Happy Holly Jays!

Evening guys,

Today, I'm stocked to share my 2018 holiday cards!

Happy Holly Jay!

- The painting was completed with drawing inks, watercolor, gouache, and micron pens on vellum bristol paper.
- Size is approximately 7 x 10 inches (17.8cm x 25.4cm) in size.

Prints, cards, and more are available on:

RedBubble

Society6
INPRNT

Have a happy holiday season and season's greetings to all!

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!

MeticulousMadness Etsy Shop - Original Paintings For Sale!

Hello and happy February!

I'm now selling original paintings and illustrations on Etsy.
So, if you've ever wanted to own one of my original, hand painted pieces - now's the chance! =)

I've got a small selection available currently, but more works and close up photos will be added soon!
I also plan on adding other merchandise, like signed prints, postcard packs and more!

Please check out my shop {here}. Hope you like it and stay a while.


Have a great week!

Fancy a Fox?

Hello,

So, today I'm just going to be sharing a quick fox portrait I did over the weekend. Though rendering characters and scenes photo-realistically isn't usually part of my illustration style, I do think it's important to practice painting and drawing in a naturalistic fashion. I find that it helps me to better memorize the physical traits of different animals, plants, etc, which later translate much easier to more stylized works and spontaneous sketches.

I usually just like to work with ink washes for my animal portrait, but this time I played around with layering graphite pencil with ink washes back and forth to get the tones and textures I wanted.

Inari the Fox

I've named her Inari, after the Japanese fox spirit. She's a red fox.

Now, here are some process images:

Some ink washes and graphite texturing on the face.

Pretty much the finished version with a white background.
(Eye highlights are done with white gouache)

Played around in Photoshop to see how a sepia might look

Added the background with some more washes of ink and graphite shading and smudging. Also used white gouache to add some highlights to the fur. And some more playing around with sepia toning in Photoshop, of course.

My preferred version

 Prints available here on Society6

Original size: 4.5 x 6"
Paper: Strathmore 400 Series Mixed Media
Tools: Pelikan Black ink (17), Staedler graphite pencils, and Desinger Gouache - Permanent White (008)

Wishing everyone a great week, as always! =)

All images are  ©Mariya Olshevska

Stamps for a Cause

Hello!

It's illustration time! Here is a my first project of the spring semester. For this assignment we were to illustrate a stamp (or a series of stamps) and a stamp sheet for a charity/cause/organization we feel passionate about. (If they were to hire us) I love wild animals and think they shouldn't be endangered so I chose the Canadian Wildlife Federation as my organization inspiration.
And since I'm particularly fond of predators I decided to paint a trio of stamps of vanishing canids - foxes and wolves.

Here they are:

And the stamp sheet:

After class critiques I'm making some improvements as we speak =)

And here's how it all came together:

Composition sketches. I was still deciding between CWF and WWF

Penciling. Originally I wanted a soft, blue wave type of sky background, but I afterward I thought it would be too distracting

Initial linework

Painting part I -- no background yet

Close up of my favourite portrait with background

 And again - the finished triptych =)

Save the wolves and foxes people!

And here's a different version of the triptych I just whipped up. I digitally removed the next animals' overlaps.

Info:
Each animal portrait is 3.75 x 4.25" (cute and little !)
Completed on Strathmore Bristol Smooth paper
Painted with watercolors + waterproof coloured inks + 0.05 micron pen

Art prints will be available by the end of the day =)

Happy Friday!