2017 Holiday Cards

Good day!

This winter season I'm finding that I don't have enough time to make a new holiday card "from scratch", but I'm happy to say that I've managed to do a little re-purposing to make something simple, but something I enjoy, to send to my close family and friends.

I've gone back a couple of years into my archive of work to dig up an illustration which I didn't really end up sharing, cleaned it up, and added text.

Originally the image was intended to be a 2 page spread in a children's book. The theme was enchantment of frosted windows and finding imagery there. Can you spot some hidden creatures in the frost?

I've made two versions of the holiday card - one which says "Happy Holidays!" and the other which says "Season's Greetings!"
Font used: https://creativemarket.com/sizimon/1646582-Rosaline-Update

And now, the designs are available on my Society6 and RedBubble shops. I've also adapted other sections of the image to suitable for things like scarves, mugs, phone cases, and etc.

 

Finally, please find some of the creatures I've hidden in the image. :)

crab

fish

jellyfish

seahorse

squirrel

Thanks for visiting and have a great day!

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!

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!

Sketchbook Doodles

Thought I'd post some pages from my mini sketchbook tonight.
These are just some casual, spontaneous pen drawings=)

Some odd snake things. I don't even know...

Cat-Tea

Russian Patterns

Earlier this past semester for my Surface Illustration we were doing various pattern exercises and now, during my holiday I've made this Russian folk art pattern digital. Have a look! I have a few different colour versions here.

a coloured version of the design

black+red

Burgundy + red

white + red

an black outlined rendition

 See how I've put my patterns to use on RedBubble!
Almost Christmas time by the way!