Gen Con 50

Gen Con 2017 is only a week away, and this year it's the convention's 50th anniversary! Sounds like it's going to be the biggest show yet. Tickets are approaching complete sell-out, a first (in my memory) for this convention.

After my unexpected absence last year, I'm excited to be exhibiting at this year's Art Show. My table number is 33, in an aisle near the front of the Artist Guest of Honor booth.

Click this link for a handy interactive map of the Exhibit Hall!

Please come by to see what's new! I will be showing some of my most recent paintings (and a few old favorites) and peddling a plethora of prints, note cards, books, and sketchbooks. Don't forget, I also have original art for sale!

Those of you who have visited Gen Con's Art Show before might remember the whole central cash register system. Since the 2016 show, that system has changed, and now all sales are carried out directly at each artist's table. I will be accepting both cash and credit cards. 

Hope to see you at the show!

Emerald City Comicon 2017 is This Week!

Hello to those of you who are still reading! It's sad to look at my 2016 post count compared to previous years. Few people use Blogger much anymore, and a lot of my attention has been redirected to my Instagram account. However, I still hope to post more than just news here, even if it's not as frequently as before.

Today is just one of those news posts, though: Emerald City Comicon is upon us once again, and this year it's early! I can't remember if it has ever been held this early in March before. The convention begins this Thursday, March 2nd, and continues through Sunday, March 5th.

ECCC has continued to expand in both size and attendance year after year. Since I started exhibiting in 2011, Artist Alley went from taking up one small section of the Exhibit Hall, to two, to three. (Then it was reduced back to two.) This year, Artist Alley will no longer be split up in different areas of the Hall. Instead the entire thing has moved up to the 6th floor of the Washington State Convention Center accessible via a different set of escalators and elevators on the 4th floor. I'm interested to see how the new location will feel. If you're attending the con, please don't forget to visit us upstairs!

I will be at table T-5 in Artist Alley at this new location. Please check out the maps below:

Click to enlarge

Hey look –– there's my table!

I'll have my typical items for sale: my new-ish sketchbook Fabled Earth, copies of The Explorer's Guide to Drawing Fantasy Creatures, prints, note cards and a small selection of original art.

In other convention news, I have a busy schedule planned this year that will have me attending shows on both coasts and in the midwest. Two weeks after ECCC, from March 17th through 19th, I will be exhibiting at Mythicworlds Seattle for the first time. Mythicworlds is a convention focused on myth and folklore and the art, music and crafts it inspires. This convention is held at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel near the Seattle-Tacoma Airport.

Later in the summer, I will attempt to make up for my emergency cancellation of last year by joining Gen Con for its 50th anniversary from August 17th through 20th.

Finally, I will be going to IlluXcon in Reading, PA for the first time to exhibit my work in the Showcase on the evenings of October 20th and 21st. IlluXcon, or "IX" as it's now being called, is less like a typical convention and more like an art show focused on fantastic art –– especially art that has been created traditionally. Many collectors travel to IX each year to see what their favorite artists have been working on. I'm excited to do the same.

I hope to meet you at one of the shows!

Check out the Holiday Sales at Fabled Earth Art!

This holiday season I'm offering two opportunities to save on all the items at my Etsy shop, Fabled Earth Art! On Monday, November 28th only, save 20% on anything in my shop (with a minimum purchase of $5) using the coupon code "CYBERMONDAY16"
Then, from November 29th through December 12th, save 15% on anything in my shop (with a minimum purchase of $5) with coupon code "HAPPYHOLIDAYS16"
These are the biggest discounts I offer all year, so if you've had your eye on anything in my shop, now's your chance!

Additional coupon details:
The 20% off "CYBERMONDAY16" coupon expires at 11:59 PM EST on November 28th.
The 15% off "HAPPYHOLIDAYS16" coupon expires at 11:59 PM EST on December 12th.

Recommended order cut off times for the holidays:

Domestic/US Mail: December 15th
International Orders: December 1st

I will do my very best to get gift items packed and shipped in time to arrive by December 25th. Please order early to help insure that it gets there and everyone is happy. Shipping times within the United States are usually more predictable than shipping times for international orders, so please understand that I cannot guarantee delivery by a specific date.

