Tis the season

Of crazy people.

Work has been hectic for the past week or so and it's only going to get worse nest week. We have so many people coming in wanting to get their gifts delivered before Christmas and some of them get so angry at you because of the price! And then they say that we jacked up the prices for the holidays. Well no, it's a flat rate all year long, so bugger off.

People are so moody this time of year and everyone seems to be out to kill one another. I think we all just need to sit back, breathe and just mellow the f-out.

I'm hoping to be able to work on some newer things in the new year, once work isn't crazy anymore.

I wish everyone a Happy Holiday and have yourself a great New Year! :)

Winner Chosen!

The winner is the second poster from my blog post contest.

I don't think I will be having any more giveaways in the near future because of lack of interest.

Giveaway extended! Win some goodies!

Since I didn't too so well on the one I just tried to do, I'm going to try again! And hopefully I will do a better job explaining things on how to enter.

I am also upping the prize! Lots of little goodies you can get right before the Holidays!

You will receive everything that is shown in this picture.

- Original cake illustration w/frame

- 5 one inch fruit w/ onion buttons

- Pink Lemonade 4"x6" print

- King Thunder 4"x6" print

- Alien Pinup 4"x6" print

All you have to do is follow this blog (there's a button down on the left hand corner) and post what illustration you like from my current collect on my flickr account. Maybe I'll make it into a print if it isn't already. :)

Want some extra entries? Here's how:

1. Tweet about this giveaway. Comment and tell me you did so, and if you tweet about this, be sure to tag me @aprilmdesigns
2. Fan me on Facebook and/or follow me on Twitter. Comment and tell me you did so. If you’re already a Facebook fan or follow me on Twitter, that counts too! Just make sure you comment on here to let me know.

This giveaway will end Monday night, Dec. 13. I’ll announce the winners the following Tuesday. Good luck, all!

If you have any questions, please email me at: aprilmdesigns@gmail.com

**Please note that this contest is open for people who live in Canada and the United States.**

Contest giveaway!

That's right. I'm having a giveaway contest! :)

For those of you who watch and read my blog and other websites, I wanted to give back to say thank you.

What is it that I am giving away? A hand drawn illustration with a cute jeweled frame. The drawing is 4x4".

So how do you win this lovely little gift? Follow me here and post a comment on this blog post!

You also have 2 other ways of winning!

Follow me on twitter and post here what your account name is.

And/or "like" me on facebook and post here who you are.

So then you could have 3 entries!

This contest will run for a week. So December 7th is the last day to enter! :) I will draw randomly for the winner!

I will email the winner for address info and whatnot.

Good luck and thanks once again!

Winter Birds

So this morning I sketched up a couple of birds.

But there's a twist! They're all decked out for winter!

Here they are just inked. I'll be coloring them soon.

I'd like to get some cute little frames for them. Like vintage ones, but I'm not sure where to get them at. Anyone want to hook me up with a few links? Or tell me what places would sell such things?

Thanks! :D

Some Quickies

Good evening everyone! I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

Tonight I did up a few quick sketches while watching the hockey game (Sens, we won!). And then I inked them.

I figure I will post them up here for all of you to see!

Enjoy! :)

I think I may color those two. Not sure yet. Either with water colors or color pencils. We shall see.

'Tis The Season

Hello one and all! :)

It's getting closer to the holidays and I'm getting super stoked about it. I can't wait to go home, chill out for a bit and see my family.

This year I decided to make a few Christmas cards. My Mother has only been asking me to do so for the past five to ten years. I think the illustrations came out rather well. I sketched everything out first and then scanned them to my computer. Everything else was done in Illustrator. I kinda did a little bit of experimenting with them. Like with gradients and the dotted lining around 2 of the characters.

I usually color my illustrations in photoshop or corel painter, but the more I play with Illustrator, the more I like it! So I think I will continue on this road with my illustrations. Well at least with my simpler work.

