Jay Birds

Happy Tuesday!

Today, I'm sharing some recent work for a quirky series idea I had a while ago. Hope you'll enjoy some subtle plays on words.

First came along the "Blue Jay".

This jay's got the blues.

Then, the "Stellar Jay".

This jay is stellar, perhaps even interstellar.

Finally, an "Alternative Jay" appeared.

This jay never fit in with the others, it was always more alternative.

- All painting were completed with drawing inks, watercolor, gouache, and micron pens on vellum bristol paper.
- They are around 9 x 12 inches (23cm x 30cm) in size.

Keep an eye out, more jays might be flying in soon. :)

Prints and merchandise is available throughout my shops. Click the links below to browse and support an independent artist.

-Society6
-RedBubble
-INPRNT

Last but not least, please get in touch if you're interested in commissioning an illustration from me. You can do so through my official website here - http://mariyaolshevska.com/contact.html. 

Cheers!

Fundraiser Results

Good evening,

So, this is a quick follow up entry to my previous post on the fundraising initiative.

The results are in and I'd like to say a big thank you to everyone who's bought my art in the month of March and helped me raise money towards a wildlife conservation donation. The grand total was $60.00!

After some research, I've decided to donate the proceeds to the Nature Conservancy of Canada.

Thank you again and have a happy April!

Buntzen Lake, BC.

Help Me Help The Planet

Good afternoon friends and happy March! 

My birthday is coming up this month and to thank the universe for keeping me alive for these last 26 years I was hoping to so some fund raising for environmentalist groups and animal conservation charities. I am still researching which ones would be the best fit, but was planning on keeping it local to British Columbia/Canada. 

As you might have noted from my previous self promotions, I have a number of places online where I sell originals, prints and merchandise of my work. So, my idea is that for the month of March, all proceeds from the pieces I sell, I'll donate. I hope you'd like to help me help our planet, and order yourself a little something. Every little bit is appreciated. :)

Northern Spotted Owls

Please find below links to my shops:

Etsy (original art and signed prints)
Society6  
RedBubble
INPRNT


Have a great weekend!

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. :)

Wanderers of the North

Hello again!

Today I'm excited to share with you a mini series of black and white animals I've been working on. The inspiration for this series comes partly my love for illustrating various creatures in a naturalistic style, partly the positive response I've received when I posted the fox image, and partly the new story/book, based on Norwegian lore, which a new team of conspirators and I are developing. So far I have five images completed and I hope to add many more to the collection!

Brown Bear

Red Fox

Inspired by the Icelandic horse, but incorporated a more whimsical mane.

Gyrfalcon

Eurasian Lynxes

All pieces are roughly 4 x 6" in size and completed with ink wash, graphite and white gouache.

Yours truly, with some framed prints.

The image at the top, of all the pieces together isn't a photo, by the way. It's a quick simulation I put together in Photoshop, because the photos I took of the "real" works hanging on the wall all had reflections of people in the glass.

Cheers everyone!

Pleasant News and Pattern Sneak Peeks

Good afternoon, evening, or morning!

Alright, so today I want to start off by sharing some delightful news I have received on the weekend. (Sorry if you already know and are reading about this for the 3rd or 4th time)
What happened was that I had been accepted into our 52nd  Illustration West Competition held by the Society of Illustrators Los Angeles. Seems that my elite and endangered hummingbirds charmed the judges into deciding to include them in the upcoming web exhibition on the Illustration West website on SI-LA.org.
Congratulations to all the other entrants who got accepted, and thank you to everyone who's supported my work. I hope this small victory will be the stepping stone to many great things to come. :)

The Endangered Elite

In other news, a few days ago I created a Facebook page - Mariya Olshevska Illustration - for my illustration work/news. Please follow it for more frequent updates. Thank you in advance!

And now back to sneak peeks of that secretive project I keep mentioning. Being a huge lover of patterns, I couldn't help but create some of my own patterns which I could imagine the characters from the story wearing. I used the patterns found in Japanese wood block prints as my inspirations but I also tried to give them a little bit of a personal flair.

 ©Mariya Olshevska

If you haven't seen too many Japanese prints, I strongly encourage you to get acquainted. They're fantastic! Here's one of my latest favorites:

Utagawa Toyokuni I (1769-1825) Double portrait of the actors Nakayama Tomisaburo and Ichikawa Ichizo, c.1800. Oban

If you're in Vancouver, Canada - I recommend to check out the Ukiyoe Spectacular Japanese Woodblock Prints from the 1800s. It's a two part exhibition on from Jan 10th to March 23rd. Follow {this link} for all the details.

That's it for now!

Sneak Peeks at White and Black Vignettes

Hi again!

As promised in the previous post, I'm continuing to share glimpses of work I've been doing from September till now. (Still working!)
Today, I have close ups of black and white chapter heading type images. These were actually done before the paintings I previewed last week. Before diving into full-colour illustrations I decided to pick a few subtle moments from the story and portray them in little vignettes. This gave me a chance to explore design elements I was considering for the bigger pieces.

More sneak peeks again next Tuesday!
Previous blogpost - Sneak Peeks at Snowy Scenes

Something new I'm working on. Tracing some of my own patterns on to this lady's outfit. I'm old-school :)

Have a lovely week!

Losing Altitude - Northern Spotted Owls

 

Hi there,

Today I'm going to do a quick process post about my latest painting - "Northern Spotted Owls (Strix occidentalis caurina)" It was a piece I did for Losing Altitude - an upcoming book about threatened/endangered birds. This collaborative art book will feature over 50 artists and well over 100 pages of beautiful, full-color art of endangered birds from the world over.

Check it out here: https://www.facebook.com/LosingAltitude

And now for the process.

1. As usual, I sketched out some thumbnails. to see what layout I wanted to work with.

As you can see from the finished product, the image ended being a combination of all 4 of these.

2. After getting my references together I went on to penciling. I like use the double penciling approach - where I first get the shapes and elements down more loosely with my blue pencil and then go over ad add more details with a graphite pencil.

Close up of the adult owl.

3. Then came my favourite part- the inking, using my black microns.

Adding even more detail during this stage.

After inking the whole image, I erase the pencil marks.

4. For this piece I decided to do a grey-scale values under-layer. It seemed like a logical idea since the owlets were mostly grey.

Almost fully rendered under-layer. I ended up darkening the adult owl some more later.

5. Then I got my coloured, waterproof inks out and finished up the painting, sprinkling some table salt on the background for hazy effect. Oh, and of course - for the final touch I used white gouache to add some shine and detail to the birds' feathers.

Here are some close ups:

 

-Original size: 11 x 17.7"
-Materials: Waterproof coloured inks, microns, white gouache, and salt on 300 series Strathmore Vellum Bristol paper

Prints available at my Society6 shop =)

Cheers for now!