Mail Me Art 4: Open All Hours - Celestial Convergence

Hi there!

Today, I'll be sharing with you a small piece I created for Darren Di Lieto's Mail Me Art: Open All Hours show/book. 

Last year I had taken part in Mail Me Art: Short & Sweet and I was quite excited to get to work on my piece for the 4th installment of this mail art exhibition project. I had several ideas rolling around in my brain for what I might want to illustrate, but in the end something convinced me to integrate a part of the book project I'm working on right now into this piece.

You see, recently I've been working on creating characters, scenes, props, and much more based on Norwegian folktales and Norse artwork. I was really enjoying the research but I've become a little stuck in the sketching stage - not feeling quite satisfied with what I've been producing to take things into the painting stage. What I did feel confident about was designing patterns and decorative motifs, so I decided to choose one and bring it to completion. Luckily, my MMA4 submission was still untouched, so I decided to use it as an additional incentive to push out some finished work I could share. The theme was "Open All Hours" so I chose to go with a sun and moon motif, to connect to the concept of continuity I inferred from the theme.

And here's what I ended up creating:

I've fancily called it "Celestial Convergence".

 

Approximate dimensions: 6 x 6 inches (14.8 x 14.8cm)

Media: Gouache + ink pen + gold acrylic paint

And here's how it all came together:

1. I started with a pencil doodle in my sketchbook

2. Then I turned my ideas into vector shapes and lines in Adobe Illustrator. (This was the final line-work after many experiments with scaling of the different elements)

3. Played around with potential colour schemes. I knew I wanted gold and silver like colours for the design and I fiddled with the hues till I felt they were 'right' and would look good against numerous background colours.

4. After choosing to work with a dark blue background for this project, I properly knotted my foreground lines.

5. Then knotted my background lines into the foreground ones and applied some watercolour paper texture over everything to give the piece a more traditional look.

And this is approximately what I planned to paint on the paper that was provided to all the Mail Me Art 4 artists. The only changes I had planned to make was to add an additional outline in black around all line elements and perhaps add some subtle shading for more volume and depth in the background. 

But that wasn't going to happen apparently.

After I inked my piece of paper I took out my colour inks and mixed my first colour. The paper looked nice and thick, like the paper I usually used, and since there was no extra test paper provided I was really hoping everything would be fine. Nope, no such luck. When I applied my ink it became blotchy and I realized I'd have to re-strategize.

After some deliberation, I decided to rethink my colour palette a bit and leave the background white.

Something along the lines of this, except I would make my painted version have a golden and silver shine or shimmer.

I pulled out my gouache paints and painted the base colours.

Then I used my 0.05 micron pen and added some stippling in black around the outside of the elements.

To finish off, I decided to use some gold acrylic paint to go over top of the darker yellow gouache and add some stippling on the sun. I also used some white paint to do a little stippling over the lavender-grey areas. I decided to not use silver paint because my brain at the moment was shouting "less is more!".

Side by side comparison of the two resulting images.

In the end, I was pretty content with the piece and enjoyed it's more delicate and detailed look. The scanner doesn't really do it justice because it can neither show the sheen of the gold as the light hits it, nor the chameleon quality the gouache has. Depending on the light, it can go from appearing light grey, to slightly lavender-grey, to a more saturated lavender. Here are some photos to show you what I mean:

Oooh, shiny!

And here's one more shot of this mail art piece being sent off. 

 

In the silliness of holding my umbrella, whilst also holding the painting and trying to take a photo, I didn't realize that I was on the verge of pushing it through a crack, rather than the proper slot. A slot which I needed more hands than I had to hold open and photo-document the process. Alas...

Hopefully it'll make it to its destination without damage. =) To find out more about Mail Me Art please check out the Mail Me Art website.

Be well my friends!

***Nov 7th Update: I'm happy to report that my mail art piece made it to its destination. Unfortunately, for some reason the mail service decided to print that bar code on the front, However, it now forever carries the processing date. At least it didn't get lost! Check out the other arrived mail art works here!

