Simplifying

Hello, friends! This will be my last blogger post for now, though definitely not my last update!

I've moved my more frequent updates to my Tumblr blog; mostly due to its mobile capabilities, but also so that I can connect more easily to more artists. There you will see my current sketches, paintings, and projects. You know, Tumblr stuff.

Thanks for following my Blogger journey, and I hope to see you over in Tumblr land!

-Emily

Comic Fest 2014!

We have come full circle at last! My very first "colorbyemi" blog post was a wrap-up of the second annual San Diego Comic Fest, and we have just survived the third!

Besides the craziness up in Artists Alley, there were many wonderful events after hours. On Friday night, we celebrated the 100th birthday anniversary of Jerry Siegal, the co-creator of Superman. The celebration took place in the Comic Fest Zone Cafe, where Jerry's daughter Laura Siegal Larson and actor Marc McClure honored his memory and legacy.

After some riveting Suprman trivia, Laura cut the beautiful cake, and Johnny and I had an amazing opportunity to talk with Marc McClure!

 

Johnny B. Gerardy and daughter Katherine with Marc McClure

On Saturday night, we went to the annual Masked Ball! Dancing, games, low lights and ghostly figures...what a beautiful event it was, thanks to Beata Csanadi!

And finally, during the masked ball, we enjoyed an outdoor performance by Digital Lizards of Doom. Electronic beats, great singing and guitar, a dancing gecko and an evil robot...what more could you want?

 

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 And of course, other than all that fun stuff...was the REALLY fun stuff. Sitting in Artists Alley, a little sketching, a little selling, and a LOT of great conversations with artists and art lovers alike. I was honored to be in the Alley for a third time, among some of the greatest talent I've ever seen.

Photo by Monica M Sharp

With the weekend ending on a perfect 10, it's time to say good night.

Weekly Tumblr Roundup #1

Since my good friend Marty Davis moved his brushpen blog over to Tumblr, I decided to go ahead and start an account in order to follow along more easily. I'd been avoiding it for quite some time, as I'm not a big fan of collecting, then ditching, several social media obligations.

I actually think it might be a better format for me, but for now, let's put it on a trial basis, while saving this blog for a weekly roundup.

Back from the Dead...of Summer!

Yikes! Four months?

In my last blog post, I was excited for the arrival of the shirts I designed for the summer kids' program. The program began soon after, and what a summer it was! 175 kids and a good 15-25 weekly in my little art club. With the summer days all blending together in haze of field trips, art lessons, heat waves, and power outages, it's no wonder I abandoned the ol' blog.

BUT, with only 17 days left until the 3rd annual San Diego Comic Fest, there is much to do!

I've been trying my hand at colored pencils lately, and I'm planning to have this piece ready by then, featuring a character I created last year.

 

It's a fun undertaking. I've always wanted to do a full piece with this character.

 

 

That's all for now, but this piece should be done in a few days. Then maybe I can knock out another one or two before Comic Fest.

Back to work!

Summer's on the way!

It's been a rocky two weeks, with the Santa Ana wind-fueled wildfires in the neighborhood during a week-long heat wave, and some rushed art project planning for our upcoming summer program! Unfortunately there hasn't been a Thursday Art Club for two weeks for these reasons, but we'll pick it up again soon.

The summer t-shirts are in! I love designing these things, and this is my first time using white ink for the design. A few of the lines ended up being too thin, drowning in the white ink. I was pretty bummed, but I felt better after the kids saw the shirts and got excited.

As for today: a little sketching, a little planning, and short work week ahead, thanks to Memorial Day. Things are looking up!

Thursday Art Club: You Can't Go Wrong with Kittens.

I had some heavy competitors today. The kids got to choose between ball games, a movie, Legos, iPads, and Art. Yet somehow I still got a crowd of fifteen! How did I compete? 

I just told them we were painting a kitten. They just couldn't resist.

Time to sketch

As it turns out, I'm going to have this tablet for a while, so I can finally resume some work that has been on the shelf, and do a few new sketches, too. It's a nice way to spend a Tuesday.

On Thursday the kids will be drawing and painting. I'm starting to run out of watercolor paper!

Art Rage 3: Loose Ends: Desert Rider

As I've said before, right now it's uncertain whether or not I will still have the tablet in the near future. So I'm continuing to complete some of the paintings I have allowed to sit in a folder of procrastination, collecting digital dust.

This old sketch has come a long way, and other than a few I-don't-feel-like-it-today details I can add with Photoshop, I think I can put it to bed in Art Rage.

Art Rage 3: Getting back into it

I may not have the tablet for much longer, so I'm finishing up some old sketches. This one is almost there.

Takin' a break!

It's gonna be a looong Presidents Week. I'll be back when it all blows over.

Macro Mania

I forgot how much fun macro photography was. It's nice to have more to work with than just a dinky smartphone camera.

Weekend Sketches and a New Toy

It was a short weekend, and I've been sick for most of it. Thank goodness I don't have cable or I might have been tempted to watch the Superb Owl. So what else do you do when you're under the weather and stuck on the couch for two days straight?

1. Pout.
2. Watch Netflix.
3. Draw.

Thursday Art Club Returns: Speed Drawing and Sketchbooks

Thursday Art Club is back! Today I decided to challenge the kids a bit. We did an activity called "speed drawing," the result of which was five small sketches, all taking different amounts of time.

Water-logged Sketchbook

I would have made a new year's resolution to keep up with this blog, but I know myself too well. Another hiatus will most definitely happen in the future, so there's no point denying it. I'd rather live in the now.

I caught a friend of mine trying to throw out a water-damaged sketchbook a few weeks ago. I hate to see paper go to waste, so I adopted the little guy.

Post-Christmas Design Fun

Hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas, or at least a relaxing vacation!

What a great feeling it is to give kids Christmas gifts. Even better, to give them a gift that sharpens their design skills (that they'll actually use!)

Today my youngest stepdaughter and I are exploring our inner fashionistas with these kids' clothing design kits from Fashion Angels.

Art Rage 3: Vacation Mode

What to do with a week off:

1. Declare every day pajama party day
2. Catch up on my long-ignored Zelda games
3. Enjoy some no-commitment sketching

Smoking Cowgirl

I love digging through old sketches and finding one that is unfinished. There are plenty, since I have a bad habit of giving in too easily to my short attention span. As I said on Monday, unfinished sketches are a great exercise for me on those "I don't wanna" days.

Post-Halloween Sugar Fog

Halloween weekend is over, I've eaten just about all the chocolate I can take, and now it's time to sit down and draw on a quiet Monday morning.

Call it artists' block or sugar crash, but today I'm in a total fog. When that happens, I pull out an old sketch and draw it again. 

Art Rage 3: Perched Hawk

It's finally Saturday, and I can work on ArtRage and watch some cartoons in peace.

I finished Season 2 and started Season 3 of the 1984 Transformers series on Netflix this morning, and I'm really wishing I had the movie that bridges the two seasons. (But I'm pretty sure I'd cry when Optimus dies, and I don't have time for that crap this morning.)

App of Interest: Sketchlens

I downloaded this free app from the Google Play Store last week, because it was a suggested app by Adylitica, Inc., the developers of Do It Tomorrow (my to-do list of choice, being a procrastinator).