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.

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!

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 I may have accidentally left it for more than a week since my last post. I think I am going to have to set a day in which I now do my blog. I think Sunday or Monday of every week I will make it my blogging day.

So nothing much has really happened in the past week. I have been asked to be a curator on the View Bug website, However, I have to admit I was very skeptical and with good reason to be. I don't get paid, I am not an actual representative for the website, I don't get to run things or share any of my own ideas or comments on how the site could run a little easier.

Literally they have more or less asked me to just talk to more people on the website, welcome new comers and in a way just help the site to keep growing.

Have to admit I didn't feel as special anymore when I read that part of it.  The website did however try their best. 
Speaking on photos, I finally got around to looking at the images I had taken when the Tall Ships were here in Belfast:

I have plenty more, to be honest I just found seeing Belfast from the water more interesting than some of the boats. It was almost like a different world, I know that sounds lame. 

I have also signed up for an online photography course, I think I really need to brush up on my skills within photography as since being home I have to admit apart from job hunting, I haven't actually been taking any photos of things.

Although with also saying that, I have been booked for a photography gig next month. I am to photograph a mad hatter tea party, show casing the ceramic pieces done by Megan-Rose McCully. I am really looking forward to it, however the weather has been nothing but miserable here.
I would give a little link to her website but the wee woman doesn't have one at the moment.

I am also looking back into creating some patterns, I think I have previously spoken about this I am a little unsure. I haven't yet done much although I have ideas coming out of my ears. I have just been consumed with meeting up with friends and job hunting. But fear not as I am going to kick my own arse and come up with at least one design a week. Whether or not I get the design from a sketch book into illustrator or photoshop, but at least I will be keeping my skills more active. 

That's all my random ranting for this week, next post will be either Sunday or Monday ;)

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

So Today I have been just sort of tying up loose ends. I have designed a few more bits and pieces and I finally got my work up :D Big smiles all round. However I'm not quiet finished. As the vinyl I cut yesterday has a few issues, so I need to re do this tomorrow and then I will be able to say I'm finished. 

I also went back again and re-did my awareness posters:

I still need to do a few more bits and pieces to these and again more touch ups for my magazine cover. I have a few ideas I want experiment with. So hopefully get all this done tomorrow.

Short Blog today, that's all from me for today, im sure plenty more to show tomorrow.

Just a little sneak peek of what I plan to show off for the end of year show.

Today, I just went back into my magazines and even did a little advertisement stuff:

I wasn't too sure about how to cover the magazine cover with the type. To be honest I am still not too sure, I think I will have to edit this a little more. I did however print out the first image in A4 to see how it looked. I have to admit I still want all of the writing and topics around the cover to be a lot bigger. Which is strange due to while in Photoshop I didn't want to cover the face too much. I think I will have to do some additional research. 

The coca-cola image I was getting pretty annoyed with the portrait I had chosen for the end of year show. The colours within it I really couldn't get it to work. It started to look like a 90's magazine cover, which isn't a big deal. But it's not the idea I am trying to convey. So I got my original portrait of the Coca-Cola portrait and put that as my magazine cover. I think this image work a lot better. I am again still not happen with my colours or fonts. 

Within this sort of magazine cover, I decided to go further and put my images into bus shelter advertisement slots, buses and even billboards. So I did a bit of a mixture, although I have to admit, I prefer the bar-code image to the other portraits:

As you can see, I have been busy. I am also still trying to figure out what to say underneath the portraits. I also realized that with other awareness portraits, they have their image, slogan and then some other smaller text:

here is just one campaign, that shows what I am describing. I might even go back and try some of my other images that I took for the portraits to try and see what else I can come up with. I will hopefully have something great to hand in, which is now a week away, and I have a funny feeling it may end up with a 10th and final sketch book....