The Most Beautiful Name

 Bottom.

Yeah, I guess Titania's OK too.

Although, I never had a doll named after the queen of the fairies...When I was a little girl, much younger than this picture, I did have a doll named 'Bottom'. He was a donkey, so obviously, his name was Bottom. Other kids would laugh at his name. I wouldn't get the joke.

From the time I was seven until the time I was seventeen. My grandmother took me and my brother and sister to the Utah Shakespearean festival every. single. year.  So I knew what 'in the round' was when I was still sitting in it to play duck, duck, goose.

The moment I decided that I would for sure be an artist I was sitting in Fred's dream theater. Later when I visited the original in London I truly appreciated those bucket seats ;) I was watching a fantastical production of this very play. From across the stage the line "the object of art is to give life a shape," cut clear to my heart.

For that, I am forever thankful.

*Process note: This is my favorite way to paint, but I usually block myself in, because you know, I'm nothing if not sketchy. Some of what I consider my best work just starts in this loose watercolory way. No form, no function, just water and a color. Later, when I am not running late for job-job, I'll add some ink, add some color and make it 'real', but this is the best way for me to get things to 'weigh' the right weight. 

Sketching Social Media

I really couldn't help myself.

I tried....

but you know me, once I get started...I have a hard time stopping.

Have a day so great people whisper about it for years...?

I hope your birthday is the stuff of myths and legends!

I told my friends how old you are. They didn't believe me..?

OK. OK. I'm stopping.

Well, I am stopping for now.

Things I Throw Myself into Tuesday - Let's Play Pretend

This is a magical story, at least to me. Since I blog for me and for you, fifty percent of the people who read this blog love this story so I'm going to recap it here.

On a blog post ages ago I made a half-hearted list of things I know about me. I didn't tag it very well and it got lost in the shuffle. A few months ago a friend was trying to find the list for a bio she was writing for a wedded first grade teacher bride and death metal writing, silk screening viking groom we both love dearly. Go to art school. You meet the interesting people.

I sat down, exasperated. "I'll find it" I used the search feature on blogger and tried words I thought I'd used. She volunteered "the best thing on that list was that thing you said about always using an ! when you write Panic! At the Disco." So I tried that. I think blogger was just being a bitch -- see the list ;)

One of the things I like best about She Sure is Sketchy is how it dominates Google. OK, maybe that's a not quite true statement... but man, we pop up in the weirdest places. I get traffic from google all the live long day. Case in point: If you're looking for pink grasshoppers you're probably going to find me first.

I got the thought that I would google that Panic! At the Disco sentence and find the post THAT way. So I did. I DID find the post that way! However in the greatest twofur of the year, I was also introduced to Lissy Elle, who feels the same way I do about important things - like punctuation and fairy dust.

She remains way high up there on the list I am always making of the most important women on the web. I love her for her unfenced imagination, her risky behavior, the faults that only she sees in her work, her love of sheet forts, her youth and that other thing, that people who 'get it' have. Most importantly I love her for living an unguarded life on the web. I've been getting a lot of heat for that lately. I am thrilled that she knows that hiding your talent and being scared to share your art for fear of thievery is wrong. Solidarity sister.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lissyl/

Consider yourself forever changed.

P.S. I know it is Wednesday, but I FORGOT. GAWD the difference a holiday makes. I am hoping I can forget all over again and that at the end of the day on "Thursday" I will realize IT IS FRIDAY and I don't have to come back to job-job for two whole days.

The Night the Fairies Came

is still a blur....
a childhood memory lost in gossamer and light.

I've had this done to this stage since Friday. I was hoping I'd get to watercolor it but you know, deadlines deadlines, deadlines. It'll be a treat to find the time for painting in a few weeks when things calm down. In the meantime I get to animate a Bollywood inspired theme for a project and I get to draw animals having an off the hook party.

I started with rough pencils:
Here are some fairies and dust:
Make sure to enter to win She Sure is Sketchy blog candy!!!
listening to right this second: "32 flavors" -- ani difranco

Off With Their Heads!!!

Whaaaat issss thisss?

(You're supposed to say that part like the chef in 'The Little Mermaid'.)

After a particular bad run of lameness at last year's Hell-o-ween in Manhattan I decided to return to my roots this year.

