Aviakey Custom Print Commission

Hey everyone! How's Monday been for you? I've been recovering from my shenanigans at the weekend... I went to a Eurovision party (celebrating Sweden's Melodifestivalen final) and got a little too drunk :'). I hope that I'm feeling better tomorrow, because I have a busy week ahead of me! I know I've said this before, but I am now actually re-decorating my bedroom, after a few years of the process being put on standby and living with boxes of flat-pack Ikea furniture scattered here and there all over the house :D I've been spending the last week or so boxing up all of my belongings and moving them into another room, in preparation for painting and wallpapering. I'm already exhausted with the process and there's so much left to do...

Anyhow, today I finally get to share something with you guys that I've had to wait to talk about! I commissioned an artist, who's work I love, to create an art piece of my friend's beloved furbabies. I was thinking about the idea for months as I thought it would be a lovely present to gift her for her birthday. I've adored Aviakey's wonderful artwork ever since I was lucky enough to win a custom Animal Crossing character print from them in a giveaway over on Instagram (read all about my fabulous prize here). Ever since, I have been in love with their artwork, and as an animal lover, especially their more realistic illustrations of animals :) As soon as I saw a post by Aviakey saying they would love people to commission them to draw their pets, I just knew that I had to ask them to draw something for my friend ♥ This post is going to be all about the gorgeous artwork I received! It took me a while to send it out to my friend and so I've not been able to post anything about it, but she's received it now so I can show it off! I hope you all enjoy reading :) 

So, before I show you guys the super awesome artwork, I wanted to mention what I asked for and how much it cost :) My friend has two cat babies and a doggo, so I sent over some photos and let Aviakey have creative freedom when it came to the design. Although I did ask for my friend's pets to be outdoors on the grass and for there to be blue sky in the background, because this was something that I really loved about the Animal Crossing custom art I won. It looked so eye-catching and bright! And having a backdrop like that made the character pop, so I wanted my friend's pets to stand out in the same way. The commission cost £30 and I wanted a physical version VS a digital one so I paid £5 for printing as well as for the P&P. £35 for a beautiful, one-of-a-kind present for one of my closest friends was very reasonable in my opinion, and just wait until you see it!! 

Ta-da! HOW FLIPPIN' CUTE IS THIS ARTWORK!!? It's so colourful and adorable and oh my gosh, just perfect! I really love Aviakey's illustration style; my friend's furbabies look so cute and cuddly! Something else I love is the contrast between the animals and the scene, and I'm so happy with my decision to have the grass and blue sky. I'm not an artist, so I don't know the technical way of describing this, haha... but one of my favourite things about the print, other than the pets of course, is the brush effect of the sky and grass. I don't know if that makes sense, but I love how it looks!! 

Here are some close-up shots, so you can check out all of the little details. Let's talk about these three precious babies! My friend's dog is very energetic and happy, and after discussing more about her, Aviakey came up with this design, which I was delighted with!! Her personality just shines through and she looks like she's having the time of her life, playing in the grass. One of my favourite photos I had of my friend's cats was of them when they were kittens, cuddled up together sleeping. So I'm really glad that Aviakey was inspired by this photo! They look too cute!! I love that one of them is hugging the other... awww, brotherly love :) 

I can't get over how beautiful the artwork is!! It's super photogenic, too! It's going to look even more brilliant once it's framed. 'I absolutely love my picture of the animals!!! It's amazing' was what my friend said to me as soon as it arrived, so it's safe to say she's over the moon with it :D Thankyou Aviakey for creating such marvellous art for my friend and for being so lovely! Definitely make sure to go and check out Aviakey's Instagram everyone, and you should totally get yourself or your loved one's a commission piece, because how could you not!? I hope you guys enjoyed today's post and that you all have a wonderful week! 

Thankyou for reading!

♥

I'd love to hear all about your own furbabies or scaleybabies 

or whatever animal companions you have, so please tell me all about them in the comments!

Have you ever had a custom art comission done before? What did you get?

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Aviakey Giveaway Prizes!

Hey everyone! I hope you've all been having a lovely start to September! I'd love to hear about anything you've got planned/are looking forward to this month :) Today, I wanted to blog about something that helped to brighten up my day on Wednesday, which feels even more special and important considering everything I'm going through right now. If you follow me over on Instagram then you probably know what I'm referring to.... it's still so hard to talk about though and I'm writing this post to celebrate the little things that make me happy, so let's get back to that! 

