Elephant No. 284: Cinderella Stamp

I've loved postage stamps since I was a little girl, so I thought I'd try making a "Cinderella" stamp for today's elephant.

Cinderella stamps—or "cinderellas" as they are more commonly known—are defined in philatelic terms as anything that resembles a postage stamp, but which is not issued for postal purposes by a government postal administration. I couldn't find any information on how cinderella stamps got their name, so if anyone knows, e-mail me.

The category includes commemorative stickers, stamps issued by countries or governments without official recognition, local stamps, revenue stamps, railway stamps, propaganda labels, stamps created by artists (also known as "artistamps"), and charity premiums such as Easter Seals.

American Easter Seals, ca. 1930–1941.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Usaeasterseals1930s.jpg

Some cinderella stamps once served a genuine postal function. During the early days of postal service, local stamps were often used in areas where national postal pickup and delivery were lacking. The idea was that the local stamp would get the item to a point at which the national service would take over. For this reason, local stamps were often placed on the back of an envelope or package, with official national postage placed on the front. Local stamps were widely used in rural areas of the Russian Empire from about 1860 to 1917, and among the offshore islands of the United Kingdom.

Some cinderella stamps have been produced by artists or political movements as propaganda. Others bore encouraging messages for prisoners of war or overseas troops. Breakaway governments, governments in exile and other unrecognized political entities often issue postage stamps to add legitimacy, but these have no postal validity, and are thus considered cinderellas. Others, like the one below, are issued as a joke.

A stamp issued by the Welsh Indian Ocean Territory.
Source: http://www.askmeaboutstamps.com/?page_id=2482

Governments sometimes issue fee-related stamps and labels, such as the railway letter stamps once issued in Britain. Others simply indicate that applicable taxes have been paid, as in the stamps glued to cigarette packages.

Stamps created by artists are a form of mail art, while also falling into the category of cinderella stamps. Often created as one-off works of art, artistamps are usually collected and traded outside the world of philately. Similarly, although some forms of cinderella stamp are recognized as official competitive categories, many are shared primarily within cinderella stamp clubs.

10-Meows stamp by Elaine, 2005.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:10-meow_stamp.jpg

As digital technology has become easier and more widespread, postal services have developed a new form of postage stamp which marries official function to the more individual aspects of a cinderella stamp. Both Canada and the United States (and perhaps others) currently allow people to upload a digital photograph, which will then be turned into stamps which can be used as legal postage.

For today's elephant, I wanted to make something that was the size of a postage stamp, rather than something that looked like a postage stamp, but was much bigger. It made me wonder what the biggest postal stamp ever issued might be. Apparently it's the stamp below, which measures a whopping 60 x 81 mm (2.4 x 3.1 inches). I don't think I need to work that big, but it's good to know that I could if I wanted.

The Swedish 50-kronor stamp, issued in 2000.
Source: http://www.jaysmith.com/Topics/Slania/sweden_
slania_1000th_list.html

I decided to work on a piece of artist-quality bristol board, rather than something thinner, to allow me to erase, paint, draw and whatever else I might want to do, without worrying that I'd wear out the paper.

I started by drawing two shapes measuring 3 x 4 cm (1.2 x 1.6 inches) and 3 x 5 cm (1.2 x 2 inches) respectively. This was small enough to be a postage stamp, without being so small that I needed a magnifying glass to work.

Having never drawn a stamp-like object before, I wasn't really sure where to start. I'm not great at incorporating frames and text in drawings, which was part of the problem. If I'd gotten too hung up on where the text would go, I never would have finished this today, so I decided instead to draw the elephant and figure out the text later.

Since stamps usually use fine engraving, I decided to work from photographs to make them relatively realistic. I chose the following two photographs, both of which I've used before.

Source: http://lori4twb.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/the-elephant-in-the-room/

Asian elephant in a poster that reads, "This Lord Ganesh festival, save the elephant,"
produced for the Jopasana Wildlife Conservation in India.
Source: http://www.sunilshibad.com/2010/09/jopasana-wildlife-consevation-
this-lord.html

I started by making light sketches of the elephants within each space, then added a bit of wording in a 4 mm (0.15 inch) border I added around the outside of each.

