Arcane Angel Shield (Collaboration)

Happy Thursday!

Today, I'm happy to share some personal work, hot off the press! (Well, computer.)
I was going through some sketches and found one I had been meaning to develop.Though, I'm not a religious person, I've always admired the craftsmanship of stained glass artwork found in churches and cathedrals, and wanted to create something with that aesthetic but with a modern influence.

So, after much fiddling in Adobe Illustrator, I ended up with with an image I was happy with. 
Above is how it looked without a background or any textures.

Next, I added a background colour:

And, finally some textures in Photoshop to achieve a more glass-like finish:

I also liked the look of the image without the stained glass colours:

Then, although I was happy with what I had produced, it became appealing to take the design further by featuring it on something like armor.

So, designed a fantasy shield. (Also in Illustrator)

Next, Seth Rutledge agreed to collaborate by translating my design into a 3D digital object.

So, I prepared the file for him, akin to a height map, so that the different colours and textures would transfer well to a 3D form.

He used 3D-Coat to create the object and then rendered it in Keyshot under my art direction.

Here's the result! For the textures we have polished iron, gold, and glass.

For fun, we also quickly made a version where the shield is predominantly made from glass. The shield straps are yet to be added, but I wanted to share anyway.

Thanks Seth!
You can find his work on:

-His website
-ArtStation
-Facebook Art Page
-Instagram

Prints and merchandise can be found throughout my usual shops:

RedBubble
Society6
TeePublic
DesignByHumans

 Cheers!

Etsy Shop Update

Happy first of September everyone!

This is just a quick post to say that I've updated the Etsy shop for my original paintings and signed art prints. More pieces will be added with time, but for now it's pretty up to speed with a variety of merchandise like: original illustrations of various sizes, regular prints, postcards sized prints, and bookmarks.

I have plans to add buttons and stickers and a few other things in the future, so stay tuned.

My Etsy Shop

Bye for now!

The Fox's Tower and Other Tales (Cover Art)

Hello friends!

I have some exciting news!
A few months ago, the lovely Yoon Ha Lee hired me to do the cover artwork for her eBook fairytale collection "The Fox’s Tower and Other Tales"  which has been released today!

It can be found at the following places:
– Amazon.com
– Barnes & Noble
– Google Play
– Kobo
– Smashwords

A peek at the contents can be found at the Barnes & Noble page.

The cover before text was added.

Close up of the tower

Close up of the fox

And a close up of some branches

This illustration is a media hybrid. It was mostly painted with waterproof coloured inks, watercolour, and gouache. However, the sky, wind, and a few other things were completed digitally.

Here's a fun gif of the process!

Cheers!

Freebie Friday - Cross-Stitch Cloth

Happy Friday!

These are textures from some dyed cross-stitch fabrics, like linen. Hope you enjoy!

As always, feel free to use these resources for personal or professional projects but please:

Do not claim the original resource images as your own,
Do not redistribute commercially. Basically, don't save and sell the resources as your own, but by all means do share the link to this page with others. :)
Do not use these textures as a base to create your own stock art/resources.

And, as always, please feel free to share anything you've made with these resources with me. I'd love to have a look! =)

Previous Freebie Friday posts:

Holiday Inspired Paper Textures
Speckled & Stamped Paper
Animal Print Textiles
Sweater Season Textures
Subtle Fabric Textures
Paper Textures 1
Paper Textures 2
Stained Coffee Textures
Layered Lace Textile Textures
Colourful + Abstract Textile Textures
Branches, Berries and Blossoms
Blue Pattern Textile Textures
Black and White Textiles (part 3)
Black and White Textiles (part 2)
Black and White Textiles (part 1)
Coffee Stained Paper
Fanciful Florals
Fanciful Florals 2
Fanciful Florals 3 
Vintage Inspired
Green Textiles
Red Textiles
Denim Textile Textures

Have a great weekend!

Ostara Tarot Card Designs

Hello and Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a great holiday. I had a pretty busy one. But it was a good kind of busy, so it was a pleasant time.

One of the projects I was working on was for a Ostara Tarot, which is collective of lovely illustrator ladies from Vancouver who are making their very own tarot card deck. They will also be having an art show, where there deck will be launched, in late March.

What they hired me to do, was come up with some designs to go on the back of the cards. I was given a generous amount of freedom with my designs, so I was very excited to get started. My inspiration came from Norse and Celtic knot-work, and the word "Ostara" itself, which is one of the names applied to the celebration of the spring equinox. For the most part, I chose colours and shapes which alluded to the blossoming of flowers and to the hues prominent during dawn and dusk.

