#elliethopia
poke
Pokes at you through the screen, haha.
+short clip & long post: https://www.instagram.com/p/CLk-gMgh6jR/
Post link
Old Joey Graceffa Commision
No personal art to share yet, but I figure I’ll show you guys this commission from last year for @joeygraceffa ‘s vlog channel, featuring him and his 4 dogs, cat and 6 kittens. This commission was from last April, so his little family has changed a bit since then.
YouTube link to vlog channel:
https://youtube.com/channel/UCE4hoGDQruxi8_hUqB6tLVw
Post link
Sketch: Watercolour Fairy
One of those days where I can’t figure out what on Earth is my “style”. Last day to get in on the physical preorder of the calendar in my Etsy store.
shop: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SillyJellie
Post link
Calendar 2021 Preorder time
Alright! Calendars are finally ready for preorders, etsy store link down below! ** I forgot to add, I’m offering digital printable versions this round, make sure you pick the correct one you wanna get ;,D
The A6 card set is ready for purchase as well, and to welcome these new additions, please have 10% off any purchase till the 10th of January. ❤️ I think everybody is begging 2021 to be kind this year. Please please be kind. /-\
Store Link: https://www.etsy.com/shop/SillyJellie
a few extra preview shots: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJgzEsqh-Sx/
Post link
MerMay 31| Pysanka
Ladies and gentlemen, we have arrived at our last stop in Europe for 2020’s MerMay series, welcome to Ukraine. A pysanka (meaning, “to write”) is an egg decorated using the wax-resist method. It started as a pagan custom, and with the advent of Christianity, initially Pagan symbols were repurposed and new symbols like the lamb and cross were introduced. Initially, the Pysanka represents Nature’s rebirth, and is imbued with special powers to ward off evil and bring in good stuff. When Christianity came around, it came to represent the rebirth of men. According to legend, as long as the tradition of egg writing continues, the world will continue to exist. If abandoned, evil will get loose and overrun the world. Christian legends mostly tell of the egg suddenly becoming colorful in the presence of Jesus.
Thank you so much for following this series, knowing some of you are waiting helps me keep this going <3 I know a lot of people are asking, but I’m sorry, there won’t be a zine this year. I’m exhausted /-/. There will be prints though. I might take a break from this particular “around the world” series for a bit, maybe do some random drawings, just to y'know, keep it freshy loosy goosy. 2020 has been wild, stay strong, you got this.
+video on IG:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CJXQRoQBTyA/
Link to vote your top 12 for calendar here~
https://forms.gle/qtG2g69thnsNgopc8
Will close the votes and tally em'up at the last hour of the year (12am UTC-12).Will do my best to get calendars ready for pre orders on the 1st day of 2021!
Post link
MerMay 30| Poseidon’s Bane
Netherlands, waterbender and tamer of the waterways. It’s name means “lower land”, and it really is, with about half of the country, including Amsterdam, below sea level. The name “Holland”, is actually just two provinces within the Netherlands. They used to have a lot of flooding, but through impressive engineering and big brain action, they reclaimed land plots and built dijks (sea walls) to protect the country from being enveloped by the sea. In fact, 17% of Amsterdam is made up of land reclaimed from the sea or lakes. You know those windmills? In the early days, apart from grinding grains and such, they were used to pump water out of the land. Even to this day, they still serve as emergency water pumpers when flooding happens.
Another fascinating moment in history of the Dutch, there was a time where a single tulip bulb was equal in value to a house. The Tulip Mania rose and crash dramatically, and is considered the first recorded economic bubble in history. A bit complicated for me to get into, but worth understanding. They also have this fascination with the colour orange.
Link to vote your top 12 for calendar down below~
https://forms.gle/qtG2g69thnsNgopc8
Post link
MerMay 29| Fairy Tales
Welcome to Denmark, birthplace of Hans Christian Andersen, father of the modern fairy tale. As most of us probably know by now, fairy tales can be super dark and morbid, serving as cautionary lessons. If you are ready to know the true tale of The Little Mermaid, read on. (a note that this is a heavily Ellie abridged summary)Once upon a time, the little mermaid rescues a prince and brought him to shore, where he was found by another girl. This idiot of a prince mistakenly believes this other girl to be his saviour, and falls in love with her. Infatuated and obsessed with the prince, the little mermaid learns that humans have a soul and go to heaven when they die, whereas mermaids live for 300 years, die as sea foam and cease to exist. To obtain an immortal soul, she needs someone to fall in love and marry her, thus merging their soul with her. In desperation for his love and a soul, the little mermaid signs a awful contract with the sea witch, signing away her voice by cutting out her tongue, have her tail feel like a sword splitting it to become legs, have every step feel like stepping on knives, and dying of a broken heart if the prince marries another. When she gets with the prince though, he basically friendzoned her because she couldn’t speak. The prince ends up marrying his false saviour, and on the night after the wedding, the little mermaid’s sisters came up to the surface, bringing a magic knife for her to stab into his heart to save herself. The little mermaid could not bring herself to kill him, and plunged herself into the sea right before sunrise. Because of her sacrifice, she turns into air, and is given a chance of earning her own soul and entrance into heaven by doing good deeds for 300 years.
