Curator Notes on "In Olden Times"

"In Olden Times"

It's the final week of the Arboreal Dreams gallery show at Krab Jab Studio. Julie Baroh, curator and owner of Krab Jab Studio, shared her thoughts about my painting "In Olden Times" on Krab Jab's tumblr page:

Curator’s Note: “Other than the earthy palette used for this piece, content and composition is strong in two ways. For composition, Emily draws the eye through the whole piece by using the moss, antlers and implied vegetation to point the viewer back inwards to the focal point, which is the head of the stag. The viewer’s eye never “falls” off the page."

“This piece speaks to me about our connection to nature, using mythological reference. The stag plays the part of the tree of life, both wild and yet tranquil and peaceful. The figures, male and female, survey the world from their vantage point in medieval attire, as if to note that at one point we had a connection to Earth in its Springtime (note the flowers), long ago. Maybe now it's truly a fairy tale, all but forgotten.”

As an illustrator, my artwork is usually complimented either implicitly or explicitly by an art director for its technical skill or how well it achieved its goal of representing the story or product I was hired to illustrate. It's less often that I receive feedback about the way it has connected emotionally to a viewer. I have the opportunity to discuss my artwork with people at conventions and gallery shows, but I don't often receive such a lovely, in-depth review of one of my pieces. 

Sometimes it's difficult for me to explain the meaning of one of my paintings, even though I'm the person that made it. Sometimes I'll get "in the zone" while working and add something to the image that just feels right for it, without any lengthy calculation about why it must be there. This seems to happen to me most often when I start to develop a deeper connection to a particular painting as I'm working, and I attempt to channel that emotion into the work. "In Olden Times" became one of those special paintings. 

The best experience I can have as an artist is reaching this emotional connection with a viewer –– a communication without words. I'm happy that Julie picked up on the duel expressions of peace and sadness in my painting. One of the best ways I can think to describe it is a feeling of bittersweet nostalgia.

Thank you, Julie.

The last day of Arboreal Dreams is April 2nd. See Krab Jab's exhibition catalog for details and information about the other work on display.

Arboreal Dreams

A teaser of my painting which you can see at the show!

My first show of 2016 is Krab Jab Studio's upcoming exhibition Arboreal Dreams: a group show featuring artists' interpretation of trees. The show will debut today at the Mythic Worlds Convention taking place in downtown Seattle February 5th through 7th. Then it will move to Krab Jab's Georgetown location where the art will be on display through April 2nd after an opening reception on February 13th from 6 to 9 PM. Vinod and I will each have a new painting in the exhibition and will be in attendance at the reception. If you'll be in the area we hope you'll stop by to view what promises to be a lovely show at either venue!

The press release for the show is below:

Arboreal Dreams: The Forest
Debuts at Mythic Worlds Feb 5-7th
Opens February 13th, 6 - 9 pm

Trees have entranced the minds and hearts of man since before our kind could trace time. They served us for food, shelter, clothing, and warmth. They delighted us in their marking of the seasons, their marking of fertile grounds in desolate lands (oasis), and the marking of our own fallen comrades (as a natural headstone). They are featured in every religion, every community, every social structure, mystifying us, strengthening us, nurturing us. And finally, they are often the unsung stars in our artistic endeavors, whether they set the scene for an epic battle of good and evil, or whether they themselves serve us, the artists, in the form of wood blocks, totems, painting panels, sculptures, or paper. Without the mighty tree, we would literally die.

In this group show, artists were asked to explore their own connection to the nature of trees. Whether they hail from the Pacific Northwest or as far as Belgium, these participating artists visually narrate an arboreal song that weaves together almost seamlessly. The result is as ethereal as it is solid, drawing into the depths of our communal consciousness.

"Arboreal Dreams: the Forest" makes its debut this weekend at Mythic Worlds Convention, held at the Seatac Double Tree Hilton from Friday - Sunday, February 5 - 7th. The art room is free to the public and is located on the second floor of the hotel, right above the snack bar. Hours are 12- 6 pm and 12 - 4 pm on Sunday.

This show will run through both February and March, opening February 13th at Krab Jab Studio.

Artists Featured: Braden Duncan, Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, Olivier Villoingt, Bastien Lecouffe Deharme, Iris Compiet, Virginie Ropars, Yuko Ishii, Mark Poole, Drew Tucker, Emily Fiegenschuh, Vinod Rams, Elijah Evenson, Greg Spalenka, Rovina Cai, Jeff Menges, Yvette Endrijautzki, David Gray, Tara Larsen Chang, and Dan Chudzinski.

My Name Is Wombly

If you don't like wombats I'm not sure we can be friends.

Children of the Forest

The Marriage is a Work of Art show has come to a close and my painting "Children of the Forest" has gone to its new home. I haven't made a process post in a while, so I thought I would share how this painting came together.

When we were invited to exhibit in the Marriage show I wanted to come up with a way that Vinod and I could tie our work together other than the incidental ties our art has as a result of our relationship as artists over the past 20 (!) years. I didn't want to just hang whatever it was that we had been working on lately and call it a day. We don't really collaborate on artwork other than offering each other critiques and we definitely don't work on the same painting together. (I don't know how Leo and Diane Dillon did it!)

