Haven't done a blog in far too long! .... 8 months apparently.
I have been pretty lazy to be honest. A lot of things going on, and not really going on. So I guess I will try my best to give you just the highlights over the last 8 months.

Back In September I discovered that my Redbubble account (my shop) seemed to be slowly picking up so traction. I have made a few more sales that I was completely unaware of. YAY people want to pay me to do arty things!!!

This gave me a bit of a kick up the arse. To try and get back into the way of things. Yes I know I sound like a broken record! 

Since then I now have my own desk set up at home with everything set up and ready to go. I have been researching local artist and looking at so many things. Pinterest is a wonderfully handy tool. I have even started a new sketch book. As if I didn't have enough...

So for a bit of the boring stuff. Since moving in to my house I have been pretending to be a really good cook. I have even been baking! Even using the pears out of my own garden!

I more or less stole these from my Instagram, As you can see I have been doing a lot of baking and a lot of eating. In the last 8 months. 

I have recently made a few very big decisions. I have decided to take the plunge and I have opened my own Etsy store: https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/CraicinDesigns
At the moment I only have 1 listing. I am still working on a few other things. The listing that is currently up allows for a custom portrait or action scene. Such as previous ones I have created below. 

Almost all of these little prints you have seen before but one of them is new.

So one of my good friends, will randomly call me up every so often asking for unique birthday, and engagement gifts. Usually everything he asks me for is themed. Breaking Bad, Fight Club, Jurassic Park. So just when I thought he could shock me. He asked for the above to be made.

Just to clarify what the above is. One of his friends took his girlfriend to New York and proposed to her in Central Park. He sent me a photo of the magical moment, when he popped the question. Then asked could I draw the groom-to-be as Venkman from ghost busters, and the bride-to-be as Miss Piggy from The Muppet's.....

So I did what every artist does and just created what my client asked me for. While the whole time thinking he is totally mental.I have to admit still an awful lot I am not happy with within the image. It took me a week alone to do the New York skyline and trees in Central Park.

So yes. I take completely random requests!

I have also been experimenting with a few others. Here is a little sneek peak:  

none of the above is finished!

It's all just a starting point for me looking into different ways of designing posters for bands, Looking into more detailed patterns, looking into more detail of machines and devices. I am also experimenting with the idea of inspirational quotes and the idea of creating a scene or back ground that is just as powerful as the quote.

So It's all happening. Slowly, but surely. I have also been getting back into designing some wedding stationery. I currently have three brides, which is fantastic! one who continuity changes her mind. however it can sometimes be frustrating. I am getting more design trials done and these can be used for perhaps other clients down the road.

I am trying to keep a positive spin on things. That's all from me, I will try to get back into writing a blog at the end/beginning of every month.

Happy Pancake Day! and belated valentines day!
​So a hell of a lot of stuff has happened in this short little month, all good and I'd even go as far to say great things!

Yep, I said it! and it is all a little scary too.
So first of all, I got a promotion in work to starting to design some wedding stationary. I am having an absolute blast! I was a little worried about getting back into things but I have been designing a few things such as order of services, RSVP's, wedding invitations. I even have my first wedding customers. It's all very slow at the moment, the usual you get with clients.... they give you such little information on what they want. So you do your best. Then when you go back to them, they want something completely different. It's all part of the job.

Here is what I designed. The top three designs are in order, wedding day invite, RSVP, and order of service. the bottom three are basically the inside or the other side of these.
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​I even got a new computer with my promotion and everything! 

before and after

It's so pretty!
​I also had a pretty good Valentines day. If you follow me on instagram you probably already saw it. Came home and my partner just told me we were going to bake. So we made stone age Nordic bread and brownies. I have to admit the Nordic bread was my absolute favorite. So tasty! I think pete has to work on his brownie making skills though :P

Lush!
​As most of you probably already know, I have started to house hunt with my partner, we've even started to shop for our invisible house. Our little Ikea starter kit.

House hunting has been so stressful! but things are definitely looking up, and keeping me super busy!
That's really all from me for this month, next month my post may be a little late due to going on Holiday to none other than....

HAPPY PANCAKE DAY!!

Little bit late with this months blog. I blame Halloween being way too awesome!

So I have actually been up to a lot of stuff this month, not only designing new random things, but...... yea you know what that is basically all I have been doing. So first thing, I am a huge fan of Rock n Roll Bride. and after seeing a photo from their facebook page. I decided to create something a little different.

You may or may not have seen this clue on my Instagram. (little bit of back story) I'm currently working at a printing company, we print a lot of designs for wedding stationery designers soooooooooooooo I thought I'd try my hand at it and after seeing the below picture from the Rock n Roll Bride magazine.  