The Little Mermaid may have been an allegory for Hans Christian Anderson’s unrequited love life, exploring the issues of social class and doomed aspirations.
Link to vote your top 12 for the calendar down below!
https://forms.gle/qtG2g69thnsNgopc8
Post link
MerMay 28| Cross my heart
Switzerland is a neutral country, meaning that it doesn’t partake in wars nor side any particular party. They’ve been neutral since 1815, and kept out of the 2 world wars happening around it. To remain neutral, it is also not part of the EU.
If you’ve heard about the Red Cross, it was started by a swiss businessman named Henry Dunant. After witnessing the aftermath of the Battle of Solferino which left about 40,000 soldiers dead and dying in a single day with insufficient medical attendance and basic care, he abandoned his business plans and devoted himself to helping the treatment and care of the wounded. His humanitarian heart was too big for his own wealth to handle, using and giving all of his money to aid humanitarian efforts to the point of bankruptcy. For fifteen years after the scandal of his bankruptcy, he lived in obscurity and poverty, sleeping outdoors and living off bread crumbs. During his disappearance, the papers even presumed him dead. Years later, he was rediscovered living in a nursing home and co-awarded the first Nobel peace prize for his role in the founding of the International Red Cross Movement and initiating the Geneva Convetion. Despite receving the prize money, Henry Dunant spent none of it and continued staying in the humble hospice. Upon his death, he wanted no funeral, and bequeathed the prize money to charitable causes. This story melts my heart so much.
Link to vote your top 12 for calendar down below!
https://forms.gle/qtG2g69thnsNgopc8
Post link
MerMay 27| Kolorowy
Poland kinda got lucky and unlucky with it’s geography. It’s terrain is largely flat-ish, with nice arable land good for cultivation, and development without barriers or obstructions like mountains in the way. Unfortunately, this also makes Poland easier to invade and be fought over, which happened more than 40 times in the course of 400 years. In fact, Poland almost disappeared from the map for 123 years from 1795 until 1918, as it was partitioned among Prussia, Russia and Austria. If you’ve heard about WW2, you’ll probably know that Poland got one of the most severe of beatings, with the Auschwitz concentration camp as a grim souvenier.The polish are true survivors though, and created many inventions- like the kerosene lamp, bullet proof vest, walkie-talkie, and espernato (a neutral language of understanding and diplomacy that everyone can communicate in, and hopefully end world conflicts). They did quite a large contribution to the photography and film industry as well, with Kazimierz Prószyński giving us the first hand-held film camera, and Jan Szxzepanik (aka.Polish Edison), pioneering stuff like motion pictures, colour television, and colour photography, along with other stuff like early flying machines, submarines, the wireless telegraph. The things is, they’re not widely mentioned in other places, I’m not sure why. Was it not because their invention didn’ t get recognised? Could have been too advanced for the time and left on the wayside and forgotten. I’m really not sure, if anybody knows, please share in the comments~
If you’re curious about what I drew in this mermies’ skirt tail, from left to right- lajkovnik- pomeranian- Malbork castle- crooked forest.
Link to vote your top 12 for calendar below!
https://forms.gle/qtG2g69thnsNgopc8
Post link
MerMay 26| Aspiretions (2)
The capital city of the Czech Republic is Prague, also known as the city of a hundred spires. In reality though, it actually has estimates of almost 1000. Fortunately in the 19th century, the many historical structures were recognised and spared from demolition, and in the early 1990s, UNESCO came in in time to protect the city’s skyline from further development. Pose referenced from a Mucha drawing.This is one of 2 takes, will pick the one with the most likes to be in the final set.
MerMay selection for the calendar 2021 is happening now, link below!
https://forms.gle/qtG2g69thnsNgopc8
Post link
MerMay 26| Aspiretions (1)
The capital city of the Czech Republic is Prague, also known as the city of a hundred spires. In reality though, it actually has estimates of almost 1000. Fortunately in the 19th century, the many historical structures were recognised and spared from demolition, and in the early 1990s, UNESCO came in in time to protect the city’s skyline from further development. Pose referenced from a Mucha drawing.This is one of 2 takes, will pick the one with the most likes to be in the final set.