Because I wanted to give at least a vague impression of engraving, I used a fine pigment liner. I was going to use drafting pens, but I couldn't get any of the finer ones to work today.

Once I was happy with the rough sketches, I filled in the details, using the photographs to guide the crosshatched shading.

When I was finished, I thought about painting them, then decided that I actually liked them better in black and white. I may change my mind at some point, but for now I like the graphic look of these.

This was easier than I expected. Working from photographs certainly helps, and the size wasn't so small that the drawing was difficult. Obviously it helps, as well, to have an idea of what stamps normally look like.

I liked this activity a lot. Thinking up the design concept for each was the hardest part, and I'm not great at making straight lines, square corners or borders. But I'm pleased with both of these, and will probably try it again sometime—next time with drafting pens.

Elephant Lore of the Day
Many countries around the world have issued postage stamps featuring elephants. Most of these are countries with native elephant populations, and most represent elephants in a fairly realistic fashion.

Sometimes they treated elephants as a commodity, as in the two stamps below.

The printing in the background of this stamp from the Belgian Congo (issued in 1923)
certainly leaves no doubt about where an elephant's true value lies.
Source: http://www.free-photos.biz/photographs/items/photos_of_stamps/page55/

Nor does this one, issued in Mozambique, likely in the 1920s.
Source: http://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=16852&
start=1650

Sometimes elephants evoked imperial possessions, as in the rather pretty block below.

British Indian stamps issued sometime between 1938 and 1947.
Source: http://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=17136

And sometimes it was hard to figure out why an elephant was included at all.

Stamp issued in Monaco, date unknown.
Source: http://www.stampboards.com/viewtopic.
php?f=17&t=16852&start=1550

The elephant's first appearance in the world of postage was likely around 1865 in British India. Although the stamps themselves featured two-colour images of Queen Victoria, the paper was watermarked with elephant heads.

Interestingly, China's first postage stamp almost featured an elephant. In 1877–1878, an elephant design was one of several submitted for China's "5 cash" stamp. Ultimately, a dragon was chosen, but the elephant design was a serious enough contender that it was subjected to five different design iterations.

Never-issued plate proofs for Chinese 5 Cash stamp, ca. 1877.
Source: http://www.paulfrasercollectibles.com/News/
STAMPS/2010-News-Archive

In addition to single stamps, a number of countries have issued postal sheets. Some of these depict multiple elephants, or elephants with other species, in a tiled format. Others feature elaborate wildlife scenes with perforated stamps scattered throughout.

Sri Lanka stamp sheet with stamps in multiple denominations.
Source: http://stamp-search.com/images/sri0304ss-orphan4giants.jpg

Indian stamp sheet with two stamps, commemorating the 2nd Annual Africa-India
Summit, 2011.
Source: http://www.stampcommunity.org/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=15644

And some countries have offered special issues depicting elephants, aimed at supporting elephant welfare through organizations such as the World Wildlife Fund. The stamp below is actually an "Intelligent Stamp", allowing smartphone users to scan the stamp in order to view WWF video footage on endangered species.

British stamp issued for the 50th anniversary of the World Wildlife Fund, 2011.
Source: http://www.postaltechnologyinternational.com/news.php?NewsID=28804

To Support Elephant Welfare

World Wildlife Fund

World Society for the Protection of Animals

Elephant sanctuaries (this Wikipedia list allows you to click through to information

on a number of sanctuaries around the world)

Performing Animal Welfare Society

Zoocheck

Bring the Elephant Home

African Wildlife Foundation

Elephants Without Borders 

Save the Elephants

International Elephant Foundation Elephant's World (Thailand) 

David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

Elephant Nature Park (Thailand)

Wildlife Trust of India

Elephant No. 283: Fresco

Years ago, I was so keen on trying fresco that I bought a book. Unfortunately for me, buying a book often equates to having done the activity. So I've actually never tried fresco. My excuses are many: no appropriate wall, too messy, too involved. And, of course, the best excuse: if I can't do it in the traditional way, I don't want to do it at all.

