Over the next two stamps, the middle value pair, I was asked to depict an underwater scene. These were the pair of stamps Lars was most concerned about as neither of us had any specialised underwater experience to draw from. I had zero visual references of my own, and was totally reliant on supplied imagery and feedback from the experts. Lundy Field Society publication ‘Protecting Lundy’s marine life: 40 years of science and conservation’ became my bible over the duration of producing this artwork.
I was very grateful to Alan Rowland sending me this book with directions!
As is often the case, rather than being fraught with problems this artwork ended up being the most straight forward. Perhaps because although I had a list of important elements to incorporate, I was allowed more freedom to compose them within the space. Unlike the other two pairs, both with recognisable landscapes, here my only restrictions were to show two seals on the left hand stamp and a diver on the right. I was able to make these characters large and the main focus of the design.
Preliminary sketches of divers
There was discussion between the various experts expressing concern about showing a diver reaching out to a young seal as this is discouraged, but the gap created by the perforations separating the two was deemed sufficient. I spent a lot of time ensuring each stamp worked individually as well as part of a pair, but that did mean thinking about 3 composition at once!
The final design in monochrome
I was keen to keep the colours fresh to help keep the individual elements clearly legible at such a small size, but when it came to making the painting in colour I did go a bit ‘Mediterranean’ with the water, and had to tone it down in Photoshop at a later stage.
Details from the painting with its ‘Mediterranean’ sea!
I used Photoshop to make fine adjustments to the CMYK tiff and was asked by Cartor, the specialist French printers, to provide a file for print that was 1200dpi. By comparison, the standard for print is just 300dpi !!
Final design which I put together in Adobe Indesign ready for print