Please help me pick your fav 12 MerMays for my 2021 calendar, link below!
https://forms.gle/qtG2g69thnsNgopc8
Post link
MerMay 25| Praline
“Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see.”- Rene MargritteBelgium’s chocolate scene started with it being sold as a tonic by pharmacists. Things really took off after Belgium colonised the Congo and started importing cocoa beans from there. As the years followed, new inventions of chocolate came to the scene- we have praline, the ballotin box to pack the pralines in, a way to transport liquid chocolate, and chocolate spread. Quality of chocolate is also governed by laws and unspoken rules, where traditional manufacturing is preferred, so you’ll mostly find small independent chocolatiers using top secret recipes passed down through the generations.
-link to vote your top 12 for calendar below!
Poll link: https://forms.gle/qtG2g69thnsNgopc8
IG post: https://www.instagram.com/p/CJPqZ81h_Mp/
Post link
More previews of the final pieces ^_^ link to vote your top 12 for calendar below~
MerMay day 24| Tinker
Slovakia was a bit tricky to figure an interesting angle on, in the end I managed to find that they have a tinkering culture in the Kysuce and Spiš region in the country. In the earlier days, tinkerers will bend, bind and interlace metal fibres together to repair ceramics and make simple wire tools, like whisks, trays, and rodent traps. Nowadays, they do more artsy projects. Two factors propelled this craft- the mountainous terrain in the area was not suited to agriculture, and it is near Silesia, which was into iron work at the time. Workers in the iron work and mines used to carry their meals in ceramic pots, which often broke. To solve the problem, the workers will use wire nets to bind the pots and hold them together, thus the tinker craft was born!
Post link
MerMay day 23| Swan Stone
You know that iconic Disney castle that greets you at the beginning of almost every Disney movie? It’s the castle from Sleeping Beauty, inspired by the Neuschwanstein castle in Germany. Built by the (possibly mad) King Ludwig II of Bavaria, it was designed as a hideaway, as well as a palace evoking Medieval myth and fantasy. Note the word “evoke”- it’s a 19th century romantic eclecticism castle, not an actual 5th-15th century medieval one. It was built on the remains of 2 medieval castles though. Tragically, king Ludwig II didn’t live to see his castle completed, but was instead dethroned and died under mysterious circumstances.Post link
MerMay day 22| Edelweiss
The hills are alive with the sound of music, as well as in the opera houses and concert halls in Austria. Vienna, capital city of Austria, is often heralded as the capital of classical music, as during the 18th-19th century, the music scene was supported and patronaged by the Hapsburg empire, turning Vienna into a hub of musical innovation, mainly in the classical sense, giving us greats like Mozart. It does need to be noted that many important composers associated with Vienna didn’t originate from Austria, rather they flocked to the thriving scene, for example, Beethoven was German, Chopin was Polish.A little side note, Edelweiss is Austria’s national flower, drawn on the tail of this mermie. The Edelweiss song in The Sound of Music movie is not to be confused as the national anthem of Austria, which is “Land der Berge, Land am Strome”. In hind sight it probably would make more sense to draw the flower on her head, as this flower is found high in the Alps. HUM. Anyhoo, yodelayheehoo!Post link
MerMay day 21| Brimming
Hungary has such a punny name that if you add to its geography, which is basically it existing in a plain surrounded by mountains, it’s a perfect analogy of a bowl. (I’m not sure if I’m constructing this sentence properly. Learned the bowl bit from @geographynow_official ) Being a landlocked country, Hungary has no access to the sea. Don’t worry though, they have access to other forms of water- it sits in a thermal basin, resulting in it having more than 1,300 thermal hot springs, with 123 of them in Budapest, earning it the moniker “city of spas”. Spa culture has been here for a while, with people cooking in little bowls of mineral rich water here since the Roman times.Post link
MerMay day 20| Weaver
Croatia, a beautiful country with more than a thousand islands, with one of them the shape of a heart heart The Croats used to wear stylish neckties when they go into war, which evolutioned into the modern necktie for the office battlefield. They also have something called Hvar lace or aloe lace, made from the thread of the aloe leaves of the agave plant, produced by the Benedictine nuns of Hvar.(I did 2 drawings of Croātia, and am having difficulty picking which one I should include in the final series. I might just go by the like counts across all my social platforms to see which one you guys like more. This is the second one)
Post link
MerMay day 20| Weaver
Croatia, a beautiful country with more than a thousand islands, with one of them the shape of a heart heart The Croats used to wear stylish neckties when they go into war, which evolutioned into the modern necktie for the office battlefield. They also have something called Hvar lace or aloe lace, made from the thread of the aloe leaves of the agave plant, produced by the Benedictine nuns of Hvar.(I did 2 drawings of Croātia, and am having difficulty picking which one I should include in the final series. I might just go by the like counts across all my social platforms to see which one you guys like more. This is the first one)
Post link
