Don't Mind the Arrow

December Was Slow

Can you believe it - I didn't receive a single postcard through Postcrossing in the month of December! I sent out the same number, but I guess sometimes it just happens that way. Whether it's because they were coming from places with slow mail systems, or the various holidays meant that it took extra time, or people didn't mail them promptly after requesting an address, December was just a dry month.

But since then, here's a roundup of what I've received and from where.

From our neighbors to the north - this Olympic card from Canada.

A Christmas card from the Netherlands.

From Germany, this gorgeous card. The sender says she lives close by and goes for walks here. I confess to being a bit jealous!

A soccer-related card from Ukraine. I have previously received a different card in the same style (presumably by the same artist) from Lviv.

I actually received a few more than that, but I think that's enough for now. I'll put the rest in an upcoming post. As for me, the past few days have been extremely productive on the drawing front, so I guess I'll leave you with the first in-progress shot of what I'm working on. I'm much farther along than this now, but let's start here.

Behind Again

That's me. I ... I don't even know how, really. The days just got away from me and now I'm looking at the mess of my desk and the digital mess of my files and trying to figure out where to begin. I also had a loaner computer for a couple of weeks while the trackpad on mine was being replaced, so I felt a little like a nomad, but that's not really an excuse.

Let's begin  with a piece of received mail art from Claudia McGill, how about that?

I love it. The calming blues are a great backdrop to help one keep one's cool in the face of such a vulgar world. This is one of the great things about mail art - how fun it is to check the mail and have something surprise you and put a smile on your face. Thank you, Claudia!

And here are a couple of cards received through Postcrossing, the first from Belarus, and the other from Russia.

That second one shows some of the Metro stations in Moscow - they're like museums! So  gorgeous.

Next time I'll post some of the things I've sent out recently (first I have to locate my portable hard drive where the files are ... how do I lose these things?!) and probably an update on knitting, too.

Productive

The last few days have been good in terms of getting some work done. Or if not done, then at least making progress.

First up, making progress:

This was what it looked like at the end of the day on the 13th.

I guess you'd really have to look at it side-by-side with the one from the last post to be able to pick out some of the more subtle changes. The big changes are the rest of her dress on the right side, including that big shadowy area, and the beginnings of the ground. Man, do dark shadows take forever with stippling. But it's worth it.

Smaller changes have to do with darkening some of the other shadows. As I've mentioned before, it's sort of a continual process - you make the dark areas darker than the light areas, but as you continue on with the drawing, you realize that you need to create even more gradations in value, so you have to go back and darken areas that you were sort of "done" with already.

 

And this is what it looked like at the end of the day yesterday, the 14th.

I didn't get a chance to spend a lot of time working on it yesterday, but I did some more work on the ground and of course the biggest change is that it's the first time you can see she has a companion.

He's in a dark suit, so that means it'll be relatively slow going. Lots and lots of dots involved there. Well, onward with that.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In terms of things that are finished, I sent out some mail to Jane Smith from IUOMA.

Just a bit of silliness, I suppose. I've been getting some mileage out of the insides of a book of Japanese Haiku that I previously hacked up to make a sketchbook. More on that next time, when I talk about another piece of mail art that went out recently. This was 18/365.

I also received a new postcard through Postcrossing, from the Ukraine. The subject is Lviv, which is apparently known as the City of Churches. Sounds awesome - I do love touring churches (as Morgan learned in Germany. I'm positive he'd never been to so many churches in his entire life.). The stamp is in the Postage Stamp photo album, as usual.

And that's it for now. Next time I'll try to remember to include photos of the knitting, which is also proceeding quite well.

No Mail Today

So, there's no mail service in the US today. It's mildly disappointing, because I usually use Sunday to work on outgoing mail and then send it off on Monday. I guess this way I just get an extra day to create.

I have received some cool things recently, though, so let's show those off!

First is a Postcrossing postcard from the Netherlands.

The Dutch are very active Postcrossers - the Netherlands is the country that I have exchanged the most cards with, followed by Russia.

Next up is another postcard, this one from a G+ friend, Annie Irving. She is a New Zealander who has been living in Peru.

