Illustrations of 2021

 Oh look, another year has flown by. 😆

Only 9 personal paintings this year.
All of the paintings are  4 x 6 inches (10 x 15cm), or smaller.

Materials used: black micron pens (003, 005, 01), black and white waterproof inks, as well as white crayons and salt for some final touches and texture effects.

 

A variety of prints and other items are now available at my shops below.

RedBubble

Society6

INPRNT

 
Originals will be available through my Etsy shop.

Thank you so much for looking and till next time!

P.S. My previous series {is here}.

Снегурочка (Snow Maiden) Holiday Card

Happy last day of November!

I have some new work to show today, finally. This is my holiday card this winter. It's inspired by my Ukrainian and Russian heritage by way of stories of the Snow Maiden and the traditional Slavic headdresses. Hope you enjoy! Below is the creation process.

2. Detailed pencil sketch.

3. Ink drawing with micron pens.

4. Work in progress; painting with (diluted) waterproof coloured inks.

5. Nearing completion; further painting with the (diluted) inks and also gouache accents.

7. Printed holiday cards, almost ready to be mailed. I'm considering adding some flecks of silver, to make them really pop!

Some close ups.

For the original painting, here are the specs:

Size: 6 x 8 inches (paper size)
Materials: Micron pens, Koh-i-noor waterproof coloured inks and water soluble gouache on Strathmore Mixed Media vellum surface paper.


The cards I had printed are 4 x 5 inches and are now available on my Etsy Shop {here}.
Other assorted prints and products are now available on my Society6 and RedBubble pages.

The Art of Yuki-Onna - The Master Post

Hello!

Today I've decided to a final post about my work for The Art of Yuki-Onna collaborative visual development book I've been writing about. Hope I haven't tired you out with it! There are previously un-posted illustrations below, so stay a while. =)

**Edit: It seems that for some reason Blogger decided to turn the white backgrounds on most of my images grey.... For proper colours, please see this post's "twin" on my Behace page----> here

This collection of images represents a portion of the work I created for a visual development book called "The Art of Yuki Onna". It is a sampling of character, environment, and pattern design I contributed to the project.

Book Brief:
"The Art of Yuki Onna is a collaborative, yet independent, artistic exploration of a Japanese folktale about a mysterious snow spirit - Yuki Onna. Various interpretations of the story from each participating artist have been curated into a humble, limited edition book.

"Concealment"

The snow spirit Yuki-Onna glides through the winter forest in contemplation and solitude, hardly detectable by mortal eyes.

*For close ups from this image, please visit through the "Concealment" project folder.

"Duality Discovered"

This is a scene in which the duality of the protagonist is revealed through a reflective moment of her husband Minokichi.

Yuki-Onna (above) and O-Yuki (below)

With our protagonist having two contrasting identities - an winter enchantress and a mortal mother -  it was a great opportunity to design (at least) two distinct looks for her. As the daughter of a winter god her clothing and hair are more elaborately ornamented, while as a human wife her styling is simpler.

Inari the Fox Woman

In one of our adapted versions of the folktale, Inari is Yuki’s guardian who is akin to an older sister that needed to take on a parental role. To allude to her fox-form and to contrast with Yuki’s aesthetic – I gave her sharper features and less traditional garment and hair. Her more traditionally masculine attire articles, combined with feminine pattern motifs, symbolize her playing the roles of both mother and father to Yuki.

Inari's fox form, rendered in a naturalistic style.

Potential accessories for the characters.

Some of the motifs I created to be used as clothing patterns and as decorative design elements throughout the book.

"Family Stroll"

This image depicts a scene from the folk-tale which speaks of the flourishing family of O-Yuki and her husband Minokichi. My favourite part was giving the baby white hair, as a symbol of the winter magic that is secretly passed down from O-Yuki to the children. This baby might even be fully blessed with Yuki’s immortal legacy.

*For close ups from this image please visit the "Family Stroll" project folder.

Environment - Maps Triptych

Inspired by traditional Japanese woodblock triptych landscapes, I created a triptych of my own. What resulted was narrative map triptych (for those with keen eyes) which captures three scenes from the story that take place in proximity to the human settlements -  the wood cutters’ discovery of the hut, Minokichi and 0-Yuki’s first walk together, and 0-Yuki’s ‘misty’ farewell.

"Epilogue"

In the original text, the story ambiguously ends with O-Yuki/Yuki-Onna turning into mist and disappearing through a chimney. My personal belief was that she did not perish, but became a part of the wind, so that she could still look after her family. Perhaps one day she will re-materialize.

The first printing of our book.

Thank you for looking!

Previous Yuki-Onna Posts:

Sneak Peeks at Snowy Scenes 

Sneak Peeks at White and Black Vignettes  

Pattern Sneak Peeks 

Sneak Peeks at Patterned Persons 

The First Look at The Art of Yuki-Onna 

The Art of Yuki-Onna - Meet the Artists

Have a fantastic week!

The Art of Yuki-Onna - Meet the Artists

Happy Tuesday and welcome back!