A fresco is a painting on a plaster surface such as a wall or ceiling. Occasionally created on smaller surfaces, or even three-dimensional objects, frescoes have been produced since antiquity in all parts of the world.

Painting of Buddha, ca. 200 B.C., Ajanta Caves, India.
Source: http://www.flickriver.com/photos/ami10/5377343159/

The word "fresco" means "fresh" in Italian, and refers to the fact that the technique involves applying paint to a wet plaster or lime mortar surface. When using wet plaster, the technique is called buon fresco, meaning "true fresco", and the plaster surface is called intonaco (Italian for "plaster"). Because of the chemical composition of plaster, the pigment will sink into the wet surface and be absorbed. As the plaster dries and reacts with the air, the pigment particles become fixed.

Frescoes can also be produced on dry plaster. This is called à secco ("dry") and, because the plaster has already set, a binder must be used to ensure that pigments bond to the surface. Traditional binders include egg, glue and oil. For anyone who paints on a surface primed with gesso (traditionally a plaster-based product), you're actually using a sort of ersatz à secco fresco technique.

Sometimes the techniques are combined, with à secco added on top of buon fresco. This became standard practice in Europe beginning in the Middle Ages, as did à secco on a dry, blank plaster wall. In general, buon fresco is far more durable than à secco.

Frescoes at the Villa of the Mysteries, ca. 65 B.C., Pompeii, Italy.
Source: http://www.proprofs.com/flashcards/cardshowall.php?title=roman-art_1

Interestingly, some pigments work only in the alkaline environment of fresh lime-based plaster, and some work only on a dry surface. Blue was particularly difficult in buon fresco, so blues were often added à secco.

There is also an intermediate form of fresco called mezzo-fresco. This is painted on nearly dry plaster—traditionally, moist but firm enough not to take a thumbprint. Mezzo-fresco allowed the pigment to penetrate only slightly into the plaster. By the end of the sixteenth century A.D. in Europe, mezzo-fresco had replaced buon fresco, and was the primary technique among artists such as Michelangelo, Raphael and Tiepolo.

Because plaster dries relatively quickly, artists working in buon fresco or mezzo-fresco could only do a small amount each day. A thin layer of plaster generally requires ten to twelve hours to dry and cure. Because artists had to wait an hour after the plaster had been laid, and had to stop about two hours before it dried, they had a period of about seven to nine hours to work.

Artists thus applied only the amount of plaster they could paint in a day—an area which became known as the giornata (or "day's work"). A wall-sized fresco could have as many as twenty separate giornate. Over the centuries, these separate areas have often become visible, in part because the border between giornate was often painted a secco, and the paint has since flaked off.

Visible giornate in fresco by Giotto, Scrovegni Chapel, Venice.
Source: http://www.slowtrav.com/blog/annienc/2009/02/giottos_frescoes_
in_the_scrove.html

In addition to painting the surface, skilled fresco artists such as Michelangelo and Raphael sometimes scraped into certain areas while the plaster was wet. Michelangelo, for example, was famous for creating indented outlines around his main figures before beginning to paint.

The earliest type of fresco is likely à secco, which was commonly used to paint the walls of Egyptian tombs. The earliest-known examples of buon fresco date to around 1550 B.C., and were found on the island of Crete. It is thought this form of fresco may actually have originated on Crete, later spreading around the Mediterranean basin. In Ancient Rome it was quite common to paint a fresco as a wall was being finished, making the painting an integral part of the wall itself, rather than a later work of art layered on top.

One of the world's most famous ancient frescoes, Palace of Knossos, Crete, ca. 1550 B.C.
Photo: SCALA/Art Resource, New York
Source: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/media/19961/The-Toreador-Fresco-
restored-wall-painting-from-the-Palace-at

Frescoes were also common in Asia. Some of the most outstanding frescoes in Asia are found in India's Ajanta Caves. Painted between 600 and 200 B.C., the frescoes feature stories from Buddha's life. Another elaborate series of Asian frescoes are found at Sigiriya in central Sri Lanka. Painted in the fifth and sixth centuries A.D., they are considered medieval masterpieces.