I love getting mail from South America, and these kids are absolutely adorable. Maybe the best part, though, is that Annie sent this card to me through ... a puma! (Seriously, click on that link - it is awesome!) Thank you so much, Annie - and once you are settled in your new digs, I will definitely be sending you something in return.

Last but most definitely not least, I received a mailing from Claire Dinsmore at IUOMA.

It was an eyecatchingly-beautiful digital collage. The interior piece (number 33/33 - I'm lucky to have squeaked in there!) is the same as the front of the envelope, minus the address and stamps.

The back of the envelope is like so:

I love this so much. Thank you, Claire! Also, I'd like to comment on the transparent bust of Mars there on the right of the bottom picture. It's tape - I wonder if it was a self-printing job or if that's some super-cool type of premade washi tape that's out there? Either way, I really like it!

Received Roundup

Here we are, starting another week. I got a couple of postcards through Postcrossing recently, both from Germany, as luck would have it.

This one is from Hamburg. Love that sunset!

And an art card. I'm always happy for whatever kind of card I get, but it's nice to get a variety instead of all tourist-type cards.

The stamps are in the Postage Stamps album.

I also got a cute little card from Cayte Catastrophe through IUOMA.

I'm not sure "cute" is the right word for George Wendt, but it's the right word for getting a cut-out of anyone's head as a card, at least! Thanks, Cayte!

I'm also itching to post more of what I've been sending out (two things in the mail today), but I'm going to wait at least till tomorrow to start.

I can post about the drawing I finished and posted to Society6, though.

I was pretty nervous about laying down the color in markers, but I just bit the bullet and went for it. It was either that or watercolors, and although watercolors are lighter and maybe more fixable, I feel way less confident with those than I do with the markers. It's available for purchase in all the usual formats.

Art, Art, Art

It's certainly true that I don't manage to make something every single day, so I'm glad that I've decided to approach my Mail Art 365 the way I have, as a numerical goal instead of a daily one. It really keeps me from feeling behind.

Recently, I sent an uncharacteristically politically-themed piece to Cassie Cridlebaugh on IUOMA.

But I mean, come on - when you see "Vote Early," how can you not mentally finish it with "Vote Often"? Plus, I had just picked up a roll of these raffle tickets at a sale, and they seemed like a perfect fit for this one.

I also got an address for someone on Postcrossing who actually said she doesn't mind handmade cards (or likes them, even). It's pretty rare on that site - many people specify that they don't want your handmade cards. One profile I saw recently said not to send handmade cards "unless you're very talented." One wonders what sort of objective measure there is of "very talented." (I sent him a store-bought card.)

Anyway, thank you to Simone in Germany for accepting handmade cards, and I hope you approve of this one:

Do you know, I actually had to look up how to make a cursive capital F? I was pretty sure, but I couldn't remember whether the bar of the F was supposed to be connected to the hook part or not (answer: either way, as far as I could tell). And I know all the stuff that people like to say about handwriting disappearing and computers taking over and who cares about cursive or legible handwriting anyway? but I like handwriting. The problem, though, is that my natural handwriting doesn't really flow like cursive does, with all the letters connected. I write with a sort of modified printing, where the letters are generally connected but have breaks between them at times. (And where my tall letters like "h" and "d" aren't always that tall and therefore get mistaken for "n" and "a," but that's another story.

I used to do calligraphy - I kind of feel like taking it up again, or at least using some of its principles to do some beautiful mail-addressing.

Well, that was quite a digression. Anyhow, I also finally figured out how to scan the large piece I had been working on a while back, and posted it to Society6.

Monday Round Up

Although it's been in the 70s here, it's probably time to start thinking about Christmas. The drawing I've shown you progress on is complete, and it's a lovely wintertime view.

It's available at Society6, and looks great on cards (not cost-effective if you have a huge Christmas card list, but fine to send to a few special people). I need to find a place that does bulk cards affordably. Prices are pretty much the same on RedBubble as they are on Society6, and I've hesitated to really look into other places just to avoid complicating things, but it might be time.

Let's see, what else has been going on around here? I received a Postcrossing card from the Czech Republic, which is my first from that country.

Also, I sent another postcard to Emily.

This is number 6/365 for my project. I might have skipped posting number 5 here, I'll have to check and catch up in another post if that's the case. I need a system for keeping track of what I'm posting here, it's starting to be a problem. I'll think about that and hopefully come back more organized.

