End of Year Update

Hi everyone! Sorry for the lack of updates and posts. The last few weeks have been busy. I was in two Christmas craft fairs, and they took up all of my free time. They went fairly well, but the last one wasn't very successful, sales wise. Oh well. It's always nice to hang out with fellow crafters and my table neighbor is one of my favorite artists in Halifax. So I got to pick his brain about things most of the weekend. 

Now that they are over and done, I will be taking a break from fairs and conventions until the Spring. I have some big plans and I need the time to actually work on them. So that's why I'm taking a break for a few months. Plus I really want to work on my portfolio and get ready for a gallery coming up (which I will write about later, it's awesome news btw). I also am going to present my work more professionally as well. Instead of selling prints in just a protective sleeve, they'll be matted and in a sleeve, plus have a little write up on the back, have paintings in a frame or something that will protect them, and just things like that. At craft fairs it's hard selling prints like that and paintings, because no one really wants to buy something that they have to go out and buy more things for. They want a finished product. But at conventions, people just want prints so they can plaster it on their walls, or whatever. They want awesome art work for a cheap price, because they want to be able to afford to buy from other artists. This is what I have found while selling at things like this for the past 3 years. So hopefully 2013 things will go more smoothly and sales will be up. 

Another thing I want to work on is my organizational skills. I need to have a schedule of what I have coming up, and what needs to get done. Plus I need to get a new system on how to store my work and how to transport it better. Especially when I am travelling alone to a fair by myself. 

So ya, lots of stuff, kind of boring, but I need to do this in order to become a better artist/business person! Yea! :) That's all for now. 

Have a Merry Christmas and a Great New Year!!

Early Black Friday Sale!

Hi everyone! Thought I join the bandwagon and have a sale on prints and posters. Art makes a great gift!

8.5x11" prints are now $2.50 each! Any picture of mine is available in this size!

11x17" mini posters are now $10 each! Only Art Nouveau, Sailor Viking Scouts and Pin ups are available in this size.

16x24" posters are now $20 each! Only Art Nouveau paintings are available in this size.

Shipping costs vary from $1 - $15. Depends on what size you get and where it's going to. Unless you want to save more money and come pick them up.

This sale will end Sunday at midnight! So hurry and ordered some prints!

*payment can be done through paypal!

Christmas Commissions

Hey everyone!

Christmas is just around the corner! Want to give someone a piece of original work? I am currently doing a limited amount of commissions.

$150 for an ink drawing. Samples of my ink drawings: http://aprilmdesigns.deviantart.com/art/Rose-338196301 http://aprilmdesigns.deviantart.com/art/Art-Nouveau-Catwoman-335291133

$200 for a digital painting with an 8x10" print and original sketch of drawing. Samples of digital art: http://aprilmdesigns.deviantart.com/art/Witch-Pinup-263032816 http://aprilmdesigns.deviantart.com/art/Princess-Daisy-329204041

Prices included shipping within Canada. For any other place, I'll have to add the cost of postage on top of my price.

I'll only have five spots. So if you want an original piece by me, let me know as soon as you can!

Good News Everyone!

April M Designs is doing some changes over the next few weeks/months. I am planning on doing an overhaul on my website/blog here. I'm planning on redesigning the look of it, plus make it so that you won't have to go to another site to view my online portfolio. 

I plan on working on more design related work. I've been really focusing on my illustration work and because of that, started slacking working on my design skills. I really want to have best of both worlds, so I shouldn't be ignoring one of them. I'm not sure what I'll be doing, but I think I might try to take a stab at reworking some old school projects and old freelance gigs I've done. Just to get the juices flowing again. I want to have a strong portfolio, so I think reworking some things will be good for me. I'm hoping to get a few freelance gigs soon and that would be a major plus for me as well. 

Also I've noticed over the last few months that my illustration work has been improving. Which is really cool to see! But now I must push myself further in that area as well. I need to start working on full body pictures and start drawing male figures. I always avoid doing that, but if I want to get ahead, I have to start practicing drawing things I don't really enjoy doing. Doing so, will only make me a stronger illustrator. I'm also going to try to play around with more techniques and media. I also have to work on perspective, and backgrounds. I'm hoping by next year I'll see a vast improvement in these areas. I can only go ahead, not backwards in my art, right!?

Another thing I am going to for my business is expand my products. I'm planning on getting into t-shirt designs. I've always wanted to have my work on t-shirts. And one of my friend is planning on starting her own silk screening business, so it looks like I'll be able to get shirts done in the new year! I'm hoping to be able to sell these at craft fairs and conventions I have a table/booth at. 

Business wise, some of you may know that I have become a new member of the Halifax Chamber of Commerce. I was a little hesitant at first because of the price, but figured out it is totally worth the investment. If I want my business to get more professional, I have to put the time and money into it. In the end it'll all be worth it. I'm planning on going to more networking events, to meet new people. I find that being in all of these craft fairs, you see the same people over and over again (which is ok, because these people rock!). But if I want to expand my business, I have to get out of the same group of people, and venture into more groups. Not that I'm saying I'm leaving the crafters group, but just joining others. I love my crafter friends! 