Today I'm sharing some quick photos of The Art of Yuki Onna, which I started to write about last week. If you don't know what I'm talking about, then click ------> here, and read last week's blog post. :)

Well, here's the book! It's  7 x 9 inches in size, with a soft cover and about 50 pages of content. Let's have a peek inside and find out about the artists involved!
Ladies first:

Karla Monterrosa

Karla Monterrosa was born and raised in tropical San Salvador, El Salvador and spent some years in sunny southern Spain. Despite loving sunlight and sandals, She currently lives in damp, dreary Vancouver, BC. When she's not drawing or watching cartoons, she enjoys biking, traveling, comic book conventions, drawing at coffee shops with friends, and daydreaming about movie directors.
She graduated with a BFA in animation from Emily Carr University of Art + Design and is currently working in TV animation.

ka.montz@gmail.com
www.karlamonterrosa.com

Laura Nisbet

Laura Nisbet is a visual development artist and animator from Ottawa, Ontario. She has a great passion for character and creature creation, from conceptualization, to life through movement. When not actively putting pencil to page or feverishly collecting reference material, she can typically be spotted outside traipsing through nature and poking at things. At the end of the day, Laura loves as good story and wants to help build them for a living.

lnisbet.art@gmail.com
http://lauranisbetart.com

 Mariya Olshevska (yours truly)

Mariya Olshevska is a freelance illustrator from Vancouver, Canada. She has flair and passion for creating intricate, whimsical works that are rich in detail and colour. Always curious to explore new topics and techniques, she aspires to leave her audience delighted and enchanted.

www.mariyaolshevska.com
mariya@mariyaolshevska.com  

And now the gents: 

Seth Rutledge (the mastermind behind all of this)

Seth Rutledge is a visual development artist, illustrator, photographer and coffee snob living in Vancouver, British Columbia. Before he discoveredart, he received a CSCI/Math degree from UNC-Charlotte, and has lived and worked all over the United States and Canada. He has run marathons, taught English in Japan, been CTO for a pharma marketing company and done fashion photography in NYC. Seth has two albums he wrote and played keyboards on, and he plays the theramin whenever he gets the chance. Seth spends so much time in coffee shops drawing that he is mentioned in online reviews. He would love a career painting elves and goblins and their homes.

http://sethrutledge.com
seth@sethrutledge.com

Sinan Demirer

Sinan Demirer is a visual development artist and illustrator from Istanbul, Turkey. He always had a passion for creating characters, building worlds and telling stories. So much that he came all the way to Canada to do some more of those in college. He can usually be found sketching in coffee shops or obsessing over movies, games and TV shows that he likes. Sinan would love to help design movies, games and TV shows for other people to obsess over for a living.

www.sinandemirer.com
msinandemirer@gmail.com

Travaldo Farrington

 Travaldo Farrington is a 3D Generalist from sunny Nassau, Bahamas. Prior to arriving in Vancouver, he had spent time in the Bahamas studying classical painting and sculpture. Following that time he has been an assistant at the National Art Gallery of the Bahamas and at the Popop Art Gallery, the only international artist residence in the Bahamas. Shortly after, he was awarded the chance to study animation in Canada by the Bahamian Government. Travaldo has an immense passion for classical sculpture and that passion pushes him to bring excitement and an eye for detail in his character models. When he's not absorbed on his next model, you can typically find him teaching others how to play videogames or making jokes with friends over dinner. Travaldo would love a lifelong career creating worlds and people to inhabit them.

travaldo@gmail.com
http://travaldo.4ormat.com/

And, special thanks goes out to Amy Wang for designing our book!

Hope you enjoyed this week's sneak peek!

The First Look at The Art of Yuki-Onna

Happy Tuesday everyone! Hope you are all enjoying springtime. I am very happy to see blooming trees and singing birds decorate the neighborhood. I've got the hummingbird feeder up on the balcony and the hummingbirds are visiting frequently. =)

However, if you're missing winter - it just so happens that I've got some winter-themed illustrations to share with you. (Finally!) If you've been following along this blog, you might remember my sneak peek posts about a secretive, collaborative I've been working on. Well now the time has finally come to reveal more about it and to post a full image from my contribution. I present to you the first look at The Art of Yuki Onna.

"Family Stroll" - "And 0-Yuki bore Minokichi ten children, boys and girls, handsome children all of them, and very fair of skin." --- From the Japanese folktale of Yuki Onna.

(The original piece is approximately 8 x 17 inches, completed with micron pens, waterproof coloured inks and gouache on bristol-smooth paper.)

The Art of Yuki Onna is a collaborative, yet independent, artistic exploration of a Japanese folktale about a mysterious snow spirit - Yuki Onna. Various interpretations of the story from each participating artist have been curated into a humble book which will be available for purchase in the months to come.

The image above is one of my contributions to the project, which also ended up being the cover image for the book. It was a really fun illustration to complete because I was able to draw inspiration from a culture that's very different from mine, but which has an artistic aesthetic that is very appealing to me.


Also I got to put patterns on almost all the characters, so it was an instant win because of that, if nothing else.

Here are a few close ups:

 

And a work-in-progress image. Unfortunately I don't have many process images, as the painting was too big to scan at home, and I had to "outsource" a scanner which wasn't at all close by.

Was still working out the dreaded feet of some of the characters.

Here are some character "warm ups" however - an important part of the "behind the scenes" work, before I started working on the painting. This step helped me to contemplate the personalities of the characters which would then guide narrative of the illustration.

Alright, that's it for today. Secrets are best revealed little by little, after all.
So, come back next week to see photos of The Art of Yuki Onna book and read about each of the artists involved!

*All images in this post are ©Mariya Olshevska.