Monday, November 13, 2006

Trailblazers & Trendsetters: Art of the Stamp





On Nov 16th I have the great honor of having my work appear in a year long exhibition at The National Postal Museum of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington DC, entitled Trailblazers & Trendsetters: Art of the Stamp.

Originally the images that were to appear were the Mickey, Donald and Goofy image from the Art of Disney:Friendship pane and the Lady & the Tramp image from the Art of Disney:Romance pane. However, I was asked by the kind folks at the Postal Service if I would submit my preliminary sketches for the two images because they had decided that my work would be amongst a few select artists to have our work displayed in a case as opposed to having it hang in the gallery.

Needless to say I was thrilled and submitted all that I had (I keep everything!) and it turned out that they preferred to show all the work I sent them regarding the MD&G image (so L&T is out, sorry folks!)

In this post you will see some of the steps that were taken to create this image, starting from my initial character sketches and where I started to piece them together. You will also see how they evolved and that Mickey basically is the only character to have the same look from the start. Donald and Goofy were changed to have a more antique feeling and I think they fit the look we were going for perfectly. You will also see the color rough which is very similar to the final and then the actual stamp image as it appeared when printed.

If you are in DC please stop by and see the show, it is free admission and the website for further information is below.

http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/