Eric Orchard's Blog, page 25
June 27, 2013
One Eye Or Two??
On breaks I started writing a story about a witch on a distant planet who gets into all sorts of trouble. These are aliens who live on said planet. Can't decide if they should have one eye or two. Or both.
June 26, 2013
Digital Thumbs
Currently illustrating a small and very enjoyable book about the Schooner the Bluenose. The thumbnails are all digital and the finals are a combination of digital and traditional media.
June 25, 2013
On The March
A drawing I did to accompany a recent pitch.I'm excited about this one. I hope it works out. I'm trying something different this time around, I'm sending out about 5 pitches between now and September and hoping one works out. I usually concentrate on a single pitch at a time. I'll let you know how this works out. I gave two contracts right now so I need to do it between edits. And I'd still like to have a webcomic up and running, if I only had more time. Etc.
June 24, 2013
Astroman!
Every morning I'd spend 20 minutes or so noodling away on this little drawing and I decided it was done this morning. It's not for anything but I was just trying to push my digital skills a bit more. Also I wanted to try working with shapes more, weird shapes. It was drawn in Manga Studio and coloured in Photoshop with my trusty Cintiq, which is a bit pokey this morning, I think it's the heat.
June 21, 2013
Warning Bera
Another panel from my Bera comic! My parrot ripped the M off my keyboard so I keep having to go back and check for M's.... So, I'm currently just wrapping my next pitch after Bera and am about to get back to my next picture book, done with Formac publishing. That's the publishing news. A bit of upheaval here as we prepare for the birth of our second child in three short months. My studio upstairs has become the baby room and I've moved into a hallway off the living room, which I actually prefer. I get really lonely in room no one else uses.
June 20, 2013
June 19, 2013
Steward The Saw Whet
A panel from Bera The One Headed Troll, a comic I wrote years ago, drew recently and pitched a week or so ago. I've had three publishers interested but that doesn't mean I'll get a contract. I'd love to keep working on this book. If a contract doesn't materialize maybe some form of self publishing?
June 17, 2013
Bera With Just Watercolour
I thought I'd show the Bera artwork I posted yesterday, this time as it looked when I finished painting it. I find it really interesting to see all the changes that happen in Photoshop and compare the two. This lets me see how I can combine media better in the future. One thing I love about Photoshop is that it allows you to make dramatic changes with little risk. If you compare this with Friday's post look at the shadows on the dragon for an example.
June 14, 2013
Bera The One Headed Troll Artwork
I recently sent out a pitch for my newest comics project, Bera The One Headed Troll and wanted to share some of the artwork from the pitch. It's a fantasy series, all ages but dark and with an unusual heroine. I wrote this story a long time go, I can even remember starting it on a snowy midwinter night over at my aunt's house, writing an art history essay about Canadian landscape painting for school (my computer was broken so I was using hers). I was staring out her back window, into the trees and I could see/imagine a small, stout troll walking between the trees, eyes aglow in the darkness.Wish me luck on this! I'd love to do this book.
June 13, 2013
Troll Warrior
Yesterday I finally sent off my pitch for the comic book Bera The One Headed Troll, a character I've posted about a lot here. Above is a pen and ink sketch for the comic. I want to post the full 14 pages I did here soon. I did it in a very different mix of mediums than I usually do, lots of ink and brush and watercolour and much more digital than usual. Maybe I'll start posting tomorrow It's so new to me and important it's a bit hard to share it.
