Eric Orchard's Blog, page 23

Happy Birthday Thomas

So happy to announce that our second son Thomas was born two days ago here in Toronto. I did this drawing this afternoon while I sat next to his bassinet. 

Another Lake Guardian Bera Panel

Here's another finished panel from my original Bera The Troll Pitch. I'm currently reworking the outline. And tonight I'm putting the final touches on all the art commissions I owe to people. I'm considering ending my open commissions policy. It can just take too long to get to them when I'm under deadline for another contract. I'm thinking instead of following Skottie Young's lead and doing drawings when I can and selling those instead of commissions. That way I can sell more affordable artwork without having people wait a long time.

I've actually slowed down a lot in recent days. Our second child could arrive any day now and I'm in overdrive trying to get practical things done before the big arrival. I needed a new bike, the parrot needed a vet appointment, cleaning, painting, groceries etc. etc.

Black Crow Conspiracy Inks

The original inks for The Black Crow Conspiracy, written by Christopher Edge and published by Nosy Crow. 

The Black Crow Conspiracy Book Cover

The publisher, Nosy Crow has given me the OK to post my newest book cover for them and I thought I'd post a sort of director's cut version, the full thing without text.

It has been such a pleasure to create the covers for Christopher Edge's brilliant series about Penelope Tredwell  very young Victorian writer and adventurer. These books are so good and I'd be reading them even if I had no association with them at all.  

Lake Guardian

Here's a panel from my Bera The Troll comic book pitch. This is ink, watercolour and a heap of digital special effects. I'm quite pleased with this panel. I realized after the fact the creature is based on my drawing of a "Fideal" I did for the Alphabeasts group drawing project.

I took yesterday off to lounge and read and recharge my batteries a bit. I'm about to launch into Bera so I thought I'd take it slow right now. Today I'm cleaning up my studio and working in commissions, I have about four commissions to complete. I think I'll spend the next few days like this. I may also start my next pitch, which is a fairy tale project with an author. 

Working On Commissions, Slowly

It's been a pretty busy few weeks! I finally finished off editing a recent illustrated book and am just wrapping up work for a British chapter book and am preparing to take the next few days slow. As I mentioned a few days ago edits on Bera the Troll have begun and I think I'll be starting in earnest pretty soon, on top of that We'll be having our second baby in less than a month, so I'm thinking I'll take a few days off starting tomorrow. Or at least work on commissions, slowly. 

Ms Giddens In The Innocents

This is a pen and ink and digital sketch I did recently while watching a great ghost story movie called The Innocents. It's based on the Henry James story Turn of the Screw but I actually like it better than the movie. This is a drawing of Ms Giddens who is played by Deborah Kerr. You can watch the whole film on YouTube! It really is one of the best, spookiest horror films ever made. 

A Pumpkin For The Troll King.

New sketch of Bera! Hope this doesn't give too much away of the story. This is pen and ink, watercolour, gouache and digital (which is how I'm doing the comic as well).

Bera is still at the writing stage so I don't have much to share at the moment. I'm doing a detailed outline, not a script, sort of a one man Marvel Method.

I had written a 100 page Bera novel some time ago. I have no idea where it is. I've also started a Bera comic about 10 times. Like I told my editor, I finally figured out how to do it. Some story ideas spring up out of nowhere others take years to attach themselves to other stories and become something special.

Some Bera Art And Other Stuff

Here's a page from my Pitch for Bera The One Headed Troll, just watercolour and gouache, no digital.

I just sent off a more complete outline to the editor at First Second and now I'm on tenter hooks. Trying not to think about it. The outline took longer than I thought. I wrote Bera as a prose story years ago. I have no idea where that story is but I can recall it enough to effectively write a comic based on that story. Better than that story, actually. But new ideas kept coming and the story kept growing. I also included alternatives, like if this story element doesn't work I also wrote this. Not sure if that's the right thing to do. In any case the story is off and I am waiting for edits.

Also wrapped up a picture book last week. So, today I'm working on a book cover for the UK, which I think will be done in about a week. It's the Christopher Edge series I've been doing for Nosy Crow. I'm trying to out do myself with this one....

After that it's commissions. And then I want to clear everything to just work on Bera.

Also, I wanted to recommend a comic to everyone. Check out The Bunker, only 1.99 and it's fantastic. 

Horned Wizard

A watercolour and ink drawing of a horned wizard....