Riikka Kovasin - Paperiliitin: The Queen of Night

Good evening! It's quite dark during the evenings and nights nowadays here in Finland. The brightest stars and planets can be seen even in where we live, quite near the city center. However, this project wasn't inspired by the current night sky, but actually from a memory of a movie.

I guess it was a school music lesson when I first saw Amadeus, an 80's film by Milos Forman. It captivated me so much, that I even read the manuscript the movie is based on. I was also fortunate enough to see a Finnish version of the piece in theatre back in the day and it still holds the no 1 spot of the most impressive piece of theatre I have seen. It was captivating to see how deep in character the actor of Salieri was! But back to the film, because it was not only the story that caught my imagination but the visual marvel as well. The movie actually won the "Best Costume Design" Academy Award. Even though I enjoyed all the costumes, what was imprinted on my mind was a really short scene, a snippet of the "Der Hölle Rache", the aria sung by the Queen of the Night in The Magic Flute. I read somewhere that the bit was inspired by 1815 stage design of the opera by Friedrich Schinkel. So, it's a kind of chain of inspiration here!

I used a Lynne Perrella stamp to make the Queen and then added some night style elements to the mix by adding the moth, some pearls and rhinestones and also a stylized moon. The process in this make is quite straight forward, but the coloring of the stamped image might be something new. If you want to see, how I made that, please follow the link (link) to my YouTube channel!

Thank you for stopping by today! Wishing you a starry Friday and great weekend!