If you like you can view the cards on my flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aprilbaird/

And if you'd really like to, you can purchase them from my online store! http://aprilmdesigns.bigcartel.com/

If things go well this year, I plan on doing more cards and maybe a few other things for next year's Christmas. :)

Online Store

I finally did it! I got an online store. Well I used to have an etsy shop.. but I figure since I couldn't sell a thing on it for three years, it's time to try something different.

I registered with a site called Big Cartel and my store is called April M Designs (go figure). There's a link to it on the side bar of my blog. Riiiight there! ----> See? It says Store. :)

I currently only have four items for sale on there, and planning on having my fifth item up on Friday. Provided that I don't put it off. I'm a really good procrastinator, so we'll see.

So why do I only have four items? Well I want to try this out without having to put down any money for it. So the free accounts on the site only allow you to have up to five items. If I actually do well, as in actually sell a few items and people ask for more, then I will upgrade! If not, I will just continue only having five items and switching things up a bit from time to time. :)

So check it out, though there's not a whole lot to see, but maybe you'll see something you like.

Oh and you can only pay through paypal and whatever else that goes through paypal. Like Visa and such. It's super secure and everything. So don't worry about it. And I think my shipping days will be on Thursdays. Just because that's my day off. And I'm only shipping to Canada and the US. Anything over seas just cost an arm and a leg. I would know, I work at a UPS store.

If you have any questions or would like a custom order, or whatever, just email me at aprilmdesigns@gmail.com

Hal-Con 2010

Hal-Con 2010 turned out great! I didn't sell a whole lot, but it was the experience points I was after. And oh boy, did I get a great experience!

The first day and part of Saturday I was so over-whelmed, that I

felt nauseous. But once I got my bearings, things went really well. I did a few chibi commissions and sold prints and some buttons. I'm still not used to people actually buying my work. I'm really grateful that people admire my work and actually give me positive comments.

I plan on doing this again next year and will be working all year on new illustrations. Instead of leaving it last minute like I did this year. 2 weeks is not enough time to get work done and things prepared.

I would also like to thank the people of Hal-Con who put together all of this, as they did an outstanding job, even with somethings falling through on them. *applause*

And for those of you who might be interested, I still have prints and buttons left, so if you would like to purchase any, please email me at aprilmdesigns@gmail.com

Buttons are a dollar each or 5 for $4. 8x10" prints are $10 each. 4x6" & 5x5" are $4. Posters are $12 (11x17"). You can see what illustrations I have on my flickr account: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aprilbaird/

I Can't Wait

For this month to be over with.

As excited as I am, I just want things to be over with already.

I still have a few more things to finish and to get for Hal-Con. And I only have 5 more days left to do it all in.

On top of that, I will be working full day shifts this week, because my boss is going on vacation. So I won't have a day off during the week like I was planning. I also have to work Friday morning, and will only have less than an hour to get ready to go to the con for 12. So I will be running around like a headless chicken in the afternoon.

PLUS, this weekend, I have been and still am, working on SMU's newspaper. I have to get it done today, because I won't have any time tomorrow morning to fix anything. I will only have enough time to send it to print. So hopefully everything will run smoothly.

Because of my shift change (Not that I'm complaining getting full time hours, I need the money), I had to drop one of my plans for the con, and that was the costume part. I didn't/don't have time to make one. I have way too many things that are far more important than a costume. It would've been super fun to cosplay as Jem (maybe next year?). I do have a few wigs that I'll be wearing and will dress up, so I will have a bit of fun!

I'm also a bit nervous too.

I know a lot of people tell me they like my work. They think it's great, blah, blah, blah. Which is really nice.

BUT!

No one will buy my work. I've tried many times selling my work online, like on facebook, esty and even have a deviantart print account. I haven't sold a thing.

I even had a table at a craft show in the summer, and sold only a few prints.

It's not like my prices are crazy or anything. I think people just tell me they like my work to be polite.

Family doesn't count, because they always say my work is good and have all of my crap up in their house. Because they're family!

Same with friends.

