If you receive any cards this holiday season, you may want to take a look in the corner before you toss that envelope. There might be a tiny work of art done by Colborne, Ont. illustrator, Tim Zeltner.
He was chosen to illustrate three snowy scenes for the annual Canada Post holiday stamp collection, each stamp representing a different area of Canada.
“For these landscapes it was three Canadian scenes, an East Coast one, a central Canada one with a pond scene and the West Coast with the Mountains,” said Zelter.
The concept was created by New Brunswick designer Jocelyne Saulnier, who then enlisted Zeltner’s help to create the snowy scenes.
“It’s a two-year process, it went from doing thumbnails and black and white sketches to the colour painting and then you go back and tweak things,” said Zeltner.
He did the original artwork of acrylic paint on wood and then the smaller-scale stamp. Now, the designs are headed all over the world.
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“The East Coast one is the international stamp, the middle one goes to the US and the Canadian one is the Rocky Mountain stamp,” he said, referencing the artwork.
The West Coast representation features a scene at the base of a mountain, with skiers enjoying the slopes. The depiction, Zeltner said, comes from his own experience.
“I love skiing, so you’ll see that in there, the central one features some Quebec architecture with the hills and skaters on a pond,” he said.
The stamp representing the East Coast features tobogganers and a lighthouse by the coast. Zeltner said it isn’t one place in particular, but more a combination of locations and activities.
And while Zeltner said painting his pieces is his favourite part of the process, he said seeing the finished product is “pretty cool too” especially when it comes in the mail.
“My rep sent me one. The first one she sent was neat, and I just got a couple of Christmas cards with it, so it is neat, it’s nice and it looked good!”
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