shantell | Entries tagged with stamps

Originally, I'd planned on drawing all of my bats in flight, but after studying each of the species, I decided that focusing upon their faces would be the best idea. The species are most readily distinguished from one another by looking at their faces. From a distance, they look more similar. Also, when I showed my thumbnails to other people in person, the portraits elicited more powerful reaction. People are cuted-out by the faces.

Since part of the reason I chose bats is because they're in trouble because of disease and habitat loss, it makes sense that I should endeavour to make them more appealing to the masses. And so I intend on emphasizing their cute side. People are more likely to want to save things they find cute than things which look gross, no matter how important those gross-looking creatures may be.

So, less this:

Scary bat

And more this:

Here are my thumbnail sketches:

Thumbnails

From this, I created six linear sketches.

Silver-Haired Bat

Big Brown Bat

Long-Eared Myotis

Little Brown Bat

Red Bat

Red Bat

Hoary Bat

Although I'd love to do scientific illustrations for each of these bats, I do not have the time, so instead I plan on doing soft pastel drawings. I want to do the drawings on black paper to make the colours pop, and also to demonstrate the nocturnal nature of the animals.

Here is a colour test of soft pastels on black paper in some of the colours I'll be using.

Pastel colour test

As for the hand-lettering, I plan on using pencil crayon, since pastels are too smudgy.

The stamp booklet will be simple. The background design will be minimal, so as not to detract from the bats. I'm thinking of maybe having a moonlit backdrop.

I'm thinking of designing a set of postage stamps based on bats of Canada.

Here's information about stamp design for Canada Post.

More information here about what goes on a Canadian stamp:
https://www.canadapost.ca/web/en/kb/details.page?article=what_are_permanent_s&cattype=kb&cat=sending&subcat=generalinformationps

Batwatch.ca tracks bats in Canada with the help of citizens.

There are 18 known species of bat in Canada. I don't have time to do a series of 18, so I'll have to narrow it down. I'll include the most common species.

The most common species of bat is the little brown bat. It's in every province and territory except for Nunavut. There are no known bat species in Nunavut.
The second most common species is the northern long-eared myotis, which lives in every province/territory except for PEI and Nunavut.
The big brown bat is one of the largest bat species in Canada. They may be found in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick.
The silver-haired bat has silver-tipped fur and is endemic to British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and the Northwest Territories.
The red bat is colourful. The male is red-orange, and the female yellow-maroon. They live in Northwest Territories, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.
The hoary bat is the largest of the bats in Canada. They live in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Northwest Territories.