300 BUTTONS DONE!

Finished 300 Pokemon Go buttons last night for a custom order!! I'm counting this as my workout for the day. 👍 ▪ ▪ ▪ #pokemongo #etsy #customorder #buttons #teamvalor #teaminstinct #teammystic #mystic #valor #instinct

A photo posted by M. Smith (@poison_and_antidote) on Jul 28, 2016 at 7:51am PDT

Man, that was the biggest order I've ever filled and it only took me 2 days to finish it! (One for printing & cutting, and another for punching/production.) Not bad, not bad at all. Plus I'm counting it as an arm workout. Win-win!

 ♥ etsy ♥ storenvy ♥ facebook ♥ sometimes foodie ♥ Society6 ♥ redbubble ♥

Pokemon GO - Awesome For Small Businesses

The game is here and it's having a much stronger effect than I had ever imagined. People are going outside, they're walking and exploring their neighborhoods, they're meeting new people, and small businesses are getting more foot traffic and sales thanks to being gyms and Pokestops. This is just...all around awesome. Sure there are a few naysayers and killjoys sprinkled in the mix with their negative articles, but overall, I think the positive benefits outweigh the few negative click-bait headlines.

I've only played up until Silver and Gold on the GameBoy Color (Silver was my last "new" Pokemon game), but my younger sister still plays and she keeps me hip to all the new Poke-happenings out there in the world. I know a lot of online shop owners JUMPED at the opportunity to make a buck off the trend, but with the market being so saturated...I figured I'd skip this one...but then the custom requests started rolling in....

Media Kit MADNESS

Lookin' all kinds of professional! Not like a food crazed sleepless zombie at all!

Look at me being all professional looking and junk!

So my numbers aren't super impressive, yet, but they're not bad considering I started the official blog in January of 2014. For roughly 2 years of hustling, this isn't too shabby.

Check out the backside after the cut!

Fancy Backgrounds & Life Update/Rambling

Bye bye stark white, hello FULL color backgrounds!

Yesterday was a really productive day for me! I was able to list my new Louise and TWEWY stickers on Etsy but instead of my usual stark white backdrop, I made fancy ones!

Well "made" isn't quite accurate. All I did was go to Pixabay and print out some free stock images of graffiti and cheeseburgers on some tabloid paper, but it made my stuff look so awesome!

This one really makes me want to doodle some burgers of my own!

If I had more time I would have made my own, but with everything else I have going on...

• Packing for the Summer Fancy Food Show in NY this weekend (I leave Sat., return Wed.) 
• Writing Food Reviews to queue up for the blog so it isn't stagnant while I'm away 
• Making and shipping out Etsy orders
• Listing NEW Etsy and Redbubble items
• Filming, editing and queueing up YouTube videos (2 a week! Gotta keep that up) 
• Washing, drying and folding 2 (long overdue) loads of laundry
• Doing minor PR work for all the stuff I do online to generate interest and get views/sales
• AND I have a few really big deals going on behind the scenes with some companies that I can't quite tell you guys about yet for both my art and my food blogging ventures.
• All that, PLUS my 9-5 day job that is a 40+ min drive there and another 40+ min back every day...

So yeah, I did NOT have the time to doodle any burgers or DIY my own graffiti wall for backdrops last night, but that is what stock images are for!! 

The end results look awesome, and I even printed out a couple to enhance my latest Sometimes Foodie post! 

My life feels pretty hectic at the moment, but everything's coming' up Milhouse awesome! This is really great and a few doors are opening for me thanks to all the stuff I do after-hours online, and I need to give it my all to keep this up! 

♥ etsy ♥ storenvy ♥ facebook ♥ sometimes foodie ♥ Society6 ♥ redbubble ♥

Cool Down Tablet Drawing - Geez Louise, you're the best!

I might hold the Guinness record for most hours spent watching Bob's Burgers. It is my go-to show on Netflix and I've watched the series, in it's entirety,...I don't know how many times, but if I totaled it up I'm sure it'd be embarrassing. 

Last night I finished up a Miyazaki piece I had been working on for a themed art show, and to cool down I doodled this little Louise. It feels good to doodle again and since I put more effort into this than I originally intended, I'll be turning her into a sticker and button for my Etsy. Maybe I should doodle the rest of the Belcher clan...

♥ etsy ♥ storenvy ♥ facebook ♥ sometimes foodie ♥ Society6 ♥ redbubble ♥

Custom Sticker Order (300 Stickers!)

Images © Kastraz of Deviant Art

Just finished up a custom vinyl sticker order (300 stickers total) for the awesome Kastraz of Deviant Art and YouTube.

They’re printed on durable white vinyl so they’re waterproof, weather proof, and tear resistant! I even included an extra fabulous holographic-finish Mettaton. I honestly know next to nothing about Undertale, but I think these stickers are awesome! (I'm totally not biased at all.)

I included a special Holo sticker as a gift to Kastraz for placing the order. See it under the cut!

Selfie - My First Self Portrait (WIP)

All these years and I've never done a self portrait. That's like skipping How to Be An Artist 101!

To be honest, figure work isn't one of my strong points. I have a very poor sense of anatomy, and even though my college was great conceptually, they didn't teach the fundamentals of drawing, portraiture, or figure work in any medium. I just drew what I saw, which has worked for me until now, but I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and do something kind of therapeutic and self-exploring.

3 Types of Clients You'll Meet While Freelancing Graphic Design

It's been fun, and therapeutic, making more posts about my graphic design day job, and while working on a few projects for clients, this list popped into my head. This is by no means the ONLY types of clients you'll run into, but these are three I get a LOT and how I handle them.

The "And Then"

They want it all, and they want it NOW. 

This client knows what they want. You meet up for a consultation, get the information you need to make their invite, poster, ad, whatever the product may be, you deliver a proof, and they get back to you with changes, but really, it's more additions. Then they keep on adding...and adding. You warn them that things are getting too busy, their clients/recipients will be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of (useless) information on this product, but every single word must stay as-is.

Before you know it, your carefully constructed design that was clear cut and to the point is now a jumbled sea of text. It's overwhelming, but it's what the client wants even if their recipients won't know what hit them. 

Ever see the movie, "Dude, Where's My Car?" If you haven't, then there's a scene where they try to order food from a drive through and the person on the speaker box keeps the order going and adding to it by asking "and then?" Until the person placing the order snaps. That's going to be you. 

My best advice on how to deal with the And Then is to show them very simple examples alongside their own hectic and jumbled one. Explain how the simplicity makes the necessary information (when, where and what) POP and allows their audience to know what they need to know without searching for it, because most people really won't search for it. Especially if this is an advertisement.  Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Clients want what they want, and in the end you'll create what they've asked for and approved, but actual physical comparisons and visuals tend to help the most. Verbal warnings and emails will definitely be ignored.