Important Gen Con Announcement

For those of you still following me here I have an important announcement to make: I have had to cancel my appearance at the Gen Con 2016 Art Show due to a pet-related family emergency. I'm very sorry that I won't be at the convention this year. I will miss catching up with friends and fans and I'm disappointed I won't get to see what the artists in the show have been working on all year. I will also miss the convention itself – roaming the bustling exhibit floor looking for hidden treasures, enjoying the elaborate costumes people have put together, even briskly navigating the crowd – it's all part of the con experience.

If you were planning to stop by my table, I'm sorry I won't be there this year, but I hope to see you again at a future convention! Thank you for your support and your interest in my artwork!

Summer Sale at Fabled Earth Art!

11 X 14 faerie prints available at my Etsy shop, Fabled Earth Art

For the next two weeks, everything in my Etsy shop will be 15% off! Just enter coupon code SUMMERSALE upon checkout to receive your discount. Sale ends July 4th.

I'm also holding a clearance sale on my 11 x 14 inch prints. The sale includes prints I currently stock and a couple I've never listed on Etsy before. If you buy any of them during my Summer Sale, you'll receive the 15% discount on top of the listed clearance price! Get these while they last –– after they're gone I will no longer be making prints at the 11 X 14 size!

My last 11 X 14 print of the cover to "A Practical Guide to Monsters" is on clearance at my Etsy shop!

And the only remaining copy of the Red Dragon from "A Practical Guide to Dragon Riding"

Emerald City Comicon 2016 – Thank You!

My ECCC 2016 setup, now including framed original artwork!

Another Emerald City Comicon has flown by. Thanks to everyone who stopped by my table to check out my latest work or simply to say "hello!" I shared some of the sketches I did during the convention on my Instagram account. If you're interested in seeing them, please click that link to head over there, and if you like what you see please follow me! I will continue to update Fabled Earth, especially if I'm making a longer blog post, but for quick posts and images I'll be using my Instagram account more frequently. Thanks for reading, and thank you for supporting my work!

(And thanks for ignoring those cardboard boxes behind me. You're ignoring them, aren't you?)

Emerald City Comicon 2016 Starts Tomorrow!

ECCC 2016 begins tomorrow! The convention runs from Thursday, April 7th through Sunday, April 10th. Come see me at Booth R7 in Artist Alley. I will probably be sharing updates and photos on my Instagram. Hope to see you there!

Emerald City Comicon 2016

Once again I'll be exhibiting at Emerald City Comicon in Seattle. This year the convention will run four days for the first time: Thursday, April 7th through Sunday April 10th. My table in Artist Alley is R7. If you've seen me at ECCC in years past, the location is similar to where I've typically been seated. Artist Alley is in the Exhibit Hall on level 4 of the Washington State Convention Center. The back section of the Hall is accessible through the Sky Bridge. Please see the map below:

Please click to enlarge

This year there's a new feature on the ECCC website you can use to look up individual artists. You will find a brief bio and description of their work, their table location, and links to their website and social media. Here's mine.

I finally have a new sketchbook! I've sold a few here and there at gallery shows and online, but ECCC 2016 will be its "official" convention debut. The book is titled Fabled Earth and it's the fourth in my series of sketchbooks. Fabled Earth has a color wrap-around cover featuring a new painting, and 68 pages packed with character and creature designs, rough sketches, finished drawings and even a couple illustrations in full color. In addition to the new book, I'll also have my usual product available: copies of The Explorer's Guide to Drawing Fantasy Creatures, posters, prints, and note cards and maybe even some original artwork.

Hope to see you there!

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 Opening Reception

"In Olden Times"

Group show Arboreal Dreams opens at Krab Jab Studio in Georgetown this Saturday evening, February 13th, with a reception from 6 to 9 PM. Come to the show to see my painting "In Olden Times" in person alongside many other beautiful works of art depicting the forest. Vinod and I will be at the opening reception and would be happy to see you there! For more details about the show and the gallery, see below.

Arboreal Dreams Opening Reception
February 13th, 6-9 PM
Show runs through April 2nd

Location:
Krab Jab Studio
5628 Airport Way S, Ste 150
Seattle, WA  98108

P.S. Now I'm on Instagram! Check back for photos of the Arboreal Dreams opening reception later this weekend, and if you're interested, please follow me!