But I could be wrong though, and do extremely well, but for now, I think to be safe, I'm just going to think I'm not going to do well.

So negative I know! But I rather no keep my hopes up, to have them fall down and smash into tiny, itty, bitty pieces.

I will have fun for the weekend! I'm not going to let my negative attitude about my work get to me.

Oh crap, I made another whiny blog again.

I'll post how everything went when it's all over! And post some pics. So I guess, stay tuned? For whoever reads this. :)

Blaaah... And things about Hal-Con!

Super upset that I can't finish my digital paintings for Hal-Con. My tablet's pen just isn't working that great anymore. My lines turn out super wiggly and nothing is looking good. :( Looks like the only new illustrations I will have for sale, will be done in the traditional way, and I will try to make some decent prints of them if no one wants to buy the original. I will still have prints of my older digital paintings/illustrations for sale though! :)

So today I'm going to go to the art store and buy some more pens and paper and all of that good stuff, to make my traditional work look great!

I'll be there with a friend (who will also be selling some artwork) for all 3 days. I'll be dressed up as Jem! Cause I'm truly outrageous.

I'll also be bringing some of my art supplies and drawing some 5$ chibis! Any character you want, I'll try my bestest to do it. It would be great if you had a reference picture for your own character or a character I've never heard of before. And chances are, if it's not Batman, Sailor Moon, a Disney character, or anything related to Nintendo, I probably have never heard of them. Mostly just anime stuff though..... *isaloser* I'll put up a few examples of them in the next few days.

I will also have 1 inch buttons/pins for sale. There will be 5 different designs and you can buy all five of them, or buy them separately! Their designs is going to be a surprise! But they're super CUTE.

And I will be taking commissions for anyone who wants one.

Annd... I will have some Sailor Moon fanart for sale! BUUUT, it's only going to be of the villains. :3

I'm also going to have a painting in the art auction that the Con will be holding! All of the money from that will be going towards the IWK. So bid, bid, bid! It's for a great cause!

Most of the profit that the Con makes, will be donated to the IWK. It's one of their reason for having the Con in the first place! You can read more about all of that on their site: www.hal-con.com

And I think that's it! Come see our table! I'll have a sign on it that says "April M. Designs", so you'll know that it's me.

What's Going On

*I'm terrible at creating titles*

Things are going well still. :)

The magazine went out last week with a few problems that were unavoidable, but they are out! You can find them around Spring Garden and other spots around the down town area in Halifax. It's called Profile Halifax, and it has a blue cover, so keep an eye out for it! :)

St. Mary's newspaper though is slowly coming along. Last weekend was almost complete hell because of them only hiring the editors and others on that Friday. I had to miss work on Monday because of not getting all of the content that day. But it went out on time, but it's not my finest work. This week seems to be going better though, I have all of the content and have been working on it without any frustrations.

And my new job at the UPS store has been going great. I'm doing some design work for them, and will be doing some new fun stuff in the future. Though when there's no design work, I'm doing faxes and handling shipments and other things. I'm surprised how many people don't realize that the store does a lot of print and design work. I knew before I even started working there, so I thought other people knew too. The people I work with are awesome, and I'm really happy I got the job there.

So my jobs are going well, but I'm starting to freak out that the Hal-Con is in a month, and I have hardly a thing done for it. I have a few things for it, but nothing that I wanted accomplished. I have two pieces I REALLY want to finish and I have a feeling I won't be finishing the Rainbow doll series any time soon. My illustration style changed a lot in the past few months, and I think I may start over again on the series. I'm not 100% sure yet, but we'll see.

Ahhhh

I haven't been drawing at all lately. I think it's because I don't have a sketch book. I just ran out of sheets and haven't been anywhere near an art store to buy one.

Plus I haven't been drawing because I've been crazy busy. I thought I wouldn't be with a part time job, but holy crap I am. It's because of my freelance gig. I'm working on the St. Mary's student newspaper which is going to print, I think, in 2 weeks, AND I'm working on a new local magazine called "Profile Halifax" (it's free!), which will be coming out on the 15th. So all of my free time has been dedicated to all of that.