I chose to render my designs in Adobe Illustrator because I wanted to learn how to better create knot-work art with vector shapes. Also, I wished to achieve perfect symmetry because I thought it important that the backs of the cards do not prematurely reveal that the face card may be upside down - a variable some tarot readers an important part of their fortune telling.

As always I started a handful of thumbnail sketches, which I'm not showing because they ended up scattering all over my notebook and became to troublesome to scan.

Then, I picked out some of my favourite ideas and drew them a bit bigger.

Then, one by one, I worked on each idea in Illustrator, with some coming along quicker than others. Design A was the fastest out of them all to come to completion.

Design A

Design B, which is actually the last sketch in that picture, took the longest, and was the last to be finished. After working on it and feeling dissatisfied, I decided to temporarily move on to the next idea.

Design B Works-In-Progress: Initially, I liked the shimmering light idea for the background, but just quite wasn't happy with the look 

Design B WIPs: many new thumbnails and experiments later, I ended up with a much more different look, but one that was more harmonious with the other two designs.

Design B: Finished (Or is it? Dun...dun...dun)

Design C might look most laborious in regards with intertwining the knots (which is more tedious to do digitally in Illustrator, than transitionally with paint), but it came together fairly quickly after I was satisfied with the colour scheme.

Design C

And here are all three illustrations together. They've been cropped to how the cards will be trimmed, and I've given them a subtle paper texture (in Photoshop).

Here are some close up shots.

(click to enlarge)

And that's it for the art, for now anyway. There may be some subtle changes in the future, but today I feel like these pieces are finished. Which design is your favourite and you think would look best on a tarot deck? Please let me know in the comments! :)

*Edit - decks are now being printed, and you can pre-order one right here at the Ostara Tarot Shop.

P.S. - If you're interested in learning how to create knot-work in illustrator too. Here are some of the tutorials that helped me:

"Three Ways to Create Celtic Knots in Illustrator" - by Iaroslav Lazunov via Tutsplus
"Drawing celtic knotwork 1" + "Drawing celtic knotwork 2" by Greg Kulz

I feel like I should write a tutorial on subject myself because I've picked up a few tricks throughout the process. Hopefully I'll make it happen sometime!

Hope you enjoyed this first blog post of 2015. Happy January!

 

Freebie Friday - Holiday Inspired Paper Textures

Happy Friday!

Today's textures were inspired by the holiday season that is upon us and were made with gift wrap paper, stationary paper, and some gold and silver spray paint. Hope you enjoy!

(The bottom three textures are all the same design, but different colours. I added all three, cause 'why not?' )

As always, feel free to use these resources for personal or professional projects but please:

Do not claim the original resource images as your own,
Do not redistribute commercially. Basically, don't save and sell the resources as your own, but by all means do share the link to this page with others. :)
Do not use these textures as a base to create your own stock art/resources.

And, as always, please feel free to share anything you've made with these resources with me. I'd love to have a look! =)

Previous Freebie Friday posts:

Speckled & Stamped Paper
Animal Print Textiles
Sweater Season Textures
Subtle Fabric Textures
Paper Textures 1
Paper Textures 2
Stained Coffee Textures
Layered Lace Textile Textures
Colourful + Abstract Textile Textures
Branches, Berries and Blossoms
Blue Pattern Textile Textures
Black and White Textiles (part 3)
Black and White Textiles (part 2)
Black and White Textiles (part 1)
Coffee Stained Paper
Fanciful Florals
Fanciful Florals 2
Fanciful Florals 3 
Vintage Inspired
Green Textiles
Red Textiles
Denim Textile Textures

Have a great weekend!

Pattern Pastimes Part II

Hello there and happy autumn equinox!

Alrighty! So amidst working on projects I can't show just yet, I've started a new mini series of patterned images.

They've become my turn to work when I'm falling short on optimal creative brainpower but still have enough energy and will to create something fun and finished.

I started with this umbrella and a desire to make a simple and seasonal design.

(Colour motif variations)

Naturally, a pattern also had to be made :)

Then, one night a pumpkin appeared.

(Again, exploring different colour approaches)

A pumpkin patch!

And then, I thought it might be a cute idea to come up with three of such stylized, patterned images per season (autumn, winter, spring, summer) and maybe make a mini calendar or postcard set or something at the end. So, that's what I'll be doing. Yay! Another excuse to add even more patterns into my work and life! =)

Here's the latest, Halloween inspired image:

These are all vector illustrations drawn mostly with the pen, line segment, and shape tools.

(Subtle variation)

(More subtle variations of ears, line weight and nose size with an inverted colour scheme)

And another simple, half-drop repeat pattern!

Oh, and for fun - above is what my patterned images look like when I'm working on them in Adobe Illustrator. I like to use lots of colours so that I can see well if lines are overlapping where they shouldn't be. Psychedelic! =)

Be well and till net time!

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