The Ancient Maya also created paintings using a buon fresco technique, developed independently of European traditions. And, although Islamic fresco is rare, there are some fine examples at Qasr Amra, the eighth-century palace of the Umayyads in eastern Jordan.

Bloodletting Ritual, ca. A.D. 790. Temple of Murals, Bonampak, Chiapas, Mexico.
Source: http://wtfarthistory.com/post/11395300238/fingernail-
issues-from-the-maya-to-turner

Frescoes were particularly popular during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Across Europe, many churches still feature fresco decoration, as do private homes and official buildings. Some of the most famous frescoes in the world are found in Vatican City, including Michelangelo's paintings on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.

Part of the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, which covers some
929 square metres (10,000 square feet).
Source: http://www.travelsignposts.com/Italy/sightseeing/michelangelo-sistine-chapel

Although fresco virtually disappeared following the Renaissance, it enjoyed something of a resurgence during the twentieth century. Much of this was due to artists such as Diego Rivera and José Clemente Orozco, whose wall-sized frescoes led to the art movement known as Mexican Muralism.

The north wall of Diego Rivera's "Detroit Industry" mural, at the Detroit Institute of Arts.
Source: http://www.conservapedia.com/Diego_Rivera

Today, there are fresco schools around the world training artists to produce new frescoes, as well as to repair existing ones. Many older frescoes have been damaged over time, partly due to neglect, partly due to vandalism, and especially due to moisture. Moisture is a particular problem in a city like Venice, which is built on a lagoon, but is also a problem in tropical countries, where a combination of heat and rain can wreak havoc.

Water damage to a fresco by Giotto in the Scrovegni Chapel, Venice.
Photo: © CNR-ISAC
Source: http://cgtravelsblog.com/2012/01/30/art-smart-roundtable-fresco-rescue-
and-the-problem-of-venice/

Fresco still strikes me as quite daunting, but I decided to try it anyway for today's elephant. I bought a little wooden plaque to use as my surface, and decided to go the buon fresco route, just for the experience. I'm sure I will end up with mezzo-fresco along the way, and maybe even a secco, but I was determined to start with wet plaster.

I decided to work from a photograph today, just to see how detailed I could be. This is the photograph I chose:

Source: http://lori4twb.wordpress.com/2011/05/16/the-elephant-in-the-room/

I began with basic plaster of Paris, which I mixed to a relatively wet consistency. I've mixed plaster many times before to patch our home's lathe-and-plaster walls, and I always find it a bit tricky to get it right. Too dry and thick and it's likely to crack. Too wet and it flakes off. Sigh. I did think briefly about using a pre-mixed drywall compound, but I had no idea what weird fillers it might contain.

I didn't like the idea of making the edges perfect on this admittedly boring plaque, so I spread a thin, but rather eccentric layer of plaster. I smoothed it out a little, but I didn't care about having a perfectly flat surface.

Having no idea how fast I would need to work, I made sure my paints and brushes were already at hand. I decided to use blocks of artist-quality tempera paint, because I wasn't sure if the binder in acrylic paint would prevent it from sinking into the plaster properly.

While the plaster was still quite wet, I traced the general outline of the elephant. This gave me very soft depressions, rather than lines. For sharper lines, I would have needed to wait until the plaster was less wet. I wasn't sure if that would affect my ability to apply the paint, however, so the softer lines suited me fine.

I started with relatively thick paint to lay in some darker outlines. I was surprised at how easy this was. Although the plaster was quite wet, the colour remained on the surface in fairly precise lines. For lighter shades, I used a more watery paint with very little pigment in it. This made the plaster more watery as well, but that meant I could manipulate the surface texture, which I liked.

I kept painting with the blue until I thought it looked about as good as I could get it. I found the colour a bit bland, however, so I added a bit of black.

I still found it bland, so I added touches of orange and green to make it pop a little more.

The photograph below shows what it looked like when still wet. One thing that worried me was that the wooden backing had developed a slight warp—due to the moisture in the plaster, no doubt. I had no idea what this might mean as the wood dried. Perhaps the plaster will crack and pop off the board completely. It was going to take a few hours for this to cure completely, so it wasn't something I'd necessarily know in time for this blog entry.

If you decide to try this, here are a few tips.