So you've probably guessed it by now. I made dinosaur themed wedding invitations. Now I haven't yet finished it entirely but you get the idea 

SOOOOOOOOOO MUCH FUN MAKING THIS!!!

So yea hoping this month I will be able to get this finished as well as a few other designs I noticed I started and just due to life I haven't managed to get back to finish. So that is my goal for this month. 

So for Halloween I did a few different things.  

I went to the Crumblin Road Gaol paranormal tour in Belfast. I have to say I didn't see any ghosties, but it was.... interesting, but I have to admit it made me really want to do the actual tour. The most eerie thing that happened on the tour, and also turned out to be the funniest thing. We were standing in the hanging room where they had hung 15 of the 17 men to have been executed at the Gaol (I hope I remembered my numbers right) and when the tour guide began to call upon the last man who had been executed, the whole room fell silent waiting for any noise, any chance of a sign from beyond the grave. All we could hear was an ice cream truck's cheery music about a mile away from the gaol.

Of course there was also pumpkins to be had...... many many pumpkins

I basically sat the rest of Halloween carving pumpkins and watching scary movies. Speaking of scary movies, I even went to see John Carpenter's The Fog in the Barge in Belfast last night. I had never actually seen the movie before, I though it was pretty good. I think I more enjoyed going with my mates though and the atmosphere that was carefully created. 

Back to Dinosaurs!
I unfortunately I was unable to make it to a baby shower this month due to going to see Alien Ant Farm in the Empire in Belfast and pretending to be 15 again..... oops. However I was still asked to design a baby bib.... So I created a dinosaur wearing ox blood red DM boots, with the world ending and aliens coming down to save the dinosaurs........

I'm totally sane........ kinda.
Em..... I think that's really it for this month. literally a lot of dinosaur things and pumpkin carving. Hoping to keep this month just as mad, and as I said earlier hoping to slightly back track and have another look at designs I started a little while ago and just finish them off. 

Also want to wish my partner another Happy Birthday :D
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So this month I actually did stuff, not as much as I would have liked but I have definitely done more. So I have been trying to really get back into my design, have actually been revisiting old work. I have also been experimenting a little bit

So not too sure if you will recognize any of the above. These are from my British classic design project from university a variation of originals shown below and you can also find them in my store:

Annnnnnnnd..... speaking of store, I added 4 of my multi coloured images to my shop, mainly cause I'm still not too happy with 2 of them here is a little snap of what I have added:

I also looked back a little to my think happy thoughts t-shirt. I tweaked it a little bit, I changed some of the colours round, I'm still not happy with it. I may even just re-draw the whole thing.

Before and After, I wanted to make it a little more warmer and I don't know why, but the moutashe colour was annoying me. I felt it had to be a closer colour to the unicorns natural hair colour. Yup.

As I said though I am still not too happy with it, I want to go back and play more with highlights and shadows, or as I said previously just start the drawing again from scratch.

I also went on holiday this month to Portugal.  Literally the first time I have been out of the UK and Ireland in 9 years. It was stunning.

I had a fantastic time, cool beer, hot weather and blue skies. I couldn't ask for anything more. I only wish I had gotten more photos. 

My partner and I are even starting to plan our next holiday to Vegas baby! which should be good. This month I plan on just continuing to design more things, I have realised my portfolio is seriously lacking in so many elements. So I am planning to fix that. I also have more work lined up in the form of labels for some local products. All negotiations are still on going so I can't really talk much about it at the moment, but I am very excited. That's all from me for this month. 

A LOT HAS HAPPENED THIS MONTH!
So, where to start. Logo design for M Mahood Music is done, currently still designing flyers but I am incredibly happy with the outcome, even my client is over the moon with it! Which is the most important thing!

Hopefully my watermark isn't too over powering. But yea, this is what we came up with in the end.  Very impressed it I don't say so myself ;) created using Illustrator and Photoshop. 

Here's a few of the logos that I played around with, before coming to the final:

As you can see some a lot better than others. But there are many different stages that you go through when designing a logo. I had a lot of fun doing this! 

My Silversmithing course, has been very off and on, as I am getting to the stage where, to be honest I don't feel like I'm learning. I have noticed there is a huge difference from being at university and doing a part time course. If you basically showed interest in learning a technique and asked tutors in university, or if it was a tutors specialism. They got super excited and were pretty much awesome with showing you how it worked.

So yea, I am getting to the point that YouTube is probably a better educator that any college or university, as well as cheaper! Which is a bit of a shame, but at the same time, it has made me hungry for knowledge! I've recently been experimenting with copper. Actually been very impressed with all the amazing colours and although I'm kind of doing it to waste time, I’m actually learning a lot from it:

The above is just little pieces I have been experimenting with. Still lots of other stuff I want to experiment with but I have to admit, even experimenting with the different colours that come from the copper. Is amazing, and all I am doing is applying heat in different areas and even experimenting by heating the metal through other pieces of metals.
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It’s all still very small stuff, but I am starting to think about making sculptures, so who knows my next course could be a wielding course, or my YouTube will be full of wielding videos.


