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!
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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.

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 ;)

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.

Today I got  a lot done. I have re-photoshopped some images, even ordered my deck of cards to be printed for the end of year show. Everything seems to be coming together nicely. 

For my deck of cards I had a choice between my three designs:

I have decided to just show my cupcakes, I have also ordered my monsters to be printed and my cupcakes to be printed to hopefully sell at the end of year show :)

I had also experimented with the idea of having all three of my designs together and the jokers and backs of the deck of cards, I just felt that this looked really strange.

I'm honestly just not happy about it, So I have chosen to go for just the cupcake theme.

I also successfully and finally got around to the re-edit of the "No Say" Coca- Cola image, I also went back to the facebook images and the bar-code ones too, and just tweaked them a little:

I went back into my bar-code portrait, I just made the bar-code look a little more realistic, The Coca - Cola portrait I finally edited to a way I liked it. I will admit the almost turquoise background was a little unexpected. Although I have to admit I rather like it and I think it really makes all the other colours within the portrait really pop. The Facebook images, I simply just went back in and made the "F" lighter and more white to really stand out. I really like all of these and I am really happy with these results.  

This is an update of what my end of year show will look like. I just have to make a choice of whether or not to have my original Coca-Cola portrait or the re-edit of the portrait. I have to admit while l look at these side by side, I actually think the original Coca-Cola Portrait stands out more compared to the new portrait. I will have to ask around and see what others think. I am hoping to have these printed out either tomorrow or Tuesday. 

I am still to buy my piggy banks, as well as dwindling down the slogans or facts I may put on them, although I have to think fast about either paper mache, black chalk board piggy bank and the paint it yourself piggy banks from hobby craft. Again hopefully this will be more items I can sell at the end of year show, hopefully people will want to buy them, I just have to start thinking of how and what way I am going to design them. Which I will hopefully get started on tomorrow.

So, I am very much nearly there, If this was the lord of the rings trilogy, I have just reached Mordor. That's it from me today, hopefully more development to show tomorrow.

Today I got a lot of stuff done, I'm happy to say I am nearly finished all of my major images. I went back and began to play about with my posters for the student advice section of my project:

I am actually really happy how these have turned out. Still unsure on the fonts, but I am still very happy with these pieces. They aren't amazing, but i do like my graphics and I put a lot of work into them. I am still unhappy with my coffee cup poster, The other three though, I'm more than pleased with.

I have also started to get my joker done for cupcake theme of cards. I am even starting to think about the portraits of facebook, the bar code and coca cola with possibly going back to putting writings on the posters as a bit of insightful information. I am pretty sure that the portraits of the exploitation will be displayed for my final end of year show. Anyways here is my Joker cupcake so far:

I'm still really not too sure on the colours I am using as I want to merge the red and black suits together, or in this case the browns and the reds. My idea is to try and get it to look like a chocolate and strawberry cupcake. This is still a work in progress, I also have to do another joker for the traditional and the monster decks. I am planning on merging these two together. Either way I don't think it will be too hard as he traditional looking jokers are creepy looking anyways. So it should fit in with the Monster and Traditional suits. So here is hoping I will get this all finished up tomorrow and be able to send them off to get printed for the degree show. It will be awesome!

Today has been a busy, busy day! I finally got around to doing the projector portrait photography, This was my set up today and it was so complicated:

As I was using myself as the model, just cause it was easier and my flat mate is currently at home. I had to set up a mirror so I could actually measure my face up to the images I was projecting onto my face. As I couldn't really line up with the camera. It was really hard to be honest. But I got through it! Yay me!

These are just some of the images I took today. I haven't yet photoshopped any of them apart from just cropping the images down. Minus that these are oh naturale. I also started to look into doing student advise posters. I have to admit I really don't like them and although, the above images are tied in with the viewbug challenge. These I feel (and I know I've said it before) tie back into my main project of consumerism, just in a different direction of looking into the companies that exploit people. Anyways! here are my posters that I created, due to really not liking my video:

So as you can see they still need a bit of work. I really don't like how I've displayed the writing, I wanted to be clear, but I find this pretty boring of a layout. Tomorrow I plan to start photoshopping the portraits I took today, work away again on the above images, I am also hoping to get started on possibly a new card set. That's all from me today. 

Well it has been forever since I last blogged. I have been  a busy bee as well as going home for the Easter holidays.  I have been designing a logo for  this website so I can get my business cards printed and what not. There will be even more work added to the website. I am now into my final 2 months of university, which is a very scary thought.  Here is some of my characters for my student help guide, these are not finished yet, but they are a work in progress:

from the top left, we have the hungover student, Hipster student, Sport student, Geeky student, Protester student, and Ghost student.

I have also been researching the most expensive cities to be a student, in within the UK. I have already gotten 125 responses to my survey. Which is fantastic! I have a lot of information from current and past students. A lot of students have found to have the same problems and have solved them in the same ways.  I have a lot more research to do, but I don't want to get so caught up with research that I am not really doing a lot of work. Which to be honest, is pretty much why I haven't blogged in a really long time, no pretty pictures to show and what not.

On another notes with my logo project I have  been experimenting with different colours for my logo. See below logos:

I also really like the idea of having my logo be a gif that goes through all of these different colours. I am not too sure if I should continue with that idea, but I think Ill do it anyways and see how it looks.  I have also been thinking about how to have this website. As I do love the amount of colours within it, I may keep this, but I would like to change the layout a little more, so the plan is to hopefully do Code Academy. I will also be able to create a website for my main project also.

I haven't managed to get much of my playing card project done, however I plan to get really stuck into all of my projects and knuckle down in  my last few weeks of being a student. That's all from me today

Been so busy I didn't even notice I missed a day of Blog. Sorry! So I uploaded little glimpses of the images I am preparing to upload for a competition. I have finished 3 of 4 images, although I am still going back and forth and tweaking a lot of the images. the images I last uploaded are not totally different and have developed more. My only regret is really not kicking my ass earlier to get it all done. I have given my self a week, which is pathetic. I still know I can get it done and even so far I have learnt a lot. So here are my 3 images so far. they may again totally change before I upload them for the deadline which is Monday.