Eric Orchard's Blog, page 33

A Goblin At The Window

I'm still a bit off from completing Maddy, I have a number of commissions to do first, but here's a bit of a panel I did a couple of weeks ago. These scenes are heavily silhouetted, really interesting to draw.

We seem to be gearing up for Christmas more every day. Even with all the work I have to do I still am getting in the holiday mood. Sure wish it would snow, though. This must be the fourth year without a white Christmas. We have already eaten our way through the first batch of Christmas cookies. And I've been putting together my Christmas wardrobe. My mom's flying in tonight, though there's a storm in Halifax where she's flying out of so I'm hoping it all goes smoothly without huge delays.

I had another idea for a comic next year, a non fiction comic about the history of clothes.... I'll share more about it later, I think it might be an interesting project. I've wanted to do some non fiction but haven't found a suitable way to approach it until now. 

Flying Boat Lessons

Another Maddy Kettle panel from about a week or so ago, but today it's all commissions. I'm doing my best to get all the Christmas commissions done on time. To complicate matters Henry decided not to sleep last night, so I decided to keep him home rather than subject his poor teachers to an over tired 4 year old. If you don't know the species they're hard to contain.

Winter Print Is Now Available!

Now available is a limited run of my Holiday prints, along with prints by Bill Sienkiewicz, Dan Hipp, Eric Orchard, Adam Van Wyk and Mike Wieringo. Please help by sharing this lots. 
Come see them all right here.

Available for days only! 

And Boing Boing gave us a very nice mention right here.

General Update Kind Of Post

Here are some Maddy Kettle inks, though at the moment I'm hip deep in commissions. I should have some new prints up for sale very soon. I'll be calling them winter prints rather than Christmas prints.....

Creeping Goblins

I felt this picture was appropriate as it's overcast and rainy out and I'm at the tail end of a cold ( the tired and runny nose end). So, today I'm mostly packing art to ship, sketching and writing and other low impact activities. We did all of our Christmas decorating yesterday, which was really fun. Next I need to prepare for my mother's arrival, who's spending the holidays here with us in Toronto. She'll be staying in my studio room so I need to clear that out and I'm capable of making incredible studio messes.

I'm also looking ahead to next year, when Maddy book one will be finished, and thinking about self publishing a project. I have three contenders for books I'd love to do. Maybe I'll feature them a bit. What I did find doing Marrowbones is that self publishing combined with working with publishers is probably the best way to keep up a steady enough stream of income to survive. Or at least eat. I may get a [art time job next year so I can self publish more. I'm not sure yet......

Thank You

I wanted to sincerely thank everyone for all the support. The art sales, comic sales, commissions, donations etc. all added to enough for me to manage and I think we'll be fine. Making comics is a lot of work and I couldn't do it without this kind of support. I am so grateful. 

Need Some Help

So, I'm in a tough position. A payment hasn't come through that I was relying on to pay rent and now I'm badly in arrears and am facing a possible eviction. Fingers crossed, I hope not! Because I've devoted so much time to completing my Maddy Kettle comic I haven't been able to make a sustainable income this year despite doing a number of odd jobs and selling art. So, I'm keeping up my christmas sale for longer, which is here: www.http://orchardchristmas.blogspot.ca/ and will take commissions for ink and watercolour drawings 50 dollars each. Just contact me at eric.orchard@gmail.com

Also, I'm putting my donate button at the top of my blog for a while. I really hope that doesn't turn anyone off.....

This would also be a great time to buy my comic Marrowbones, the PDFs are available for purchase on the right...

Drawing A Big Owl

Drawing a big owl today. This is a commission that the client was pretty easy going about the deadline but I was really wanting to draw an owl.

Flying In The Clouds

Here's another peek at a Maddy Kettle panel. I finished working my shifts at the Christmas fair and should be working on a commission but I'm home with a sick little boy. Which is ok, we're watching movies.

Last Day Of Art Sale

Tonight I'm wrapping up my original art sale for Christmas so get in your orders while you can! There are still a number of pieces left, come and check it out:www.orchardchristmas.blogspot.ca/