I've also been doing more patterns, I have already started my 2nd in the series. I haven't yet put these up on my red bubble, as I am wanting to have at least 3-4 different series of patterns before I do, so here's the first it all it's different variations of glory!

So that's basically what I've been up to this month, I have to admit June may be a bit slow as I am mainly just finishing off work and continuing to experiment with metal work. But I am also off to Glastonbury! So I shall also be putting up lots of pictures of that when I get back, But I think I will do my June blog before I leave for Glastonbury, we will see.

Thanks guys for stopping by, keep your eyes peeled for more pattern designs coming soon and more experiments. Please follow me on Instagram, as I am aiming to try and start posting more things on there!

Long, long time no speak. Firstly, HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!
So yea I have to admit I haven't been up to much. I have done a few wee bits and pieces designing some stuff for a few lovely people, and working my wee bum off in my none arty farty job, which suuuuuuuuuuucccckkkkkssss!!!! 
But we all gotta start from somewhere. So yea, I had a fantastic piece of news over the Christmas holidays that a few of my t-shirt designs sold from my RedBubble store! super happy about that! I have decided to kick my self up my own arse and get back to drawing again. Here are a few recent things I've done:

One of my closest fiends went to a wedding recently and asked if I could design a wedding present for the newly weds. What I love about this is it's so different, very much keeping up with pop culture. Breaking Bad, this was a lot of fun to do, I haven't experimented with using smoke brushes in a very long time.....7 years roughly.... So this was a lot of fun to get back to.

I also have been such a terrible friend, one of my oldest and dearest friends is in an amazing band and every single time he had a gig. I couldn't make it due to working. Sad faces all round :(
So to make up for my absence and still embarrass him as I have been doing over the years at his gigs. I made him a cheesy fan girl t-shirt. This is probably the first one of many that I have made that looks professional   

I actually got this printed on about 5 t-shirts and gave them to everyone at my friends annual Christmas gathering :) it was well worth it!
here's their Facebook page:  ​https://www.facebook.com/paperdogsband/?fref=ts
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/paperdogsband/
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Please like, share, follow and fall in love.

I've even started to experiment with polymer clay. I have to admit I was very much inspired by Amanda Louise Spayd's dolls:

AMAZING AREN'T THEY!!!! So yea I decided to use polymer clay, watched a hell of a lot of youtube videos on it an thought, yea, I can sooooo do this. I even got glass eyes and fake resin teeth (Spayd actually uses real human teeth, I did hunt the web for them but couldn't find them, and then as soon as I said to my partner, 3 clicks and he found them.... had when that happens AND you've already purchased resin teeth....ANYWAY) I wanted to make my own monster.

When I got my polymer clay I was actually super surprised at how tough the clay was to work with. I have worked with clay before and fully loved it, but the polymer was very much a dry touch clay. Even plasticine is so much easier to use.
​But anyways I persevered and created my snot monster Edger:

Thought this was hilarious as the only good things about him such as his eye and teeth, I didn't even make.... LOL but yea I haven't done anymore polymer clay experiments, because of the clay being hard to work with, it has sort of put me off. I still have loads left over so I think once I come up with a better idea of a monster, Ill go back to it. Until then though I have really missed drawing and making the fan girl t-shirt made me realize that. So I have been thinking about going back to the Illustration Friday competitions.

BUT! I'm going to start off gentle, I really like the idea of a word and building on that, but due to not really having much of a social life, I don't know when Ill get it done so I make use one word for over a month, who knows. I've also been thinking back to my old art that I love and actually really miss doing. Been even thinking how I can improve on the ideas, So don't want to give too much away but, I will say that it will be more physical forms of work rather than a pretty picture. Probably more fine art actually when I really think about it. So yea. This year I will hopefully be more balanced art and work wise and who knows hopefully find another job more to do with my art :)

That's all from me hope you've enjoyed, I'm not even going to make a promise of when I will keep up with the blog. But until next time Happy New Year! :)

so, ok. I lied about blogging once a week. things have been a little hectic lately. I got a new job working at a call centre, I also just haven't really felt the want or need to design anything lately. still adjusting to life at home after four years of university, Aswell with the fact that I'm no longer wanting to stay in education. so, sadly I just haven't really done any design stuff..... until last night.

my partner is a gamer, like most folk. he has decided to make a twitch account and for people who don't know what twitch is:

twitch is basically an website/app that you can go onto and watch live streams of people playing a plethora of different games. if you find you like watching a certain player you can follow them and even donate money to them. as far as I'm aware some players are so popular that they actually are able to live off the donations.
Every little gamers dream right?
(I really hope I got all that info right or I'm in trouble..... I'm totally not a gamer)


sooooooooo, my partner asked me to design and create his profile picture, cover photo and any buttons that he has on his profile. Now, anyone who knows my partner, knows he's uppsessed with cats...... see where I'm going with this?

