Autumn Updates + Illustration Inspiration Blog

Hello people who wander over to this blog!

Regrettably, I haven't been posting too much new art on this blog.

The past few months have been busy for me because I've been trying to find a decent balance between art jobs, a new day job, spending time with friends + family, and enjoying a rare, sunny Vancouver summer. Finally though, (I hope!) things are settling down and I'm looking forward to a season of cool collaborations, gallery shows, and nature retreats.

I've also started a Tumblr blog a little while ago to share the work of illustrators/artists whose work I really enjoy and find inspiring. I post once a day and plan on doing so for at least a year.
If you enjoy this sort of thing, please give Illustration Exhilaration a browse! :)

Here's a little overview of some of the artists I've posted about

Also, if you'd like to keep up with my miscellaneous sketches and mini adventures - I'm on Instagram and Twitter. Below are the sort of things I post on there.

Hiking excursions

Rough sketches

I also spend time on Pinterest collecting all kinds of images that I think will make great reference materials for drawings and paintings. (Landscapes, trees, castles, light, poses, clothing, hair, etc)


Now, I'm off to go draw. Hope this September will be treating you all well!
-M

Snowy Fowls and The West Wind

Happy Wednesday all those who have wandered over to this blog!

Today, I've spontaneously decided to share some paintings and sketches that I've done for a project that began last year. The project is currently on hold, so I thought it would be nice to post up some of the work.

For the most part, I was working on the fantasy characters in the story our team was developing. They were all hybrid creatures, based on the species of animals found in Scandinavian countries. I won't be revealing all of the illustrations done thus far, just a few.

First up, there's The West Wind. I've shared a few teaser close ups of him a few months ago {here}
He is a forest dwelling spirit. He can't quite fly like a bird but he can leap distances and glide on the wind because he is a hybrid of a lynx and a flying squirrel.

Here he is surrounded by some 'action' sketches.

And here he is all by himself, enjoying his walk in the woods. He might look peaceful, but he can kick butt, I assure you.

(Click to see a larger)

And now we have "The Snowy Fowls". They're hybrids of snowy owls and foxes - get it? Kind of cute, no? *Don't look at me like that*
Anyhow, these guys were once an arctic fox and a snowy owl who were subjected to a witch's experimental spell. Now their task is to figure out whether this mishap is a gift or a curse, and whether to seek her out in the hopes of getting changed back.

Character painting with some of my favourite exploratory sketches.

Character painting with some of my favourite exploratory sketches.

Snowy Fowl 1

Here are what the sketches looked like, if you were curious.

Snowy Fowl 2

 (Click to see a larger)

Painted with waterproof coloured inks, watercolour, and gouache on Bristol Smooth paper.

I still have to figure out the names for each of these fowls. Maybe one day they'll come to me in a dream, or something. :)

Thanks for visiting!

All images are ©Mariya Olshevska and may not be used or re-purposed without the artist's consent.

Please give credit if you share the images. :)

The Hair Day Dismay

Ok! Hi!

Today isn't going to be an art post, but more of a personal. comical story. Everyone has bad hair days, right? But some days are worse than others. I had an awful one, and the best way to cope with it was to write it out and draw some pictures. Hope you find it entertaining!

"The Hair Day Dismay"

After ogling over the many photo tutorials for numerous majestic braids, I decided to grow out my hair, so that I too could bask in the goddess-like glory of complex coifs. This attempt lasted roughly 7 months. When my pixie hair grew out enough to be twisted into a little French braid I saw that my fantasy wasn’t going to become a reality. My braid was sadly slim. What my whole head could produce amounted to 1/4-1/3 of the braid thickness to that of my inspiration photos. Oh, the joys of fine hair.

So, I decided to get it cut short again and bleach my roots while I was at it. When I made the decision I became very excited about it. There was only one problem – it turned out that my hair stylist was on leave and wouldn’t be back till possibly the end of autumn. I couldn’t wait that long. 

My mom suggested I go see her hair stylist, but I was reluctant because I’ve been to two of her stylists before and didn’t end up liking them for various reasons. Sorry mom!

I reached out on a couple of my social media sites for recommendations. Silence. Then, there was one response (thank you April!), but for the time being the suggested salon was a bit far for my liking. In turn, I decided to go for a stroll my local shopping centre and investigate my options. Most of the salons didn’t look busy and some had the service section deep behind the storefront, so it was hard to see who was cutting hair well. Rats!

