April 2019 – Ellen Million Graphics Blog

Featured Artist: Samantha J. Decker

Welcome to Ellen Million Graphic’s Featured Artist of the Week! Each week, we select an EMG artist and share their work and history. We hope you enjoy getting to see incredible artists this way.

Everyone, please turn your attention to the prolific and talented Samantha J. Decker! An American born in Germany, Samantha grew up in classic military brat style and is currently settled in Texas. She holds a BA in Art, and has owned her own art business since 2008. She does freelance work in graphic design, children’s book illustration, comic book covers, and more – including great custom chibi characters over at Fiverr. You can discover her work – strongly influenced by fantasy, mythology, and Disney – over at her website.

Samantha has participated in EMG Sketch Fests since 2013. She’s steadily contributed playful and refined sketches, from her innocently gluttonous “Blueberry Dragon” and her Disney-influenced “Baby Phoenix” to fierce wolf-accompanied Warrior Princess and enigmatic “Dragon Moon.” Samantha’s work has also been featured in EMG coloring books, and she has her own solo title: Fairies and Friends. The “Cozy Socks” fairies above are a coloring page in that book!

We invite you to explore more at her pages over on EMG as linked below:

Samantha’s Sketch Fest gallery.

Samantha’s work is featured in the following coloring books:
Fishtank Fantasies
Scheherezade’s Shimmy

The images featured above are:
“Cozy Socks.”
“Blueberry Dragon.”
“Freckles.”
“Rainy Days.”
“Bookworm Fairy.”

Featured Artist: Jenny Heidewald

This week, we’re celebrating the effusive and dedicated Jenny Heidewald! Jenny joins us from the eastern US, and is a proudly self-taught artist. She remembers the exact moment she decided to become an artist: when she was touched by the hand of God. She recalls watching her mother drawing, an illustration of the hand of God reaching forth from the clouds magically flowing into existence on a blank sheet of paper. And that was it: the moment she knew that’s what she wanted to do. She’s been practicing her craft ever since. You can explore more of her work on her Facebook page and at her DeviantArt gallery.

Jenny has been a great friend to and supporter of Ellen Million Graphics for many years. She even participated in Sketch Fest before the first official Sketch Fest! Jenny has over 1000 playful and colorful sketches in her Sketch Fest gallery, and has provided hundreds of prompts for Sketch Fest artists as well. Her work is featured in several EMG coloring books, and her Portrait Adoption gallery has encompassed over 100 portraits – over half of which have been adopted, proving her character illustrations are popular indeed!

We invite you to explore more at her pages over on EMG as linked below:

Jenny’s Sketch Fest gallery.

Jenny’s Portrait Adoption gallery.

Her work is featured in the following coloring books:
Fishtank Fantasies
Apples and Roses
Wings of Night
Scheherezade’s Shimmy
Fishpond Fantasies
Steam Dreaming

Check out all the current EMG coloring book titles in our shop.

You can also find her work in The Art of the Business of Fantasy Art, Volume 1, found at this link.

The featured illustrations above are:

Another portrait adoption, customization available.
A portrait adoption, some customization available.
“Star Queen.”
A portrait adoption, any customization available! Minor tweaks free.
“Queen of Foxes.” The original ACEO drawing is available!

Featured Artist: Mitzi Sato-Wiuff

This week, our spotlight turns upon the gleaming and diligent Mitzi Satu-Wiuff! Mitzi is originally from Japan and, while she now lives in Colorado, creates work imbued with the cultural spirit of her homeland. She identifies shojo manga, tattoo art, and woodblock prints from Japan as distinct influences upon her work. Her passion for ballet also shows in the arrested movement of her painted and sketched figures, and her erstwhile focus on landscapes and florals brings a remarkable layered detail to her current work in fantasy art. Read more about her, her work and honors in art, and see her galleries at www.aurorawings.com.

Mitzi has worked with Ellen Million Graphics since she first achieved her dream of publishing a coloring book with us in 2011: you can still find Gardening and Goddesses (along with a second volume!) in our storefront linked below. She’s also been a staunch supporter of EMG, and a gleeful participant in Sketch Fests – her Sketch Fest gallery is filled with adorable sprites, nature-bedecked ladies, and macabre beauties.

We invite you to explore more at her pages over on EMG as linked below:

Mitzi’s Sketch Fest gallery.