1. I found it best to start with plaster that was about the consistency of buttercream frosting. At this consistency, it spreads nicely, but is still firm enough to work on almost right away.

2. To ensure the best bond between the backing and the plaster, mist the underlying surface very lightly with water before applying plaster.

3. For sharp lines, use saturated paint and a fine, relatively dry brush. For softer lines or shading, use a more watery paint and a wider brush. When the plaster is quite wet—whether because it's still very fresh, or because you've added water somehow, the paint will sometimes bleed and bloom.

4. Watery paint will reactivate the surface even after the plaster has begun to dry, so be prepared. When the surface became soft from a bit too much water, I used the brush to push the plaster into new lines and textures.

5. The more the surface dries, the more the paint will have a tendency to sit on top of it. When the surface is almost dry to the touch (but still soft enough to imprint with a finger), wet paint will suck into the plaster. You can use this to your advantage in creating washes.

I was shocked at how easy it was to make a fresco. It's actually a far more forgiving technique than I expected. I thought my brush would mostly push the plaster around and drive me crazy, but as long as I used a light touch, the plaster stayed put. And if I did want the plaster to move, that was also possible.

I didn't have a wide selection of colours in my inherited blocks of tempera paint, so I didn't play with colour as much as I might otherwise have done. If I were keen on drawing out this experience and turning this little elephant into something more painterly, I would probably try some mezzo-fresco as it dries, and even add fine details with an à secco technique.

It took me less than an hour from mixing the plaster to completing the painting, so it's definitely something worth trying. It wasn't near as messy as I expected, and I could have had hours of working time, if I'd wanted.

As a first experiment with what is often considered the most challenging form of fresco, this little elephant was surprisingly simple. It's no Renaissance masterpiece, of course, but it was so painless that I'm sorely tempted to try fresco on the walls of our house. Probably best to start with the wall leading to our unfinished basement.

Elephant Lore of the Day
Despite the fact that elephants were quite uncommon in medieval and Renaissance Europe, they were popular elements in frescoes.

Sometimes the elephants were part of heroic scenes, often featuring the exploits of Hannibal and his elephants. Sometimes they were included to commemorate a royal elephant such as Abul-Abbas.

One of my favourite European frescoes featuring elephants, however, is much more humble. Tucked away on a lower wall in the choir of the Église Notre-Dame de l'Assomption in Gourdon, France, is a lone elephant.

Clearly drawn by someone who had never seen an elephant, the figure is the sole surviving fresco on the choir's lower wall. Although it is known that this charming little elephant was added to the church sometime during the twelfth century A.D., no one seems to know why. Perhaps it was a bow to the dimly remembered renown of Charlemagne's elephant. Perhaps it was because the story of Hannibal was still widely told. Or perhaps it was once part of a larger series of animals recalling the biblical story of Noah's ark.

Either way, the Gourdon Elephant, as it is sometimes known, is now considered an important French fresco. It has recently been restored, along with many of the church's other frescoes and carvings.

Elephant in choir of Église Notre-Dame de l'Assomption, Gourdon, France.
Source: http://www.art-history-images.com/photo?id=6475

To Support Elephant Welfare

World Wildlife Fund

World Society for the Protection of Animals

Elephant sanctuaries (this Wikipedia list allows you to click through to information

on a number of sanctuaries around the world)

Performing Animal Welfare Society

Zoocheck

Bring the Elephant Home

African Wildlife Foundation

Elephants Without Borders 

Save the Elephants

International Elephant Foundation Elephant's World (Thailand) 

David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

Elephant Nature Park (Thailand)

Wildlife Trust of India

Elephant No. 282: Hidden Word Optical Illusions

While researching optical illusions a few days ago, I came across this form of optical illusion, so I thought I'd try it for today's elephant.

Hidden word illusions, like hidden faces illusions, are "ambiguous optical illusions". This means that an image may appear differently to different people, depending on what they expect to see. Ambiguous illusions in turn fall under the larger category of "cognitive illusions". All cognitive illusions rely on the assumptions we make, based on our subconscious knowledge of the world. Some people have a natural tendency to break down images image into their constituent parts. Others tend to view scenes as cohesive wholes.