Speaking of crafters, I am going to organize another craft fair! I think I might re-brand Art vs Craft though. Start anew. The first year I did it, was pretty good, but this year, due to crappy timing, it didn't turn out well at all. I feel so horrible about it too. But! This year I'm going to really make it worth everyone's while. In the new year I will start planning things out. I was thinking of organizing two fairs, but with the amount of ideas I have for myself, I will only have the time for one. I'm not sure when I will have it, but it won't be during the summer. This city has way too many things on the go during that time of year, that it's too hard to compete with it. I will be announcing when that will be in the new year! So keep an eye out for it. 

I'm also planning on getting more involved with the community. Donate products for fundraisers  if anyone needs a poster done for an event, I'd do it for free, and so on. Things like that. Any type of exposure is good, especially if it's free!  

And I think that's it. I have a lot of goals for the next few months, and with working full time it will be hard, but I think I'll be able to pull it off! I really need to get better at my time management skills, so maybe this will help me do just that! 

That's it for now. Cheers!

Hal-Con 2012 - Game Over

Hal-Con has come and went, and it was a truly epic time! I had the best time this year! The previous two years I was in Artist Alley, don't even come close to this year!

I met so many great and talented artists, plus some awesome people too during the weekend. I also met John Rhys-Davies and René Auberjonois!! That was super cool, and both of them commented on my work, saying it was amazing and that I have some skills! They could have just said that to be nice, but either way!!  

I sold a lot of prints and my tiny stuff, and actually sold out of all of my Ariel prints/mini prints/buttons/stickers! And sold out of my Pocahontas prints too! I couldn't believe how popular my Disney Chibi Princesses were!! Plus I sold most of my Princess Peach and Daisy posters too. I also got 10 commissions this weekend and will post them later on. I forgot to take a picture of one, and I still have to work on 2 more last minute requests. 

I'm really happy how everything went, and my whole family and boyfriend are super proud of me. Plus my old college teacher said he's very impressed with my new work and said that I've improved quite a bit! So yea! 

I can't wait for next year, as I have some great ideas of what I'll be doing for it! Plus I might even try to do a more elaborate costume next year, since no one really got one of my cosplays. I'll post pictures of my two costumes as well later on. 

Now I have to focus my time on getting ready for 3 Christmas crafts fairs coming up in December. So I'll be posting Christmas themed stuff soon!! 

Here are some pictures of my little set up! 

Hal-Con 2012

Well things are getting crazy by trying to get some new pieces ready for Hal-Con. It's being held on October 26-28th. I have about 5 new sketches I would like to turn into finished illustrations.

This happens every year, I scramble at the last minute to do a few new illustrations. If I was only like this all of the time, I would have a lot more work to show and sell.

Currently in the works I have Princess Peach, Princess Daisy, Wonder Woman, Lydia from Beetlejuice, and Princess Bubblegum & Marceline. Plus I might try to do a new witch pin up and a Bride of Frankenstein one. But I may leave those two for Gothic Little Christmas.

My bf Leo also wants me to do a Batman illustration. Batman with the 3 bad girls around him. Which I would love to do, but I'm still practicing drawing men. I don't think I draw them well enough to do a Batman drawing just yet. I might just draw Poison Ivy and Harley Quin, but with everything else I have on my plate, it might not happen. I guess we'll see.

I also will be making some shrinky dink pins and magnets, and those take up a lot of time to do! So I'm really in a tight spot to get everything done by then. Plus I'll need to print and package everything to sell! Eep. e_e

So, you'll be seeing a lot of new work coming in, in the next few weeks from me. I hope you all enjoy!

A little update

Haven't been posting in a while due to being pretty busy. At the end of June I was selling my work at the anime convention, Amimaritime in Moncton. It was an overall good experience, and I met a lot of talented people, but I will probably never do it again. Just not my type of crowd.

Then right after that I was getting things ready for the craft fair I organized, Art vs Craft. I had a lot of talented people there, but due to bad timing, I planned the event the weekend of the Tall Ships, so it wasn't very successful. Some vendors didn't return for the second day, which was in my opinion, super rude, and then others start packing in around 2 on the second day, even though we were supposed to be open until 6. But the people that did stay till the very end were super awesome and really positive.

I am planning on organizing more craft fairs next year, but not in the summer. I enjoy getting people together, helping out crafters and artists start out selling their work, and just meeting new people. It's great.

Now that all of that is over I am working full time at the store, which is awesome. I am also getting things ready for Hal-Con, which is the end of October. After that I have two christmas craft fairs to sell at. I've been busy getting things ready for all of these events, so keep a look out for new illustrations! Im planning a day of the dead series, and will be doing some more fanart, like Batman and maybe some more star trek pinups.

Also on the go I was commissioned to paint a cow skull! So I'll be posting some wip pics of that soon. I might also be painting the changing room at Plan B for Toxic Blossom. Pretty cool! Now I just need to get some design freelance and I'll be happy as a clam.