I believe three Halloween things to be self-evident:

1. Dressing up is mandatory
2. Store bought costumes are lame in a bag
3. Funny, Glamorous or Smart always beat Gorey, unless it's Edward

If you know anything about me you're well aware of my Alice in Wonderland obsession.I was drumming my fingers against the table in my studio a few weeks trying to conceptualize this year's Halloween get-up when my eyes caught the vase of white roses on my windowsill.
Mike private joke - Fed Exed them to me a week or so prior to this bought of sketchiness. The first thing out of my mouth as I broke the seal on the box was, "Off with their heads!" Duh. I whipped out this fashion sketch in about ten minutes.
I called my personal seamstress/buddy ol' pal Emily of the Balcon'.Before I knew it we were combing the Fashion District looking for checkers and scarlet reds.
Emily put together the final touches on the gown - her dress making genius is mind blowing. She added the idea of transparent sleeves from elbow to wrist. We did a final fitting on all Hallow's Eve.
I spliced and wove an exhausted set of playing cards to fashion the collar I'd sketched. This dress was design on the fly and while the collar wasn't going to stay up and was a tad overkill - the cards made the perfect crown atop my head - only queens get to use 'atop'. I wanted to make sure I used it for this one royal post. My hair and face were done up courtesy of the Duchess of Justice. She's my personal make-up artist these days. I have always known how important it is to have friends, but in the last few years I've been awoken to how important it is to have talented friends. Haha.
Once I'd been primped and primed I hit the streets of New York and a few Halloween parties of magic and wonder and glitter, always glitter. I actually met a Mad Hatter - we have a date on Thursday. I took pictures with four different little girls dressed like Alice and held some lady's poor tabby. He'd been painted with purple and pink stripes. The costume was a smash and the perfect end to this year's Rock-tober.
Plus it rekindled my Louis Carroll Illustration frenzy.
Here's to genius, mine and others.

And Just Like That

she's here.

I walked home tonight with my books held tightly to my chest and the wind whipping my hair around me like a scarf. I giggled a little as I fought the breeze. It seems I spent so much energy waiting for a Summer that never seemed to come. Then September 1 showed up and Miss Autumn knows exactly where she belongs. I didn't even realize it was time yet. All of the sudden I stopped feeling like I'd been cheated out of a Summer. Out of no where Fall is here and out of no where I am giddily excited about her arrival.

Listening to right this second: "What a Diff'rence a Day Makes" -- Dinah Washington

Unicorn at 200 Fifth

I did this last night at '200 Fifth' it's one of those perfect fancy restaurants/sports bars that you find in New York. Scott got back from Switzerland so we went out to celebrate. In his honor, and also because I can't ever keep my hands still, I drew this fairy riding a unicorn while we were waiting for dinner. Luckily all the tables had crayons. I judge a restaurant by two things it's water service and it's ability to keep me happy while waiting for service. The unicorn happened first and then of course he needed a fairy riding his back. I didn't have any intention of packing it up and I was going to leave it. Sweetly enough the men in my life support me enough to fold up table paper for my blog :)

I didn't arrive in fairy princess unicorn mode. Birthday Frog happened when we first got to the restaurant and I was still ticked about my subway ride. Party mode and commuter mode are like oil and water with me the last couple of months. This summer my NYC tolerance has been at an all time low. It was a really happy evening and I was only peeved long enough to finish my angry little sketch.

This "elbow snail" was a collaborative work between me and Garrett Rose. It's his elbow and my brilliant crayoning. When I begun it was meant to be an alien but sometimes you have to let a piece of elbow art be what it wants to be. Obviously Garrett's elbow was meant to be a snail.

Anyway we had a blast and ended up at Haagan Daz for dessert. I had Baileys Ice cream, the way it was intended to be consumed, frozen and in mass quantities. If you've got some fun that needs to be had I totally recommend 200 Fifth. You might want to bring your own crayons though, there was a shocking lack of color variety. If you want to draw a bunch of Ninja Turtles you can leave your own crayons at home, they have every color you'll be needing for Leonardo and Michelangelo.

Precarious Places

When I read the SFG challenge last Thursday, I grabbed a Starbucks' receipt (my preferred drawing surface as of late) and did a quick scrawl. As the week progressed I found myself liking it more and more. This morning as luck would have it I woke up with the sun and decided to go at it. So here he is, in all his dragon-y glory:

Avast ye mateys!

What does avast ye mateys even mean?! I've forgotten. It certainly sounds cool. It's something I used to know and have since pushed into the recesses of my memory along with the Pythagorean theorem. Here's some pirate sketches for the lot of ya.
xo,
Amber

Wanna See the Cutest thing EVER?!

It's time to ride a dragon.

Ok, here's one of the new inspirational sketches that I'm doing for this new amazing children's book that's got a working title of "Open the Door Slowly." It's going to be so rad. Okay, I've got work to do . . . discuss.