Last month, I won a giveaway on Instagram, and I was so excited!! The artist hosting the giveaway is called Aviakey and they create the most adorable and wonderful artwork! A lot of their work is based around the fantastic Nintendo game, Animal Crossing, but they also do lots of other fantasy and fandom-related art, such as pokemon and anime. I know you guys will love Aviakey's work, so please go and show your support and give them a follow over on Instagram & Twitter :) So, without any further ado, here are my prizes I won! 

I wanted to firstly say Congratulations to Aviakey for passing the 250 followers milestone, which is what this giveaway was in celebration of!! And for now having close to 400, you deserve it! Your artwork is absolutely brilliant and so cute ^.^

Before I actually show you guys my prizes (along with the fabulous stickers above), I wanted to explain what I won :) The prizes included an Animal Crossing-inspired original character commission, which is AMAZING!! As soon as I won and messaged Aviakey my address, we discussed what I would like and if you know me well you'll probably be able to guess which animal I went for. I also won an Animal Crossing sticker sheet! 

Ta-da! Here is the custom Animal Crossing villager that Aviakey created for me! It is, of course, a cat :D If you have been a regular follower of my blog for a while, you will know how much I love nekomimi (anime cat girls) and so when Aviakey asked me what outfit I would like my villager to have, I opted for a traditional maid outfit, which is what you often see nekomimi cosplayers wearing. I adore the character that Aviakey created for me, her outfit looks so sweet, and I love the tiny bow detail as well as the fact she has a bell collar!! 

I was also asked what accessory I wanted for my villager, and I thought it would be cool for her to have a little magnifying glass to look for pretty insects. Insect photography and surveying is what I've been doing all summer so it seemed like the perfect choice, plus collecting bugs was always one of my favourite things to do back when I used to play Animal Crossing: Wild World a lot :) I really love that Aviakey included the butterfly and tiny caterpillar, they are a fabulous addition! Also, how gorgeous is the background.. the bright summer grass and the blue sky with fluffy clouds!! And her happy facial expression!? She's so excited to be exploring nature! Thankyou so much for making me such a marvellous OC!! 

Here are all of the stickers that I received, too. I love how vibrant and colourful they are! They are so eye-catching, and it's going to be hard for me not to hoard them and never use them :D Although, I can't wait to add the little money bag stickers to my planner to represent paydays, haha! I love that all of the stickers are small enough that I can use them to decorate snail mail letters, postcards and planner pages :) All of the characters are fantastic! 

As for the single/loose stickers... I really really adore them!! They stand out so much! I especially like the bold outline of the frog girl and I'm going to call him newt boy; it just makes them even more eye-catching! The purple & yellow, and pink & bluey-green work really well together as well. I had a little accident when removing the stickers from the plastic sleeve thingie they were in, and frog girl got stuck on the sticky part... unfortunately, when I tried to remove her, it took some of her colouration off. Oops! But I think it totally looks like she has markings now, and I've decided she's a cool species of speckled frog from a tropical rainforest :) The expression of awe on her face is incredibly cute! 

It was a wonderful surprise to see something Pokemon themed with my prizes, and this sticker is so pretty!! I love all of the little nature details, such as the different colours in the grass and the long fern-like plants. Green is my favourite colour, so it's lovely to see so many shades of it :) The blue and pink bubbles are a nice touch too, and I love they are pastel coloured. The star of the show is of course, Oddish himself! He looks exhausted, poor little dude! I can relate, haha! 

I am so delighted with everything that I won from Aviakey! I was honestly over the moon when I realised I would be getting sent a print of my Animal Crossing OC, because I assumed that it would be a digital commission only. I feel so lucky to get a printed version, and it's now displayed on my art wall! It was packaged so nicely too, in a blue dotty paper bag! It sounds weird but I really like when things are sent in paper bags. Does anyone else agree? They always make me think of pick-n-mix sweets :D I just wanted to say a big thankyou to Aviakey for hosting this epic giveaway & for designing me the most beautiful cat villager!! Don't forget to check out Aviakey's art on social media guys :) Let me know in the comments what your favourite item was in today's post? Have a spectacular weekend everyone!

Thankyou for reading! 

♥  

Are you a fan of Animal Crossing? Do you have a favourite villager? 

If you could design your own villager, what would it be like?