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/