Showing posts with label postcard. Show all posts
Showing posts with label postcard. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Snail Mail Art

Two of my friends recently welcomed their first baby into the world, and yesterday I got to sit down and create a special card to send them.  It was a great opportunity to pull out one of my favorite inventions: the watercolor postcard.

The set of watercolor cards I am currently using I have had for some time, and came all the way from Germany.  I had just finished up a semester abroad in Rome and was traveling through Europe by rail.  Poking around the city of Freiburg, I stumbled upon a cute little art supply shop where I picked up my first set of Aquarell Postkartenblock.

Back then, I never could have guessed that 8 years later I would still have a handful of these cards to spare, let alone that I would be using one to send to my friend of 12 years in honor of he and his wife's first-born!

And how exciting that this would also be my first time painting in my new home studio  :)   

So much magic and mystery in life.

Speaking of which, at the time I sat down to begin my postcard painting project, the subject matter of the piece was still entirely unknown to me.  So I did what always seems to work best in those situations when I simply haven't got a clue: I doodled.

And wouldn't you know that just the perfect thing presented itself almost immediately:

A handsome elephant with a curved trunk.

Elephants are beautiful symbols of family, so I was happy to roll with it.  After just a few minutes, with a little tweaking, I had come up with a simple, symmetrical design:


And then added, of course, a baby.


Started out by laying down some green grass and yellow-orange sky.


Then threw some color on the pachyderms, plus a little red to bring out the heart silhouetted by their trunks.


Hmm... still missing something...


Ah, perfect :)

I hope this inspires you to try sending some crafty love via snail mail.  Thanks for stopping by!