Mail Me Art 3 - Short & Sweet Hummingbirds (updated)

Good evening? Or I guess it's very early morning now? Anyways...

In January I was ecstatic to find out that I've been invited to contribute to Darren Di Lieto's Mail Me Art 3 Project - Short & Sweet.

Here's some info about the project, cited from the official site:

"Mail Me Art is a British-based project, run by Darren Di Lieto, the founder and co-editor of the illustration news portal The Little Chimp Society.
The Mail Me Art project is here for everyone to enjoy, both as artists and onlookers. It’s not about making a statement or rebelling against the establishment – it’s about having fun and connecting with other people around the world. If you’re looking for a history of the mail art movement or some serious mail art-driven political agenda, you’ve come to the wrong place. This is a celebration and archive of the artists who have taken part in Mail Me Art, plain and simple! We love mail art and we hope you do too!

Mail Me Art 3 has been a long time coming and this time around the project will be called Mail Me Art: Short & Sweet. MMA3 will be by invitation only and limited to 200 participants. There will be an exhibition in July 2013 and a new book showcasing all of the brilliant new mail art! Mail Me Art 3 will be short and it will be sweet."

At that time I was working on my Vanishing Canids/Stamps for a Cause project, so I was inspired to paint some endangered species. And with the theme of the project being "Short & Sweet" - I though - "what is possibly shorter and sweeter than a hummingbird?" So then I did what I arguably do best and put a whimsical spin on the topic and anthropomorphized the birdies.

And ta-da! About a month later here they are - the rare, the fashionable, the short and sweet hummingbirds! =)

The back of the envelope, which is actually the front in this case. I made my own envelope so that I could use the nice paper I found.

 So from left to right we have: Amazilia castaneiventris (Chestnut-bellied Hummingbird), Lepidopyga lilliae (Sapphire-bellied Hummingbird), Eupherusa cyanophrys (Blue-capped Hummingbird), Glaucis dohrnii (Hook-billed  Hermit Hummingbird), and Amazilia boucardi (Mangrove Hummingbird). 
 

The other side =)

And on this side we have: Selasphorus ardens (Glow-throated Hummingbird) and Eupherusa poliocerna (White-tailed hummingbird).

A close up of this gentleman -- he even has a monocle!

I just love hope I did the little guys justice and illustrated them accurately enough. I must say - it was hard at times to find clear photo references.

Size: 162 x 229mm
Media: Microns, watercolors, colored inks + gouache

Finally, here's the process work:

Some of my favorite sketches

Ink work -part 1

And ink work part 1 for the other side

Ink work part 2 - more details!

Ink work part 2 - more details + species names

So there we go! I'm happy to be done but I wish I could illustrate a few more envelopes honesty. It's so much fun!

On the weekend I'll pop this envelope in the mail and hope that I'm in favor with post-service gods and that it arrives in the UK safely and undamaged =)

Happy Thursday!

***UPDATE March 11th, 2013: I've received news this morning that my envelope has arrived safely and it seems without hardly any damage. From the confirmation of arrival image Darren sent me, it looks like there's a very small smudge at the edge around the right side, but considering the dangers of traveling as far as it did, it's hardly worth a fuss. It might even come off with an eraser, who knows. :) Thank you illustration gods!

*Update, May 8th: This image is now a limited edition print of 25 which comes with a Certificate of Authenticity and can be acquired {here}

The ‘Mail Me Art: Short & Sweet’ will be exhibiting at The Framers Gallery from 30th July – 3rd August 2013. The gallery will be open Tuesday to Friday from 10am – 5.30pm and 11am till 5pm on Saturday. All of the mail art will be on display and the new book will be available to buy and browse.

 

And the second show at the Factoryroad Gallery will take place from August 9th to August 12th.

{FB event page}

AND all original pieces are now available to purchase online, though they won't be shipped to the buyers until September, after the gallery exhibitions have taken place. Here's the link to my piece!  {Mariya Olshevska: Original Mail Art}