Mailart 365 has moved

More junk mail to get returned to it's source, complete with a pencil coloured Usagi Yojimbo. Colours by Elenatgeezer

Elena didn't want me to illustrate this one. It's going to our solicitor. We've had such poor experiences with people in the legal profession that we have pretty much decided that the whole profession lacks any humanity. She sees this as not just throwing away good ink, but as giving part of my soul away to the undeserving.

Personally, I see it a different way. I think that these people have probably grown up deprived of art and warmth and hence they amuse themselves by generally being horrible to people. I view the act of sending art to people who don't have the milk of human kindness, such as lawyers, credit card companies and the like as an act of charity, and one which can only help bring peace to the world.

Envelope being returned to Aqua, the credit card company, who have managed somehow to get my address and the details of all my tenants that I had too. Most of the envelopes I've sent back are from them. Hope they get the message to stop sending me spam. But not too soon as I still have another 357 to go

I was really pleased with the way that the envelope framed this piece. It was a standard airmail envelope bought in Hanoi with a picture of Hoan Kiem lake on the front

We had to send a contract to someone to sign. I thought that it would be safer if it had a (rabbit) bodyguard to watch over it

Storebought card going out to postcard from us buyer. I couldn't resist a quick Usagi on the back

Tonights piece is the envelope for Usagi and the Artist.

I really loved how this came out and how it complemented the original piece, which is inside.  I only used medium Fineliner, which is quite thick, and I'm really pleased with how the bold lines make me look like a confident artist. I would usually be rather shy with my lines, using the thinnest fineliner possible. I think that the bolder lines look much more, well, bold.

This piece comes from a story called "On the brink of life and death"  I managed to miss another day yesterday and today I almost missed another but dragged this one out by skipping a few details and going for black and white after making a mess of the flowers in the foreground.  Part of the 365 discipline is learning to accept that every day you can't be perfect, but when it comes to art you rarely are. The more you make the more perfect ones you will make

By now you'll already know that I'm a huge fan of Stan Sakai and his Usagi Yojimbo character, who he has been drawing for more than 25 years. I was really sad to hear online that his wife is ill. The comics community has pulled together and are holding an auction to help raise funds for her care. Some of the major players in the comics universe have donated pieces and this one was donated by a fan. Some of the pieces of fan-art really showed the character in a different light and I was intrigued to see fan interpretations. This one ramped up the realism a touch, but was still really true to the original lines that Sakai draws, so I felt it was a good one to have a go at

Tonight I started work on my 365 piece at about 10PM. I have just started following Stan Sakai, creator of Usagi Yojimbo on facebook, and was delighted to see new Usagi pages in his photos. I was blown away by this one though, and had to start drawing it. I'll be doing various versions of it this week.

 

I've only been in Hanoi for about 4 months, but it seems that many folk in Hanoi know that I rather like postcards. This is no surprise as I presented a Pecha Kucha talk on my REAL wall project about a month after I landed, and it seems that every English-speaking person in Hanoi went to that talk.

At about midnight, after I'd lain down the pencil lines and was ready to start inking it in fineliner, I got a notification on facebook from one of my new Vietnamese friends. An announcement had been made on the facebook Hanoi Massive group, that read:

"If anyone's looking for something to give them that warm fuzzy feeling - A friend of a friend has a terminally ill daughter in Paris who loves receiving postcards from all around the world. If you feel like doing something super wonderful yet super easy, write a friendly message (NOT with any reference to sickness! Just something like "Hello Sohane! We're sending you big hugs and kisses from [where + your name]").

Her name and address:
Sohane Azzouz
31 rue des Messiers
95100
Argenteuil
France

Not silly internet rubbish, it's all true, my friend is connected with her family.
Cheers Y'all. X"

and I had been tagged to draw my attention to it. As I hadn't lain down the ink yet, I figured, shucks why not, and changed the names to bring a smile to a stranger. That's what mailart is about after all. So this one is going to Sohane.

If you have nobody to send to today, why not make someone's day today and send Sohane a postcard too.

In this piece, Usagi Yojimbo prepares to spar with his friend Tomoe, using wooden bokken in the story arc that begins "Tomoe's story". I'm a huge fan of Stan Sakai's Usagi Yojimbo, partly because the story is so wonderfully told, but also because his artwork is so achievable. He does so much with so few strokes and whenever I start on a Usagi piece, I know that I'll be pleased with the result. Elena, my wife is far better at colouring than me. On this piece I insisted on colouring it myself, but when I made it look absolutely awful, she delicately told me so without crushing me too much, before taking over and bringing the piece to life. Over the course of my last 365, I realised that there are few things better in this world than finishing a drawing with my wife. I love that she is the complete opposite of me and that she can do all the things that I can't. In art, as in life, she always adds the colour.

Done in fineliner, this was a full page spread from Usagi Yojimbo volume 2. It was such an elegant piece I felt compelled to draw it and I'm really pleased it came out nice. This one is on it's way to Wales and contains 2 packs of Sharpies.

I'm now down to less than 50 remaining

From Usagi Yojimbo volume 3, this is my most ambitious piece yet as it contained 3 main focal points where it could have gone wrong. Really pleased with how this turned out, but not too happy with my new Sharpie fineliner. Prefer the old Faber-Castel one.

This was done this weekend in the pub in Cornwall on a well-deserved 5 day break in the car.