Last fall, Vinod had painted a personal piece called "The Green Man." I was looking at it hanging on the wall in our studio one evening and decided that I could do a companion piece that would complement his painting and form the centerpiece of our wall at the Marriage is a Work of Art show.

"Children of the Forest" embodies many of the themes I explore in my work: mythology, folk tales, and nature and animals seen through a fantasy lens.

I knew the story I wanted to tell, but as I drew, other elements I did not plan in advance developed organically, like her flower "heart."

When we moved into our house two years ago, we set up our studio in a room facing our backyard which is adjacent to a woodsy green belt. Squirrels and many species of birds visit our feeders and bird bath visible from the window in front of my desk. This is the first time we've lived in a house with a window looking out onto so much wildlife activity. I love it. For "Children of the Forest" I decided to paint some of the birds that visit us I and picked a dogwood tree like the one in our yard for the dryad.

A little over a day into the painting.

A butterfly was one of the unplanned elements that revealed itself to me while I was drawing, and I decided to make it a monarch. Growing up in Michigan I would see monarchs and I remember a trip we took to look for them at Point Peele National Park, which is a rest stop for migrating butterflies.

A close up of the dryad's face.

Almost finished...

Deciding the crop of the finished painting using the mat.

This is pretty typical of the way my table looks during a project.

The title of this painting comes from a book I was referring to for bark textures, moss and general forest imagery called Secrets of the Old Growth Forest. Most of the time I was working I had the book open to a page with a photo of the massive trunk of a cedar tree. When I was finished and it was time for me to come up with a title for my piece, I happened to glance over at the open book and saw that the chapter title was "Children of the Forest." I thought it expressed the theme of my painting perfectly.

The final piece.

The framed paintings side by side.

FAERIE III

The opening reception for FAERIE III is tomorrow night!

This is my painting for the show:

"The Black Feather," gouache on watercolor paper.

A detail of the painting

The reception will be held Saturday, March 14th from 6-9 pm at Krab Jab Studio in Seattle and will feature a brief curator and artist talk at 7:30, music by Betsy Tinney, and various refreshments. If you live in the area but can't make it out for the reception, you can still see the show the rest of the month during Krab Jab's opening hours or call for an appointment. There will also be an online catalog of the featured works on Krab Jab's website starting on Sunday, March 15th that long-distance viewers may peruse.

FAERIE III Opening Reception
Saturday, March 14th, 6 - 9 pm
Show runs through April 4th

Location:
Krab Jab Studio 
5628 Airport Way S, Ste 150

Seattle, WA  98108

I hope to see you there!

Take a Break and Relax!

One of These Things is Not Like the Others

Last month my friend, author Susan J. Morris, and I visited a local elementary school to talk to students about writing and art and, most importantly, dragons. After our presentation, I was cornered by clever kids that (quite easily) convinced me to doodle some dragons for them to take home. Time ran short and I finished up some of the drawings at home. These are some of my favorites from the group. One student was a bigger fan of foxes than of dragons.

Animal Archive Process

My apologies for the long hiatus!

I mentioned in my previous post that the Animal Archive cover painting was one of the most complex I have ever done. I read over the art order for the job, thinking, "This is going to be awesome!...This is going to be hard!" I would need to tackle a high level of detail, rendering dozens of creatures in the scene, and still make the illustration readable. 

Balancing out the composition began at the thumbnail stage. I did numerous thumbnails for the illustration. I narrowed them down to the five I felt were the most successful.

We went with number three, though I liked numbers one and four as well.

Often, when working with a complex scene, I will draw important characters separately, so that I can put as much detail into them as I would like, and then I'll collage them together in Photoshop later. I used this technique (if you can call it a technique) for Animal Archive, as well as for the cover to my book.

I did the drawing for the hero character, Lini, at a larger size than needed for the final composition.

After drawing all of the animals either in my sketchbook or on tracing paper, I grouped like animals on their own layers in Photoshop. The rough drawings below show how I experimented with those layers before settling on a final composition. I had to make sure there would be room at the top and bottom for text without the image being so busy as to make it indecipherable.

I spent lots of time drawing that leaping boar in the bottom right and ended up having to sacrifice him for the title.

The fox on the left would eventually be eliminated as well.

The final drawing. I found a way to get that boar back in there, at least partially!

I don't usually have progress shots of my paintings, since they are mounted to a board as I work, making them very difficult to scan, but in this case I took a couple digital photos along the way.

This is usually the stage where I start to panic because I feel like I've forgotten how to paint!

The final gouache painting.

I was asked to change Lini's magic to fire magic, which I painted in Photoshop to complete the cover image.

The cover with title and Pathfinder logo.

During the course of working on the illustration, I feel as though I lost some of the forward momentum of all of the animals and the compositional punch of the lines converging on the troll's face, both more apparent in the thumbnail. (James Gurney coined a great term for this compositional device: spokewheeling.) I was happy with what I was able to accomplish with this painting, though there is certainly room for improvement next time.

Animal Archive

Lini and her forest friends attack a belligerent troll.