Some hidden word illusions are easy to figure out, while others are quite complicated. The first two images below are classic early hidden word illusions. The third is typical of many types of hidden word illusion. The fourth is a more recent invention.

Source: http://www.frenblog.com/illusion/
hidden-word-illusion/

Source: http://www.moillusions.com/2012/02/find-the-hidden-giraffe.html

Source: http://www.eyetricks.com/3203.htm

Source: http://www.moillusions.com/2010/06/hidden-word-optical-illusion.html

I didn't have a lot of time to play today, so I wasn't sure what type of hidden word illusion I was going to create, but I was leaning towards something simple. Then again, I had no idea how simple—or difficult—something like this might be to create, having never made a hidden word illusion before.

In the end, I decided to make three different types. I started with a pencil sketch for each, just to give me a template to work with, then filled each in with my hidden word.

The first was like the first one above. I started with a light sketch, then figured out how to overlay the word "elephant" on the outline. I used a black artist pen to fill in the lettering, adjusting the weight of the line and widening some parts of it to help make the elephant shape more recognizable.

For the next one, which was a bit like the giraffe above, I sketched an elephant head. Taking advantage of the fact that elephants have networks of wrinkles across their hides, I lightly "scratched" the word "ELEPHANT" into the drawing using a fine pigment liner. To attempt to camouflage the word, I added extra fine lines in other parts of the elephant.

For my third attempt, I tried something like the fourth illusion above. This one was more tricky, because it's not that easy to find objects that work for some of the letters in the word "elephant". I decided to draw mostly animals and a couple of trees, and in some cases had to rely on shading and such to make the letters a bit more obvious.

All in all, this was an interesting exercise. I'm not great at making puzzles like this, so it was fun to try. I like each of the final drawings for different reasons, and may even use this idea again sometime.

Elephant Lore of the Day
Despite their size, it actually takes a very light touch to train an elephant. According to the Working Elephant Programme of Asia (WEPA), timing is everything.

A skilled handler with a good understanding of elephant behaviour knows that the most important thing is giving clear and precisely timed signals. When training is consistent and attentive, it becomes virtually unnecessary to punish an elephant, even in problem situations.

Punishing an elephant is a bad idea for many reasons. First of all, it causes pain to the elephant. Secondly, repeated use of punishment can make an elephant dangerous to humans. If an elephant experiences constant pain at the hands of humans, its trust in people is eroded. It also starts experiencing chronic stress, which can impair its immune system and make it more likely to become sick.

When an elephant is punished too often, it actually enters a state of learned helplessness. The elephant may seem subdued, but is actually only suppressing its feelings. At a given point, many elephants simply feel that they have had enough, and explode into rage.

Part of the problem is that elephants, like most animals, don't always see the correlation between a punishment and "bad" behaviour. Animals have a very different sense of time than humans do, and certainly don't speak our languages. Hitting an elephant and telling it that it was bad half an hour earlier will thus mean next to nothing to the elephant.

WEPA instead recommends teaching an elephant with the judicious use of light pressure. For example, if the handler wants an elephant to move a little faster, a light tap with a stick near the animal's head is enough. The trick is also to remove the stick as soon as the elephant speeds up even a little. Elephants, like most animals, also respond to rewards. This can be as simple as removing the stick or providing a tasty treat such as mangoes or bananas.

Even potentially dangerous situations can be defused without punishment. WEPA suggests teaching elephants a word that precedes any kind of punishment. By simply uttering the warning word, handlers can often deter the elephant from bad behaviour, even in an emergency situation.

Elephant with mahout, Thailand.
Source: http://landsofwisdom.com/?p=5628

To Support Elephant Welfare

World Wildlife Fund

World Society for the Protection of Animals

Elephant sanctuaries (this Wikipedia list allows you to click through to information

on a number of sanctuaries around the world)

Performing Animal Welfare Society

Zoocheck

Bring the Elephant Home

African Wildlife Foundation

Elephants Without Borders 

Save the Elephants

International Elephant Foundation Elephant's World (Thailand) 

David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust

Elephant Nature Park (Thailand)

Wildlife Trust of India