Finally!

I finally got some happy mail on Saturday. And as is typical, I guess, when it rains, it pours. I got 3 postcards via Postcrossing.

First up, one from Russia:

Very cool to get a postcard for the 2014 Sochi games already! And she included a Sochi stamp as well.

(More scans of the stamps and postmarks are available in my postage stamps album if you're interested.)

I also got my first postcard from Ireland, which was exciting for that reason, but also because it was the first day on Postcrossing for the girl who sent it. I got to be her first received postcard and to start the process of her getting something in return, so that feels good.

And finally, I got a postcard from France. I mention in my profile that I enjoy soccer, so it's nice when someone is able to send me a card that has something to do with the sport. In this case, they sent me a postcard of the home stadium of Olympique Lyonnais.

As for me, I've been working on a drawing for a couple of days now, and it's coming together. Actually, I did another smaller drawing too, and I've done some mail art. I'll post about those soon, but for the time being here are a couple of not-very-good progress pictures of what I'm working on now.

More to come soon!

Patience, Tested

For the last little while, I've been starting to wonder if my outgoing mail has been falling into a black hole. Or if the mailman decided to just drop all those annoyingly decorated pieces of mail into a storm drain somewhere. I haven't received anything in return in ages (since Sept. 17, to be exact). And although I don't send mail art for the express purpose of receiving it back in a 1:1 ratio, part of the reason anyone does this sort of thing is so that their own mailbox won't be full of just mass mailings and bills.

But the truth of the matter is that you've gotta be at least a little zen about mail art. Part of the whole process is letting it go. You create something, and you relinquish control of it at your doorstep, the post office, or a corner mail drop. After that, what happens to it has nothing to do with you. It might get torn in sorting, or have ugly cancellation marks put in places you don't like, or bar codes slapped over your art. Maybe the recipient will be disappointed by it and just toss it in a pile, or worse, the trash. Or maybe your piece of mail will brighten the day of postal employees who spend their days processing and delivering envelopes that all look pretty much the same. Maybe you'll bring a smile or break up the monotony of the day for someone who sees it. Maybe your recipient really loves what you send and puts it in a place where they can see it often.

I was really starting to give serious consideration to the idea that someone was stealing my outgoing mail, but I know for sure a few things have arrived at their destinations (mail to Emily, a Postcrossing postcard). As for incoming, well, I'm still waiting for something to turn up.

Anyhow, in the meantime I've toyed around with another tutorial by Carla Sonheim for creating imaginary animals. This one was using a sort of scribble-and-erase technique. She showed the steps for drawing a real animal, but I skipped all of that and went straight for doing something imaginary. This is my result:

It's a sort of cow-capybara-wombat thing. He looks friendly! (And ugh, I just saw that dog hair in the scan. Ignore that - no matter how much I try, dog hair manages to find its way just about everywhere.)

Today, I prepared a care package I'll be sending to Emily tomorrow and sent off number 4 of my mail art 365 project. I'll post about numbers 3 and 4 tomorrow or the next day. Oh, and I just realized I didn't ever post about the last card I got from Postcrossing (Sept. 22 - see, it's been a while since I got any kind of mail at all!).

It's from Russia, and here are the stamps that were on it:

 

A Side Benefit to Getting Mail

A while back, I mentioned that I'd gotten a postcard from Finland through Postcrossing that had a round stamp on it. And I realized that other postcards I'd received from Finland also had not-rectangular stamps. I thought it would be interesting to keep records of the stamps I receive as well as the postcards, so I went back and scanned them.

Here is the round one from Finland:

 

I've decided to keep an album here of the stamps, and I'll scan them as they come in. I haven't got a lot of them into the album just yet, but it's here and I'll mention it when I've updated it again.

In other news, my 2/365 for the Mail Art 365 is going out today. 

This was a lot of fun. I drew it while watching Mad Men. (I'd never seen the show, but it's on Netflix streaming, so I started at the beginning. I think I'm about halfway through the first season.)

I also (with Morgan's help) completely rearranged my art room and now I'm much happier with it. I'll post pictures of the new setup sometime soon. I know - I just moved in and put everything where I thought I wanted it a month ago! But sometimes you just realize you're not as thrilled with it as you thought you were originally.