Lastly, I checked out Zennkai*. It looked tidy. I knew they had many locations, suggesting they were doing well financially and that their customers were coming back. I also remembered seeing staff members with lovely hair when I bought shampoos there before. It seemed reasonable to try getting my hair done there.

On July 27^th, I walked in to book an appointment. I approached the receptionist and told her the kind of haircut and colour I was interested in. I wanted a platinum pixie cut, a style I’ve had and loved for many years. In turn, she confidently recommended a hair professional, let’s call her ‘A’, and assured me that she was excellent at cutting short styles. An appointment was scheduled for 3:30pm the next day.

I arrived with several pictures of the style I wanted and also explained my request with words. ‘A’ nodded, and began working at bleaching my roots. During the appointment, she hardly said anything, except to ask a couple of questions about my hair and to answer my queries of how the colour was turning out. As the chemicals were being rinsed off, I channeled happy thoughts.

When she began cutting my hair, I noticed that the colour looked strange – there were sections that looked orange, sections that looked yellow, and sections that looked grey. She said that some colour unevenness was to be expected, that it couldn’t be helped, and that it would be evened out once the cut was done. (Interestingly enough, this has never happened with my regular stylist.)

Then, as she was cutting my hair, it seemed like she was having a hard time, perhaps as if she wasn’t very practiced at cutting hair short. This scene was not matching up to the receptionist’s recommendation at all.

Finally, after what felt like a long time, (as it turned out it was after 6pm by then) she said she was done. She asked me what I thought, and studying my reflection I was so confused that I could hardly say anything except for “It sure is very different”. A walked off to ring up my fee, left her card, and disappeared.

Looking in the mirror, I touched my head and it felt damp, looked roughly chopped, unevenly coloured, and unhealthy. What I was seeing was very far from the pictures I had brought in. I hadn’t even seen the back yet, and couldn’t spot any hand mirrors which I could use to get a good look. 

By the time I walked up to the counter, I was torn between a desire to escape the now closed salon and to make a scene explaining how absurdly awful the hair was. A receptionist with shiny, purple hair greeted me and said that my new style suited me. Is that so? Maybe you ought to try it.

And then a remarkable thing happened. I slipped into a state where I was so angry and increasingly upset that I couldn’t deal with the potential incompetence of anything that might be said to me had I decided to complain. It was extremely out of character for me. Ever since I was little, I had no issues with confronting someone who treated me unfairly. I had no idea what happened. I just swiped and exited the salon as quickly as I could. By the time I got home I hated myself for not demanding compensation. That was by far worse than having terrible hair. I failed myself by not being myself. Never again. But the shopping centre was closed, I had lots of work to do, and I now had a bigger dilemma on my hands. The hair had to be fixed.

The following day, I combed through and examined it with hopes that I overreacted, or that it was just styled strangely. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to be the case. In the light of day it looked worse than ever. I couldn’t bear the thought of going out in public with the crooked, blotchy disaster that was my head. I didn’t even own a hat.

After strategizing and researching for solutions online with my mom (thanks mom!), it was settled that my hair was healthy enough to hold up to another bleaching session that was needed to even out my colour. She graciously went out to get the bleaching product* we decided on and a nice hat.

Everything went smoothly. After this home bleaching, the hair was one and didn’t feel dry or damaged. Thank you hair gods! However, it still needed toning. That process went fairly well also, though the hair ended up with a baby blue hue to it. That was my own fault though, for leaving the toning solution on too long. At least it wasn’t the peachy/yellow/grey it was the day it was “done professionally”.

The cut wasn’t something that could be fixed at home, however. Time to call reinforcements –a.k.a. my mom’s stylist. She turned out to be a very nice, skilled lady, who on Friday that same week made it as if nothing horrible ever happened. My hair and I were happy. The end.

Felt good to get that off my chest!

Notes:

*Zennkai location – Coquitlam Shopping Centre

*Garnier Nutrisse Intense Bleach Cream D01

Sneak Peeks at Patterned Persons

Hello fellow visitors!