I am getting supper excited about the magazine. I have always wanted to do magazine layouts, and this is a great stepping stone for me to (maybe) work in the big leagues. This is definitely going to be a big portfolio piece. :D

I'm not sure where they're going to be "selling" the magazine, but when I find out what stores are carrying it, I'll be posting about it. And you can find the SMU newspaper at of course, SMU and other locations around the peninsula.

Oh, and my job at the UPS store is amazing. It's so stress free and super easy. I haven't done any design work just yet, but when a job comes in, I'll be right on it. I only get 15 hours a week, but I think I'll be getting full time hours in a few months time. Or at least during the Christmas rush which starts in October. :3

Well I hope to be posting some new illustration work as soon as I get a new sketch book, which should be next week because I just got paid from the UPS store and my freelance jobs. *doesahappydance*

Prints & Necklaces

Here is a list of prints and what size they are that I have available to buy. I also have necklaces for sale that I have made myself. To view the necklaces please go to my facebook fan page. Thank you for looking! If you would like to purchase something, please email me at aprilmdesigns@gmail.com

Legs:

These come in a 4x6" and a 8x10" print.

4x6" - $3 each or all four for $10

8x10" - $8 each or all four for $25

Ice Cream Heads:

These come in a 4x4" or a 8x8" print.

4x4" - $3

each or four for $10

8x8 - $6 each or four for $20

Rainbow Dolls:

These come in a 4x6" print.

4x6" - $3 each or all five for $10

Pin Ups:

These come in 4x6" or 8x10" prints

4x6" are $3 each or both for $5

8x10" are $8 each or both for $15

King Thunder:

This comes in a 4x6" or a 8x10" print.

4x6" $3

8x10" $8

Swan:

This comes in a 8x10" print

8x10" $8

Dope Idiot:

This comes in a 4x6" print

4x6" $3

Thingings

The craft show this weekend went okay. I sold enough prints to cover the cost of the table plus 17$. Which I spent buying a few things and cupcakes. :3

None of my necklaces sold though. :c

But I did meet a bunch of awesome people and have a greater idea of how I'm going to do thing for the Hal-Con.

With all of that over now, I'm going bat-shit crazy with the newspaper I have to design for. Which is due today. And I'm only like half-way done. ;_;

I think once the newspaper is in order and gets more easier in time, I will start to finish off some of the illustrations that I started this week. Which is more poppy like art illustrations thingings.

Over worked

For the last little while I haven't been busy what-so-ever. No freelance jobs, no job and I had no inspiration to work on personal stuff.

Then 2 weeks ago I decided to get a table at a Art and Craft show. So I've been working like a mad woman to get some new illustrations to sell and have been making necklaces so much that my hand is getting cramp-y and sore.

Then this past week I had a meeting for a freelance contract job, which is for the St. Mary's University newspaper. I will be the only designer working on it. 16 page newspaper for each week for 24 issues. Lots of work but super exciting!

I also have had a interview at the UPS store, and I basically have the job. I have a second interview tonight to meet up with his wife/part owner. It'll only be part time right now, which is ok by me, since I have the freelance gig.

So the over worked part is that the art and craft show is on the 14th this month, and the freelance gig wants 4 initial layouts of the newspaper by the 15th. Which means that I will probably only get to finish up the necklaces that I am currently working on and just use some old illustrations for the show, so that I will use what little time I have to create the layouts for the newspaper.

It may seem like I am complaining, but I am not. I am so happy that I finally have work to do and a *hopefully* job. Being over worked is way better than not having a thing to do.

Art & Craft Show

I'm going to have a table at The Halifax Alternative Arts, Craft and Fashion show. It's the first one being hosted, so I guess we'll see how well it goes. You can see the facebook group here.