I actually had so much fun doing this.

I have managed to get his profile picture finished, I am currently working on getting his cover photo finished, here is a few of my enitial drawings

it's been a long time since I've last drawn but you get the idea, just imagine it all......waaaaayyyy less scary than my sketches.

so all the little drawings were my ideas for the profile picture. As (I.probably should have mentioned earlier) My partners name on twitch is
"ShleepyPete"

he also sleeps more than most humans... so the idea was basically to make him into a cat, he loves both his cats which are both pure white.

I think I have an image on my site, that i did a few years ago. A game of thrones style portrait. It's of my partner sitting on the iron throne with his two white dare-cats on either side of him.

I'm currently on my phone writing this blog (first time ever) so I don't have the image on my phone to upload, on here. if your interested. it should be on my commissions page.
here's an image however of my partner with one of his cats
(hopefully I won't get murdered for putting it up)

isn't he sooooooooo cute!
talking about the cat here guys... :P

so I based his cat on him, I however didn't include the beard. I sort of felt that the cat it's self had enough fur, never mind the beard.

So here's the finished product, I am actually so pleased with this, I now just have to get the cover photo done and then the buttons that will go on his Twitch account

That's all from me today :)

Long time now blog..... So since my last blog, I had my exhibition, I got my final grade, I've moved back to Northern Ireland and I graduated on Friday there. I have been job hunting, went to Glastonbury and even went to see the tall ships in Belfast.

Yep, a lot of stuff has been happening in the past month!

Here's a few images from my exhibition show, which was a huge success. although I didn't get to sell any of my little playing cards :(
so for anyone who reads my blogs and would like to purchase one of the deck of cards packs, please get in touch! 

Here are some of the very, very few images I took at the exhibition. sorry there isn't that much to see! It was a really great night, there was so much to see and I have to admit I wish I had gone back during the public opening to really have a nosy at all the work there! 

Here are a few pictures from my graduation, I was awarded a 2.2:

It was a great day, super tiring, however completely fantastic!

So at the moment my plan is to just get a job to help out with bills, while I continue to do my art in my spare time. Even to start looking for an internship. So yea, I'm at a very exciting and scary time of my life. In saying that. I'm unsure of how often I will be blogging. I will at least aim for a weekly blog instead :)

So yes, bloggity again in a weeks time :)

So I went into uni today due to my Photoshop and Illustrator prescription being out of date and as I am a poor student, soon to be just poor. I couldn't really afford to keep my subscription. Not going to lie, pretty heart broken about it.  So anyways, I had to re-do my portrait of the eyes open bar-code image. I have 10 different versions of the same image and some really funky looking edits from making the image. So here are my 10 different versions:

Some are very similar and there are little changes, but I am glad to say I have my final, although I know things aren't spelt right, I will make this right tomorrow when I go back to uni. here is my final though with all of the incorrect spellings:

I also want to do a little more detail with the type and make it more glossy and even 3D looking, as I want to give it the effect of it being a glossy gold. 

The rest of my day I have been writing up sketch books and making sure everything is in order, I am sure that tomorrow will be no different with getting my work to a standard that I am happy with.

Today has been a beyond stressful day. I have had problems with my phone not charging as well as stress just with trying to get all my work handed in on time. I had to go get my phone sorted out, which was a joke as I have to get it sent away and I now have a phone that I'm pretty sure is from the stone-age. Although at least it has colour I guess.

So I didn't get as much work done today as I wanted, I have been just more or less writing up things on and off and sorting out my website. As you can see the website is now a little different. As it didn't originally have a little bit about me in the side bar or the categories. So I ended up having to change theme within weebly, but because my logo is a little awkward with being a GIF. I had to edit a bit of the code so it was continue to show up as it is currently. I have to admit I am actually pretty proud of myself, as if someone had asked me six months ago to try and edit some html code, I think I would have cried.  

I am starting to think that I am getting the hang of things. I definitely wouldn't say I'm a coding genius or anything at all like that. But code is starting to be come less like hieroglyphics.

Also I know as I had said yesterday I was continuing to edit my magazine cover, I ended up coming up with this:

So I come up with this, I actually really like this, there are just a few minor things I still need to sort out within the image. But I'm pretty happy with this, I purposely chose the gold writing to symbolize money, as of course I am getting at consumerism and corporations screwing over not only their workers but even the people consuming their goods. 

Tomorrow, I am hoping to get a lot more done and have a lot more to show, however thats all from me today