Summer Break is Over (For most people)

Well, now it's after Labour Day and for most people, it's back from summer vacations and either to work or school!  Then again, work and school aren't really restricted from September to June in Canada or online.

Artscape Wychwood Barns, Farmer's Martket

While practicing my art and self-study my Udemy courses, I'm looking for part-time work! Applied to a few locations already but no luck as of yet. It's not so much as finding work you can do adequate but also being able to travel to a workplace in a reasonable commute time.  Unfortunately, finding creative jobs in Toronto is harder than online when you have to travel about an hour each way to a studio on transit.  One of the pitfalls of living in a suburbia like Scarborough, even when it's in the most South-Western end of it.  I would honestly like to live closer to the downtown where it's more of an artist hub and as soon as I can get enough steady income coming my way, the better.

Customers @ Tim Hortons

Anyways, as far as beefing up my portfolio, I've made some game graphics assets with the intent of a Match-3 game. I've even gone as far as record my work progress on these, made fast-speed art demo videos of them and have their links down below. Some on them aren't posted yet on Youtube as they auto-scheduled for weekly updates.  It's still ongoing the project but I could turn them into my first game, maybe on my own or if I team up with a game programmer that knows Unity or similar. Not right now, but maybe soon or just sell them as assets on a game graphics store.

Pigeon @ Sugar Beach Park

Got other examples of works up for the month, so browse around and I'll be back soon (in October) with any new works or sketches for the month. Hopefully with a job.

Splash Pad @ Sugar Beach Park

ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) @ Queens Way & Bloor St West

Photo of ROM Sketch Site

Youtube Links
Flower Cookie

Star Cookie

Meringue Cookie
Icing Topper

Flower Cookie, 2017

Star Cookie, 2017

Meringue Cookie, 2017

Icing Topper, 2017

Working out what works best for myself! - Early August

Hi y'all! I've been busy awhile with my artwork and other odds and ends.  Working on filling up my portfolio in genres that I've lacking recent pieces in.  I got some lingering ideas and DIYs out of the way, I'm also working on some of my social media sites, improving them for promoting myself.  And here I'm sharing some of the samples.

Azeem lectures his genie, 2017

Vector Feather Pattern, 2017

Vector Animals, 2017

Vector Animals, 2017

JULY 21, 2017 - DeSerres @ Danforth & Coxwell

Triangular Sandwich Box Template, 2017

Black Box Easel, recently fixed up, 2017

What I'm hoping to get done very soon is create a bunch of assets that I can sell for some income.  Also getting hired on by a temp agency for some regular income to afford professional promotional materials (my printer won't print in black right now unless it's photo paper which I only got in postcard size) :(.  So I'll be busy doing that and hopefully have some news of my successes soon.

Waterdrop Cookie Art Video

Waterdrop Cookie Vector Art

Here is the second video of my vector art cookies.  As I'm making these videos, I'm noticing how I'm going to be need to store the raw and complied outside my computer as I'm getting low on GB space. At least USB keys can now carries loads of memory for large files.  Has anyone got like a whole library of USBs, containing their digital media of music, movies and other projects? What would you use to store them in? A USB Binder or key rings or a plain box/bin/bag?

My Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYtg6Gsg6plCMiqahOzS7mA
Water drop Cookie Art Video Clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PdtCRy-wRDM

My first live-action video... of vector rendering!

Heart Cookie Vector Art 

I've been wanting to try recording my work process on my computer.  I'm going to be making a small series of video clips from a sketch for a Match-3 game idea I had for a month now.  Not that I'm creating that game idea right now but it's a mock-up of concept work in vector graphics (Adobe Illustrator CS2).  

I had done video clips before on Youtube before, with my compiled Sketch a Day Challenge slideshows that I started 3 years ago.  There hasn't been anything new added since the final quarter  video clip.  I'll get them posted as the update times come.  So, please check my Youtube Channel with the links below to see my collection of clips!

My Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYtg6Gsg6plCMiqahOzS7mA 

Heart Cookie Video Clip:  https://youtu.be/E2AWG35LFGw

Silhouette Shoppers - Illustrated Edition

Having rendered my previously inked sketches in Adobe Illustrator, here's a showcase of their finals.

The Casual-ler

The Overbear-ed Teen

The Posh Carrier

The Rusher

The Fashionista

The Mother with Stroller

The Jogger

The Mother with Daughter

5 Game Arts

More like Graphic Design

Okay, so lately I've been looking into how much kinds of work I have and I'm noticing that I haven't been making anything to showcase for retail.  I was making gondole pricing tags from my past temp job for the Toronto's L'Oreal Warehouse Sale as a pricing associate.  Mostly I had to print and laminate the gondola tags made at their headquarters (gondola as in those shelving stands common in retail stores) and place them on the correct spots at the sale's location, including editing and replacing them as prices changes in Adobe Photoshop Elements.

Sand Checkers Club, 2016

The job did gave me the knowledge about coordinating the product's info and imagery together into an appealing yet understanding composition for any reader.  I had done some school postings before so I already had some amateur experience with this.  Anyways, these are samples of event postings and pricing tags using my own artworks (excluding product photographs); none of them are for authentic store prices or events.

Annual Winter Solstice Fair (Postcard Ad), 2016

Since I'm considering applying for jobs that deals with making these, these are for my portfolio for graphic design-related works.

Gondola Pricing Tags, 2016

Lance Blush (Bin Labels), 2016

Multi Brands Makeup (Bin Labels), 2016

Christmas Icons Art

For another profile's splash page (Linkedin), I spent the week rendering these christmas icons for the upcoming Christmas season.  LinkedIn is still a new site for me and apparently, I haven't had any artwork for my header.  It looks different here as the one in LinkedIn would look, like this:

Christmas Icons, formatted to LinkedIn's background section.

For each social media or job-hunting sites where you can customize your profile pages, they have different size formats requirements for posting up your splash image or banner. Along with file size limits.  It's a good idea to write down those requirements for when you want to update those profiles with fresh artwork, either from past jobs or custom-made works for them particularly.

I got about half of my customizable profiles done now.  I might for my Facebook and Twitter profiles use promo artwork for my splash images.  That's my next artistic goal, to update my portfolios with new and more diverse examples as I want to make them for job-hunting for new jobs.  While I'm getting some responses from my Fiverr account, I'm not getting a lot of replies back from clients after a few response exchanges.  Not much job security on that site or I'm not doing something right on there.

It's not like I'm very tight on cash yet, but I can't allow myself to keep working for peanuts or promise to do high-quality work on an impossible deadline; it's not feasible living for me nor make for a good rep on professionalism.  I could do work at a temp agency that actually pays the bills compare to how some people seem to think what work conditions I should do with my freelancing.  I illustrate because it's what I'm best at and I enjoy it; it's feels more of a hobby than a 9-5 job that most people do just for survival.

Anyways, there's more art to come as I continue to freshen up things.  And if my clients don't want to return my messages, hey more time to get this all done. Maybe before New Year's.  See ya later.

Mid-Summer News

Wow!  It's been a while since my last update!  Well, that's been mostly from me taking up some more illustration jobs online.  Some being more successful than others.  Making some income at least since I haven't been able to apply for any seasonal work this summer.  A lot of necessary professional house renovations with me needing to house-sit during the week.

But anyways, here are some of my work:

Oyster Company Logo Concept

Kel and Uda, ebook stamp illustration

Noir & Blanc Illustration Contest Entry

Treasure Chest App Icon (1 of 4)

Dragon's Lunch - Business Card Concept

So most likely, I'll be taking on other illustration jobs while renovations continue.   I might start getting enough work coming in soon to afford my monthly health coverage among other things.  So if anyone wants to see my profiles on Freelancer and Fiverr where I take on freelancing jobs, click on the links below:

Freelancer: https://www.freelancer.ca/u/Crystaliumjmc.html

Fiverr:  https://www.fiverr.com/crystaliumjmc

I'll be getting more works showcase here fairly soon.