I'll be selling necklaces and prints. :3

I'm not 100% sure what prints I'll be selling though. I still have a bunch of works in progress going on right now, and the show is in 3 weeks. eep! So I plan on working my butt off for the next 3 weeks and hopefully it'll all be worth it in the end. :D

I'm also hoping that this will be a good promotion of my work for the Hal-Con that I also have a table in. And by then I hope to have more than just prints to sell. I'm hoping to have enough money to get some buttons done up and other tiny things like that.

I'm getting super excited! :D

Prints!

Tiny postcard sized prints! I finally got a couple of my art pieces printed out. I'm going to sell them on my etsy account for $2.50. They will be able to fit in a 4"x6" frame. So you can have a little print of my work all to your own!

Crafting!

Or making necklaces, whatever.

I have recently been making necklaces again, as the last time I did was almost a year ago. Something about the Spring time gets me into a crafty mood.

I've bought new and more elaborate pieces to make necklaces with , so I hope this time I will actually sell some. I have 7 necklaces in total right now, and have enough beading and pendants to make about 7 more. I won't be buying anything else until they are sold. Or at least a few of them. That way I can buy more stuff and make more necklaces! Check them out here.

If nothing sells again, I will prob give up and just give the necklaces that are made as gifts.

I do like what I am currently making though, so hopefully others will as well. I'm really in love with one of the necklaces, as I love the color combo I choose. But I am going to sell it, because I know someone else will love it just as much and with that money that comes in I can make more of the same. Then everyone can be happy! :D

Dry Spell

I'm having one. It sucks.

I've gone about 3 weeks of not doing anything.

It's driving me nuts.

I hope once I move into my new place and get my office all set up I will get back at it again.

I will be moving on the 31st to a bigger, nicer and cheaper place. It's double the size of the place we're at now and about 125$ cheaper. I'm pretty happy with that. It's a 2 bedroom 2 level place, so I will have my own room to work in downstairs and the bf will have his living room upstairs. I will be able to concentrate, without any background noises like video games or hockey. I will no longer have half of my art supplies in storage. I will have a bigger table to work on so I won't have to sit at the kitchen table to do crafts or I won't have to move my keyboard aside when sketching out ideas for stuff. I will be able to set up my easel! Plus, I will be able to girlie-fie the shit out of the room. Hello Kitty city here I come! Okay, well it won't be that bad, because I do have to share it with the bf, but he won't be using the area as mush as I will. ;)

I think because of the move it has been putting my art on hold. Packing, purging and trying to get things organized has been keeping me pretty busy, especially the last few days.

Though despite having an art block, while out for a walk yesterday, I did manage to get some nice shots of Point Pleasant park. I've only been there twice of the 2 years I have lived here. The real kicker is that it's just a few blocks away from me. I regret not going there before. At the new place I hear there is a park or a trail of some sort, so I will have to look for it and take advantage and not do what I've done for the past 2 years. Being outside makes me happy, so I plan on going out as much as I can this summer.

I plan on finishing my Rainbow Dolls series as well as other projects I have been putting off... I feel terrible not finishing some things that I said I would do. I've just been out of it for awhile. Once moved in I plan on finishing the things I said I would do, I want a clean plate for the new place.

That's all that is new, you can check out my photos on my flickr account.

Hal- Con

Hal-con is a sci-fi / fantasy convention that will be here in Halifax in October. I have been doing a few little things here and there for them. Such as web banners and their twitter background. I am now currently working on some out door banners and painting a Nintendo with their logo on it for them.

Not only am I doing some work for them, I am also going to be in the artist alley selling my work, along with some friends. I am getting super excited for this. I've been working on new illustrations and am getting pumped about getting them printed up as posters. My friends and I are also thinking of making charms, buttons, stickers and bookmarks with cute characters. And if we have the money, tote bags and quite possibly some books. I always wanted to have a book with my work in it.

If you'd like to see what else will be at the Hal-Con convention here is a link to their site: www.hal-con.com

If you do go, make sure to stop by my booth to say hello! :)

85

I need more work in my design portfolio. I also need some new stuff to sell. So I made this. Enjoy.