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.
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So a fair bit has gone on this month. My eldest brother turned 30, which is terrifying! So happy belated birthday again! The rest of this month has been a bit all over the place! My work got hit by the big computer virus that hit the NHS and hit probably a good few people you may know too. So for the past two weeks I havent been able to design due to this. At the moment I have over 30 wedding designs although at the moment only some have been put onto paper As you can see some are clearly better than others. I will hopefully have even more to show next month, especially when I am able to get back into the swing of things. Minus design and arty farty things. I havent really been up to much (story of my life). I have just been house hunting This was a little guy we bumped into while waiting on the estate agent to show. Meet Neill.
So yea, I cant really think of anything else that has happened this month..... please enjoy some photos of my fuzzy furball babies 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 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. So this month a lot has been going on, I have finished my flyers for M Mahood Music, I've done a few more buggy designs, I've finished my silversmiths course, I've just come back from Glastonbury, and I've even accepted a new job offer.......yep! So this year at Glastonbury was my 3rd year in a row. Between sleeping under tables on the ferry, the traffic getting into Glastonbury and the mud. I have admit, I am thinking of going elsewhere next year. I have always loved going to Glastonbury, but this year I just wasn't feeling it. Talk about a work out just going to the toilet or even getting food. It was a bit of a nightmare..... DAMN YOU MUD! Music was however fantastic as always! here's a few other pics from the festival. So here's the two main designs I created for M Mahood Music: I'm proud of these and I do feel they reflect and flow in with the logo that I had previously created. Plus I have a very happy client. Please visit and like their facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/MMahoodMusic/?fref=ts I have also continued on with making some bug patterns, last month they were winged, this month I have been doing more beetles. I am continuing on with these designs and I am hoping to have these all finished and added to my red bubble shop by the end of July. shop: http://www.redbubble.com/people/kerriestuff I also mentioned that my silversmithing course has ended. I have decided that this is definitely an art form I am wanting to continue with and experiment with. In my last few weeks I began to experiment with enameling copper. So using greens, browns and even blacks we experimented with the leaf shaped copper. Although the kiln wasn't hot enough, giving the enamel this bumpy bubbly effect. I feel it really works with the piece and definitely adds texture to the piece. 2nd image here was actually the first pieces I enameled, I put Rose Pink on both pieces and due to the position in the kiln, I managed to get the top one the lightest and the bottom a lot darker. I really love how this worked out, I am planning to turn this into a necklace. The 3rd and 4th images are of an only bit of scrap metal I had been experimenting with. I had talked about it in a previous blog, I just threaded wire through, and then put silver enamel on the copper. It gave the copper this really amazing look, again planning on turning this into a necklace. Here is the original piece before threading copper and brass wire through: On my last night of my course, I started to make little rabbits. I have to admit it was mainly due to finding other little copper rabbits in my scrap box and getting this song stuck in my head: My little scrap bunny. So I started making my own little bunnies in hope of enameling them white: these also really make me laugh, I made a skinny rabbit and a curvy one, keeping up with beauty standards. So yea, didn't get these quite finished but I am thinking about doing a bit more with the white rabbit theme. That's it really when it comes to the metal work stuff I have been doing lately. I am still experimenting away with other things. Although at the moment the workshop space that I use is being moved. So it's putting a little bit of a pause on things.
I also mentioned I have accepted a new job offer, I will be working with a graphic design company, starting in July. I've incredibly nervous about the whole thing but, it's a new venture, so we'll see how it goes. Catch you guys next time. 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. 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/ 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 :) So, today I have been seriously finishing things off. I also have so many sketch books that I even weighted them all... 10 sketch books weighing in at 10 kg.......Mental. So I went back and had a look at my shop, now if you were to click the shop tab on my website, it will actually take you to another website called "Red Bubble". This site is basically where I upload my images and I can apply the images not only as images them selves, like posters and things. You can buy my designs on mugs, t-shirts, bedding, pillows, scarves, leggings, phone covers. The list goes on! So today I went through and decided to put up an image of my cupcakes. I decided to actually put up the mixed image. The image is all of the elements of all the suits as well as their symbols. I wasn't happy with the original image so I changed the colour of the back ground to blue, pink and grey. So the top 3 images are of what I uploaded. the single image above is the original. This is just a screen shot from the website after I uploaded the pink image, you can see all the different products I can apply my work to. So yea, it's pretty interesting. I also have my final done for my main project. the final for the magazine cover: Im actually so happy with this, and just to really scare you here are all of the finals from all the projects I did this year: So yea, I have done a fair bit of work this year, and although it was by no means an easy year, I have actually enjoyed it. I want to keep experimenting and doing art. This is just a stepping stone for where I want to be, and yea I'm freaking out about leaving uni and being a real adult. So that's it from me today, Tomorrow will possibly be my last blog on university work for at least a week.