Last summer, after returning from Gen Con inspired by all the amazing fantasy art I had seen during the convention, I immediately (well, after unpacking, of course) set to work on my own attempt at an epic fantasy painting for Paizo Publishing's Pathfinder RPG. I don't say "epic" lightly. The painting was one of the most complex I had ever done: an action scene involving more than a dozen individual figures, most of them animals.

The Player Companion I did the painting for came out this month, so I can finally share my cover art! The book is called Animal Archive and it has been receiving many positive reviews.

100

It's my 100th post! I'm celebrating with a sneak preview of a personal piece I hope to complete by summer convention season.

Bunny Sketches

Why do so many life drawings of animals feature reclining poses? (Hint:stop moving!)

Before creating the simple gouache painting I made to celebrate 2013, I did a few quick rabbit studies while playing with my bunny friend. Most of the sketches took around a minute or two. He didn't sit still for much longer!

Best Wishes for 2013!

Happy Holidays!

Best wishes for the new year! See you in 2013!

What I'm Baking: Bake Sale Edition

To coincide with the Worldwide Vegan Bake Sale and Earth Day, Sidecar for Pigs Peace is holding a vegan bake sale this weekend to benefit Pigs Peace Sanctuary. I baked a bunch of goodies for the sale, including Peanut Butter Blondies and Rocky Road Cookies, both from Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar. Check out the recipes below:

Peanut Butter Blondies
Recipe conveniently already online!


Rocky Road Cookies

These cookies are delicious and nutty and fudgy.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup non-dairy milk (I use almond)
2 TBSP ground flax seeds
1/2 cup canola oil
1 1/4 cups sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
1 1/2 cups plus 2 TBSP all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup chocolate chips or chunks
1/2 cup non-dairy white chocolate chips
1/2 cup roasted almonds, chopped

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350º F. Line some cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the almond milk, flax seeds, canola oil, sugar, vanilla extract and almond extract until smooth.
3. Sift in the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir to form a thick, wet dough, being careful not to over-mix.
4. Fold in the chocolate chips, white chocolate chips and almonds.
5. Drop about two tablespoons of cookie dough onto a baking sheet about two inches apart, leaving room for the cookies to spread. To more easily measure and distribute the scoops of dough, it's helpful to use a small ice cream scoop sprayed with a little bit of non-stick cooking spray.
6. Bake cookies for 8 to 10 minutes until they have spread and look firm on top. Let them cool on the baking sheet for at least 5 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack to cool completely. (Or eat while warm and gooey if you prefer!)

Star Shard Week: Visual Themes

There may be minor spoilers for some parts of the story during Star Shard Week.

Welcome to Day Six of Star Shard Week!
Don't forget to check out The Star Shard author Frederic S. Durbin's companion posts over on his blog. You definitely don't want to miss Fred's discussion of one of the story's fundamental themes in his post entitled Coming of Age.

I tend to tell stories less through complex symbolism, which some illustrators are outstanding at doing, and more through characterization. Perhaps because I was so influenced by comics and animation from a young age, I often focus on the emotional components of a story as expressed by characters' faces and body language. There were a few visual themes, however, that I did try to carry through my illustrations for "The Star Shard."

Windswept flower petals and leaves:
There are a couple of reasons I like to use these elements in an illustration, and they were especially relevant to "The Star Shard." Visually, they add movement and interest to a composition. Symbolically, leaves falling from the trees in autumn represent the passage of time and the cycle of death and rebirth. Plants go dormant or die in the fall. Animals migrate or hibernate to survive the cold winter months. In the spring, life is born anew. In Japan, the fleeting beauty of cherry blossoms is symbolic of the impermanence of life.
In "The Star Shard," Cymbril is growing up. She's learning new things about herself. She feels compelled to leave the Thunder Rake and find a new place in life, somewhere she feels she belongs.
 

In this illustration of Cymbril, the petals are representative of change.

Cymbril reflects as she prepares to embark on a new journey.

Birds:
I'll admit I like to sneak animals into a lot of my illustrations. In this case, though, I made a conscious effort to depict birds in many of my "The Star Shard" paintings. They represent freedom and, most importantly in "The Star Shard," the power of song. I wanted to emphasize their connection to Cymbril, the Urrmsh, the Sidhe, and the music of nature itself.

Some of the many birds that appear in my "The Star Shard" illustrations.

The bird turned out to be my favorite part of this illustration.

Birds everywhere!

Both birds and leaves make an appearance here!

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to stop by for the final day of Star Shard Week!

The Star Shard, by Frederic S. Durbin, is a fantasy adventure story about Cymbril, a girl on a journey of self-discovery.

Piggy Post

Recently Vinod and I did some drawings for a fan from Germany who ordered a copy of my book. He and his wife are fond of pigs and have a large collection of pig art and objects. Here are my contributions to their collection.

A fearsome creature, indeed.

Some Pig!

More Creature Sketches

I apologize for the lack of posts recently. I've been trying to shake a bad cold for the past few weeks. I haven't forgotten about part two of my Explorer's Guide to Making a Cover process post. In the meantime, here are some little sketches from the past several months.

Season's Greetings!