So that's it for now!

Draught Picks!

My bf and his friends started a softball team last year, and I promised them last year that I would do up a t-shirt design for them. It never happened because I am the WORST.

But this year I did it! The team likes the design and the shirts are made. I am just waiting to pick mine up tomorrow. :)

What's better than playing ball and having beers during the summer? 

Newspaper Box! "Cotton Candy Rain"

*EDIT* Unfortunately when The Coast put this box out, a few days later some jerks stole it. It was during frosh week, so more than likely it was a couple of students. I hope they realize how much time and effort I put into this and that they really do appreciate it, and not like, destroy it. Sad!

Oh shit! I thought I was going to be the last person to hand my into The Coast ( A local weekly newspaper), but nope, I was actually the first! Weird!

Anyways, I told people I'd post pictures up of it. So here they are with some work in progress shots! :) Because we all love looking at WIPs!

Hey look, a happy face! See it?

West Pictou represent! (oh god, my 10 year reunion is next year!)

And then they wanted a picture of me with it! I look awful, I'm not a morning person!

There ya go! I'm not sure where it's going to be placed in the city, but when I find out, I'll post about it, and maybe some action shots of it!

I'm so happy it's done. It's one of the biggest things I've worked on. I'm pretty proud of it, but I do wish I could have worked on it some more considering there has been only one other person to hand in theirs. Oh well, my living room is back to normal, and the bf is pretty happy about that! :)

Halifax Crafters

It's this weekend! I have a table this year! I am super pumped. I'll be selling my newest paintings and my bottle cap pins and magnets. Plus prints and some leftover bookmarks from last year. I hope I do well. There will be so many talented people there, I can't believe I am going to be a part of it.

askjdakshd

It's going to be the first show I sell at this year. Then after this will be Animaritimes, then Art vs Craft, Hal-Con, maybe Halifax Crafters Christmas fair, and then one more Christmas fair, but I think that one is still in the works.

So yah, once again I am busy. Really excited though. Halifax Crafters and Animaritimes will be the first time I'll be at these events.

I'm super nervous about Animaritimes though, it's in Moncton so I get to travel, and it's an anime convention, so I'm hoping people will like my stuff. I used to be heavily into anime and draw it a lot when I was in high school and in an Animation program, but I've been out of it for so long, that most of the shows people talk about, I have no idea what it is! I've only really been into Sailor Moon, so I will have some fanart of that, but I've recently got into Fairy Tail and Chobits. I've been told that I would also like Fruits Basket, so I will have to give that a whirl. I have a huge piece that I'm working on for this convention, I have the sketches all done, and am going to put my fucking all into it. If all goes well, it will be my best piece this year! It's going to be epic!! lol. I can't wait to show everyone once it's all done. :D

And then after Animaritimes, it's Art vs Craft, the craft fair that I've organized. I'm really hoping it goes well. Last year it was a day event, and it went pretty good! This year, it's a weekend, so I'm hoping everything will run smoothly.

Hal-Con is going to be awesome again! 3rd year in a row! I'm working on a new series of paintings for that too. Super busy! But it's all going to be worth it!!

Art vs Craft

I'm back at it again! I'm organizing the 2nd annual Art vs Craft fair! This year's theme is Christmas in July.
I'm hoping to get at least 60 different vendors this year. Last year we had a great mixture of very talented and creative people! I'm hoping for the same this time around.

It'll also be 2 days this year, hoping that more people will be able to come out and look around to see all of the wonderful handmade and original merchandise!

If you want to participate, please email me at artvscrafthalifax@gmail.com

I'm pretty pumped for this you guys! :)

Etsy

Hey gang!

I'm trying my hand at etsy.com again. I had a shop on there since 2008, but nothing ever happened, so I decided just to close it and put it out of its misery.

So I opened up a new shop! April M Paintings and I'll just be selling originals and prints there. And all of the paintings will be on the small size. Because anything bigger than 10x12" will cost an arm and a leg to not only ship it, but pack it as well. I would know, I work in the industry and it's not fun telling people how much it costs just to pack a frigging painting.

Anyhoo. I just wanted to let you all know that in case you missed it from my facebook or twitter updates. I'm hoping to update it a few times a week.


PS I'm getting Art vs Craft up and running again for this summer. Yea! :3

Color Wonderful

Hey!

I've been super busy lately, but I have had some time to get 2 more paintings done!

Meet Queen Thunder and Sour Candy! Both acrylic paintings and both for sale! 

I have a few more sketches in the works to become paintings too! An evil queen, space chick and some more pretty ladies!

Candy Stripes

First painting of 2012!

Acrylic painting on canvas in a plastic frame. Painting is 7.5"x5.25" big. The whole thing is about 12.5"x9.5". About a medium-small painting. She is for sale and will be hanging up at Plan B for $50 on the weekend. Or you can always buy her through me at emailing me @ aprilmdesigns@gmail.com