I am hoping to keep my blog up, however I feel my life is very boring. We'll see though. I got a good bit done today. I went back and started to add more to the portraits, as though they were magazine covers: I am aware there is an other magazine called "Mental", however there magazine is more based on mental health issues and in new techniques to treat mental illnesses. The reason I choose "Mental" was due to how we were asked by the labeling guys in our class, to pick 1-3 words to describe our work. A lot of the words others chose within my course were really funny and laid back words. I randomly chose mental, due to how the portraits I will be displaying and the whole back story to them is very heavy going stuff. Or in layman's terms "Mental". Also with how I am also displaying my playing cards. So as one of my friends suggested, it's also another symbolism of how corporations play games. I really didn't like my Coca-Cola magazine cover. I don't think any of the colours work. I have to admit I really under estimated this task. I really wanted to have the idea of a magazine that basically tells of all the things going on in the world, a bit like The Sun, but not as terrible. So I found that the Facebook Magazine and the bar-code, worked really well. I think this was mainly due to how the Coca-Cola image it's self already plays on the opposite of colours with the red portrait and the blue background. I also did a few more versions of sort of awareness posters. Within this campaign. I am still figuring out what to say with each image. I have a lot of information of each. I just don't really know how to put it all. Especially with how I want all of my images to have very bold and hard hitting statements. To really make you think and of course to try and get a shock factor involved. I also turned backed to the end of year show with my piggy bank idea. I decided to start designing them today to finally figure out whether or not I need to build my shelf tomorrow for them. Here are the designs I came up with: This is my piggy bank that I am thinking about buying to decorate for the end of year show. I took this image into illustrator and began to design over the top of it. I firstly thought about designing the pigs to go along with the pieces I am putting on. So I firstly created the first three images. I personally don't find these very interesting. Also because the when all the issues I am bringing up really boil down to. Is money, So I thought about why not be simple and have gold pigs. one for every image, then I of course thought about silver and decided to just have a little look at the idea of having a silver pig with pound symbols all over. I decided I really didn't like this. I even began to look into spray paint I would be able to get: I then started to look further into other piggy bank designs that others have done: I came across the crystal covered piggy bank and the cartoon piggy bank. (two very big images above)I have to admit I got really excited to do something like the cartoon piggy bank. Although I realized within my time limit it just really wasn't going to happen. I have to admit most of my concern comes with the piggy bank I am thinking of getting. Because I am getting that particular one, I am not too sure on how to completely cover it minus spray painting it. So the idea of self adhesive crystals on the piggy bank, really makes sense. So I began to research this idea further: Found these crystals online. I also found the gold and silver studs. I think the studs would be amazing. Almost like a blow fish or a hedgehog. The idea of something being covered in spikes makes it a little harder to hold. So this I think would really work for the piggy bank. I also went on to looking at how I want to display all my work for the end of year show, again. So above are again more mock ups of the end of year show. 1st image is of my first idea of having a piggy bank for each portrait. 2nd looking into having just three gold piggy banks, 3rd I had previously mentioned about having vinyl coins around the wall, with again three gold piggy banks. Then of course I started to look at possibly not having any piggy banks or even vinyl coins. I have to admit I am strongly thinking about not having anything, but just my art work, and the slogans underneath the portraits.
This idea of just having the slogans under the portraits and no piggy banks, would really help me out with getting to concentrate with other work, true. But I think it's a little bit distracting too, for the public, in what too look at. The portraits them selves are very striking, with the added piggy banks and vinyl coins in the background. It may be too buys and not really knowing where to place your eyes on. I will have to ask around possibly and see what tutors say about this. Although, as it currently stands, I am thinking of not having the piggy banks or vinyl coins. This was a very long blog today. I clearly had an incredibly productive day. |