Her Coloring Books, available via EMG:
Christmas Sprites.
Garden Sprites.
Midnight Gardens.
Gardens and Goddesses, Vol. 2.
Gardens and Goddesses, Vol. 1.

Her work is also featured in the coloring books Apples and Roses, Brain Celebration, and Scheherezade’s Shimmy. Check out all the current EMG coloring book titles on their redesigned page.

The illustrations featured above are:

“Bone Queen.”
“Sakura Fubuki – Urei.”
“Day of the Dead Marigold Sprite.”
“Las Calaveras,” the cover to her Midnight Gardens coloring book.
“Honey Bee Sprite.”

So Long Sketch Fest Sunday

Are you still up and browsing the Internet? Excellent! Because we’ve got some great art to share with you from #EMGSketchFest 108. Buckle up and keep scrolling – then hop on over to our gallery and go shopping.

Maria J. William sketched “Silent Tears” in colored pencils, white charcoal, and white acrylic on toned paper. The 6×8 original is available for just $40 and prints at various sizes are available for $7-$10.

Katerina Koukiotis’ Jon Snow is ready to go – as is she for the last season of Game of Thrones! This pencil sketch is on toned paper and measures 5×7. The original sketch is available for only $35.

April Bullet Journal by Amy Sue Stirland

Amy Sue Stirland shared the watercolor painting for April she did in her bullet journal – so adorable, and evocative of April showers! Watercolor and markers on journal paper.

Deirdre spent some time this weekend painting a medallion she bought: “It’s not a sketch, exactly, but I was arting with you all and wanted to share.” We’re happy that you did! The delicate colors are lovely.

Capricorn and Fishing Float by Tallulah Cunningham

About “Capricorn and Fishing Float,” Tallulah said, “I think this has been my favourite sketch this sketchfest. Yellow highlighter undersketch (done while I was walking the dog) and the copic and colour pencil worked over the top. The highlighter resists the copic – showing the underlying concept sketch in places.” This sketch is completely wonderful – and you could take the original home for $20.

Don’t forget to visit the full #EMGSketchFest 108 gallery. We’ll be back tomorrow with some final featured illustrations, and to announce the dates for May’s Sketch Fest.

Sketchin’ Late Saturday Night

It’s super-late, but we couldn’t resist a nightcap tease of all the amazing creativity percolating over in the Sketch Fest #108 gallery! Check out these five featured illustrations and then dive into the over 60 drawings uploaded so far… mermaids, a steampunk hummingbirds and meerkats await!

Inspired by Tricia Danby’s prompt of “Emerald prince / princess / angel,” Kathy Nutt sketched this feather-winged beauty in micron and colored pencils.

This scrumptious “Celestial Milkshake” was illustrated by Jill Britt – and I think we could all go for one of these at the Galaxy Gas ‘n’ Go local to the Milky Way right now.

This “!Space Age Milkshake!” by Corgi is clearly sold by the Spiral Arm Diner across from the Galaxy Gas ‘n’ Go – and it looks just as scrumptious! So we’re definitely stopping for both if y’all will just hop in my space-car.

Let’s come back down to Earth and enjoy a bit of the hanami season vicariously through Sally Gilroy’s lovely sketch of cherry blossoms in bloom. This is a graphite sketch that Sally is thinking of doing in watercolors as well.

Our last featured illustration of the night comes to us from deep beneath the sea and also the pen of the founder of our Sketch Fest feast – Ellen Million! An octopus having tea and making up part of a pun is just the perfect endcap to April’s Sketch Fest Saturday.

#EMGSketchFest continues through Sunday afternoon! It’s not too late to join in, and remember: stop by tomorrow for more featured art.

Welcome to Sketch Fest #108!

It’s been a creative Sketch Fest Friday! We kicked off this month’s #EMGSketchFest this afternoon, and our participants started creating
an inspiring selection of prompts for everyone right away.

There are already two dozen illustrations posted to the gallery, ranging from Space Age Milkshakes to Medusa to a Caticorn and a chubby little groundhog.

The first sketch uploaded to our gallery goes to Julie Rabischung for her completely adorable “Octopi Tea Party.” The original illustration measures 5×7 and is ink and colored pencils on toned paper. You can pick up the original drawing for just $18!

Join us here tomorrow for more featured illustrations from #EMGSketchFest – if you can’t wait, head on over to the full gallery now.