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. 

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, 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.

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

Today I got a hell of a lot done, everything for the end of year show that I wanted to put up is now up. I had to re-cut some new vinyl for my wall. And now everything is beautiful! 

I now get to just concentrate on finishing off my sketch books and writing everything up that needs to be done before hand in. I feel like I'm in a very good position, I even feel that I could hand in all of my stuff on Monday. Everyone else in my class is currently panicking and therefore this makes me also panick a little more due to myself feeling calm. Don't you just hate that.

Although speaking of things that you hate most coming up to hand in, one of my class mates mentioned to me today was he "can't wait for this to be over, so he can stop feeling guilty about wasting time" Shit just got real!
Deadlines can be really good for people or you can crash and burn, I do have that feeling of panic and worry, trying to get things done. It is a little weird when you stop just to breathe and then feel guilty. 

So anyways on to a more productive and positive note. I have done what feels like a million different magazine covers:

As you can see I have been experimenting with a variety of different colours as well as text. I also went a step further with this I knew I wanted  to have a bit of colour within the black and white image. However I think the lips actually make it more sexulised. This could however be a poster or even a magazine cover for human trafficking or something within that sort of topic.

I however want a more generalized kind of image. So, I took the image from the above, went through all my photos I had taken from  this project, and photoshopped eyes in from a different photograph. This was unbelievably weird I can tell you that, straight off.   

I have to admit this I think worked out pretty well, I however think that this looks like me, but a little different..... I know it sounds weird but, yea a different version of me. Although when it really comes down to it, as long as it looks like a person, and gets the point across. That is the whole point. 

So my idea here is a little more self explanatory. I want the eyes to try and look into your soul!, no I just want to eyes to grab peoples attention, although I still want them to look along the lines as realistic, however the more I photoshop this the more and more unrealistic it looks. especially as the eyes are very much a small part of the image, the colour doesn't really pierce through very well, even with the lines of the bar code coming down the face. I however really like the 1st image on the 2nd row, as I think this does grab your attention. I am just currently a little unsure on how to take it further. I am also really unsure on what colours to have my text and I seem to be continuing the same argument with myself on which fonts look the best. I am continuing to work on this even as I write this blog, I have a feeling however I may need to sleep on things and see how I feel about it tomorrow. So yea, that's it 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 has been such a tiring day. So today I was to put up my work for the end of year show. 

I went to put my work up and then after speaking with tutors. They thought I should go back to my plan and edit it a little further, such a blow. I was hoping to have all of this done by today. So I went back to he drawing board and came up with these very similar ideas to show:

I decided to in the end go with the second image. So I then had to go and get my vinyl done. I have to admit I was very nervous about getting it done. I have never used the vinyl cutter, but thankfully I had another class mate who was just as clueless and we, I mean she. Figured most of it out. I have to admit I have been working so hard and trying to get all of my work done for hand in and then some. I was a total zombie most of today. 

So with my vinyl I had originally wanted to have under my facebook image, "If you're not paying for the product, the product is you." Under the Coca-Cola portrait "Open Happiness?" I wanted to plat on words for that. Then finally for my bar-code image "Just another price tag."

Due to my Coca-Cola and Bar-code slogans being one line, after a little bit of debate, and discussion. My self and the tutors all agreed on simply shortening down the slogan. "The product is you." The plan is to finally get all of these up tomorrow for the end of year show. I have to admit after all the running about I have done today, I definitely feel more prepared for putting all the portraits and everything up tomorrow. Also excited to see how the vinyl will look. 

Just a little miffed that I have left playing with the vinyl to literally the last week of university. Although I have to also admit I found that the process with vinyl is unbelievably tedious. Tomorrow will tell more however.

I also decided it was best to go a head and get another sketch book. As I plan to do a lot more editing and just in general more work. So that now brings me to having 10 sketch books to hand in next week. I am just hoping that tomorrow I will be able to really start in getting things done. I have also done a lot more of my sketch book write ups today. So I plan to finish it off hopefully tonight and then the rest of tonight I will be stuffing my face with chocolate and watching Netflix.

That's all from me today.

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....