Sorry I didn't post anything last week, BUT today I am happy to announce that I've officially wrapped up my share of the work for that secretive,collaborative project I've been mentioning. The results of all the effort will be slowly revealed shortly - with some full images making their appearances in March.

In the meantime, here are some sneak peeks of the characters' design processes and more finalized versions:

A mix of pencil sketches, inked drawings, and finished pieces - all cropped closely for this collage.

Prior to starting on my paintings, I created portraits of all the characters from the story. This step helped me to better contemplate each of their personalities, which were then easier to translate into their "in-scene" presences. And yes, they all wear patterned attire (in the end), because I couldn't resist, and more importantly it's part of the traditional Japanese clothing aesthetic.  

Most of these portraits are quite small (4 x 5.25") and I'm considering putting up some originals for sale. I'll return to this thought later and keep you updated. :)

Thanks for visiting!

P.S. - if you don't already, please follow my art on my Facebook page for more frequent updates: Mariya Olshevska Illustration.

Character Sketches

Ahoy there!

Posting some sketches tonight! These are for a children book illustration project, the first part of which is character concepts for a story.

Here are some of my favorites:

Wishing everyone a creative and happy week ahead! :)

Sketches by the Shore

This past week I've been spending my time on a vacation of sorts in Puerto Vallarta/ Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico. Of course I had my sketchbook with me and in the afternoon I doodled on the beach.
Here are some pages:

The 'e' looks really odd but I'll just say it reflects the reclining position I was in as I drew.

For this doodle I even wrote a little poem:

"What this small kitten wanted most of all,

Was an escape to a a place where she knew no one at all.

Where she'd have luxury and simplicity at the same time,

One hand with a pina colada, and the other on a tree she could climb.

She wanted to sit still and gaze at the sky,

See stars glimmering and airplanes fly by.

She wanted to sit there all day and all night

Without receiving a single bug bite."

A super lazy attempt at drawing from life.

Inspired by storm that came in the afternoon

This is another lazy attempt at drawing something realistic, this time a photo from a magazine

I was feeling poetic again

Now I'll try to use 7-8 sentences to describe each day of my trip:

1 - Saturday - After arriving at the hotel I did, in fact, get caught in the rain and have a couple of pina coladas.

2 - Sunday - It was the first time I had ever fallen asleep on the beach.

3 - Monday - The highlight of the night was getting dressed up and going to the Italian restaurant at the resort

4 - Tuesday - It turned out that swimming in the ocean was not really an option due to murkiness and sting rays popping up, so from this day I resorted to swimming in the pool each day for as long as possible - that is until too many people got in.

5 - Wednesday - It really baffled me why in an almost empty pool, people would prefer swim into the small section of the pool I was using, only to stop and tread water in place (at the most). "Move! I'm actually getting exercise here!"

6 - Thursday - Took a bus trip to the downtown of Puerto Vallarta to get some souvenirs and later that night I saw sea turtles hatching and going into the the ocean.

7 - Friday - Got my overgrown hair braided.

8 - Saturday - I've never seen so many Duty-Free stores in an airport that REQUIRE you to go through them in order to get to your gate. Kahlua and Baileys it is!

Best of Both Worlds

Of digital and traditional illustration techniques that is:)

Firstly, I have to say that I think that it takes tremendous amounts of talent to skillfully utilize both the traditional media and digital tools. Both have their value and neither is inherently (for no obvious reason) better than the other. And when both digital and traditional techniques are applied together, wonders can happen! Yes, yes they can:)

Now, I'm not implying that the following pieces are the wonders I spoke of, but I think they're pretty good examples of digital and traditional techniques can have a happy marriage.

So, for this project we had to make "Greeting" card type of patterns.
To create a uniform feel for my vine shapes I decided to first quickly draft out their basic outline in Illustrator, and they looked like this:

I then traced over these shapes and filled them in with my design. (Sketches of this step will be added sometime later)

I then coloured my patterns with waterproof coloured inks and they looked like this:

I then scanned these and brought them into Photoshop where layered and blended them to make my patterns which ended up looking like this:

Art Nouveau inspired style and colouring

So, in the end they have a hand drawn appearance yet they are still fairly similar and the vine outlines aren't tremendously crooked. Not to mention - I didn't have to paint dozens of microscopic identical flowers:)

Happy Thursday!