind you, my liver's probably glad of that. The trip down on Friday was horrendous for the time it took (five and a half hours) due to traffic, but due to the excellent company kept it really wasn't so bad at all.

    Once at the Ramada Friday night was a typically epic night- we got started on the drinking almost immediately. Food became a bit of a problem as we discovered all the room service staff had been forced to staff the bar, meaning that there was no way of getting anything to eat by the time we even thought of it. Fortunately I was saved by the fact that Tony Lee had managed to order in a load of pizza, and so I nobbled some slices at about 2am. By that time and due to the fact that I'd not had anything proper to eat all day it ended up being the best damn tasting pizza ever!

    As I wasn't scheduled for anything over the weekend........

    OMG, I'm still writing this entry on Tuesday.

    .....I wasn't in a hurry to get to the convention hall so Rob and I spent time stuffing our faces with as much from the breakfast buffet as possible so that we wouldn't need to eat until late evening, and so didn't end up waddling to the hall until gone past midday.
    The queue at that point was quite long, with quite a few cosplayers sweating in badly made costumes ( oh, how we laughed!) whilst us fortunate guests got ushered in through the back entrance. Stealth arrival!

    And now it's Wednesday, so I'm going to post this and get back to it when I'm not so busy
    Sunday, May 4th, 2008
    7:03 pm
    The things you stumble across...
    So today I got an email from my website provider saying I'd nearly exceeded my disk space. In the process of sorting that out I had a gander at my website's stats and discovered some hotlinking of my images.

    The one that amused me the most though was this one;

    What appears to be a Russian comics forum where I assume they're discussing Top Cow

    where my Witchblade Redux pic is posted along with a load of other Top Cow stuff. As I can't read Russian I can't actually tell if they've mistaken my work for something officially for TC, but it made me laugh anyway.

    My website host does provide a hotlinking blocker as part of it's package but I don't think I'll be using it for the time being- I don't particularly mind this sort of hotlinking where people are just discussing the work, but using it for avatars,etc, might make me use it in the future if it becomes a problem. I've got quite a lot of bandwidth which, even with nearly 200 hits a day to the website, it's barely making a dent, but I'll have to see what the future brings- I'm not exactly a well known name yet.

    Current Mood: amused
    12:19 am
    "...it's not the worst thing you've caught me doing..."
    Just got back from watching Iron Man at the cinema.

    So.Fucking.Awesome!

    It was Rob's birthday today so going to see that was my present for him, but it wasn't as if it was a hardship for me. Loved, loved, loved all the suit action scenes- moments of pure *squee*, great dialogue and it was all pretty snappy. I have to admit that I fell in love with the way the Mk 2 suit was designed- the computer aided design was in itself incredibly well thought out, and I got that wierd excitement when you see something and you know that that really is The Future.

    I think this is the first film that's been purely produced by Marvel- hopefully it bodes well for the filmic future of their properties. Of course I'm still ever hopefully of a big screen version of Morbius!

    Tamsin- if you read this- tell Adi his suit designs were amazing. Rob was waxing lyrical about it after the film! Lovely work!
    Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
    11:46 pm
    Bloody knackered.

    First of the photography exams finished today, next one starts tomorrow, and another three weeks of them to go for Art.
    Just hit the first deadline of a concept design gig, and so looking forward to rolling into bed in a few minutes. Gonna take tomorrow off and read the rest of my latest copy of Fortean Times.

    My new business cards arrived at the end of last week and they look fabulous! Very,very chuffed. Just got to finish pulling stuff together for the portfolio and then I should be all ready for Bristol. Can't quite believe it's only a week and a half away!

    Nighty-night, chums.
    Monday, April 14th, 2008
    11:33 pm
    Here's one I made earlier....


    I bit the bullet and whipped up a new business card this morning, and took advantage of Vistaprint's deals that they offer every day. So, 250 new cards for £6. Not too shabby, though I'm cutting it a little fine with the timing. Last time I ordered from them I did it way back in March.
    Sunday, April 13th, 2008
    2:55 pm
    Doctor Who pic


    A little bit of art to show off. This is my contribution to the Doctor Who book that currently being put together by Jay Eales and co. I went with the earlier, more Byronic features of Colin Baker before he started to bloat out.

    Remembered this morning that Bristol is creeping ever closer and I've still got stuff to finish so they can go in the portfolio for this year round. I'm just hoping that the digital stuff prints out ok! I would have like to have got some new business cards printed too but it's looking increasingly unlikely.
    Saturday, April 12th, 2008
    3:03 pm
    Adventures in Wasabi paste
    So, I've got loads of stuff to write about on my LJ but I'm going to put it all aside for a moment for Wasabi paste.

    I love sushi but up until recently the only thing I'd add to it was soy sauce. However a few months ago I was feeling adventurous and decided to try out the sachet of Wasabi that usually accompanies the box sets of sushi. Twas a revelation, dear peeps, and I instantly fell in love!

    Cut to yesterday and I'm in Tescos. As a treat I buy a box of sushi but as I'm looking around for where the buggers have moved the risotto rice I stumble across a new product they're stocking- tubes of Wasabi paste! Not only is it a virulent green colour compared to the brownish stuff from the sushi boxes but, as I discover later as tears stream down my happy face, it's a lot hotter than the sachet wasabi.

    Of course on the carton containing the tube of this green wonder there are, of course, serving suggestions. Goes well with salad or noodles, apparently.

    Well, friends, I have decided to see what else wasabi will go with and today I have started with Tesco's own Hot and Spicy sausage from the hot deli.
    Chopped into chunks suitable for dipping with wasabi on one side of the dish and mayo on the other.

    Verdict? Om nom nom nom!
    Thursday, April 3rd, 2008
    1:45 pm
    Argggh,rage!
    Seriously pissed off right now.

    My tickets for IAMX tonight, that I ordered way back at the beginning of March, have still not arrived in the post. All emails to EEEtickets bounce back to me immediately and no-one's answering the any of the phone numbers I've called. Some bloody customer service,eh?

    I've got my order confirmation and receipt printed off at home and I'm just hoping that they'll accept that I've ordered the tickets and let me in when we get there tonight.

    Not fucking happy though. Shit will kick off if I don't get in.

    Current Mood: Livid
    Wednesday, March 26th, 2008
    9:23 pm
    Ugh, had to take the day off work today as I woke up with a migraine, as well as feeling rather unsteady on my feet. Felt like alot of pressure in my frontal lobes. Still got the bastard but I'm trying to beat it down with painkillers and copious amounts of rest.

    Of course this has to happen when I have a deadline looming for next Monday. It's been bad enough that inspiration for the necessary piece has taken a while to arrive- I spent the whole weekend musing over what to do and typically the inspiration that did hit me was for a jacket (which I promptly made) and another, entirely unrelated, illustration, but the actual divine spark I needed didn't strike until last night. Bah.

    Ah well, I'm not too worried yet, I can usually get an illo done in a day so I've still got a good amount of time.

    Stupid brain.
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