Eric Orchard's Blog, page 37

Meanwhile, In The Pantry....

This is actually an older panel from Maddy Kettle which I haven't shared yet. I've still got my head down to the drawing board and am working away to complete the book, although as soon as I decided to stop taking on other work we ran into all sorts of financial issues. But my wife feels I should just push through regardless, so I am. As things are going I may have to slow down my my comic work and get a part time job in the new year. Depressing, but that's how it is. I also have 2 pitches going out but a pitch can take 6 months to get a response. So, in the meantime I'm just concentrating on the book. 

Thimble Witch's Needle Wand

Working away here. Here's a recently inked panel from Maddy Kettle. It took me forever to figure out what the Thimble Witch's hair looks like. I wanted to look a bit like fire but not too stylize, I'm pretty happy with the result. 

Another Very Nice Marrowbones Review And Odds And Ends

Please check out this very nice Marrowbones review, so amazing for this little book to still be getting reviews! Especially for a digital comic I sold from this blog about 6 months ago.

The long weekend is over and I took a much needed break. Though rushing around to all the family dinners was a stressful thing in itself. We also stated winterising the house and I did a lot of sketching and reading. I'm reading Arabel's Raven written by one of my favorite writers Joan Aiken and illustrated by one of my favorite illustrators Quentin Blake. The book is a total joy and sounds great when read aloud.

After I get some more work done on Maddy I'm going to try some experiments with coloured inks for an upcoming project. I've experimented with them before on an old Halloween comic, which you can see here, and used a limited palette of indigo an orange. Now I'd like to try a full colour comic with coloured inks over India ink. On Facebook Charles Vess suggested I try this and I love the work he does in this medium. But it looks nerve wracking, much less forgiving than watercolour or gouache. But those colours are amazing. 

Sketch

It's Canadian Thanksgiving up here so I'm taking a little break from my long work days to just sketch and read. 

True Patriot Comic

I wanted to share this really, really cool new comic book project which is being done by some good friends of mine who are all enormously talented cartoonists and writers. The idea is to explore Canadian culture using superheroes, sometimes drawing from Canadian mythology and folklore and sometimes from the shared Canadian, American heritage of superheroes. Pl;ease go check it out on Indiegogo....

Pile Of Pages

As the inked pages pile up and the pages get heavier with all that ink I'm getting closer to being able to hold all of Maddy Kettle in my hands. Pretty cool! 

In The Thimble Witch's Castle

Another peek at Maddy Kettle book 1, and as I was drawing this book 2 started to fall into place. I had all these disperate elements that weren't tying together properly but it's finally making sense. I'm pushing through to the end now. It's interesting, I can see that there are 3 basic types of pages, those I can do in half a day, those I can do in one day and those that take a few days....

Peering In

I've been working really hard and the truth is I'm a bit boring when I work hard. I just sit there drawing, absorbed in the world I'm drawing but my life outside of that is pretty uninteresting. This week I've been having 14 and 16 hour work days and enjoying them very much. But it's not much to talk about. I did just listen to Tim Curry reading the audiobook of Peter Pan, which was very good. And Henry just had his first school trip, to a salmon run. I'm hoping to take (Canadian) Thanksgiving Day off this Sunday. I could use it! 

Armed Scarecrow

An inked panel from Maddy. I'm working long hours to get this all done soon. In a way I'l be sorry to be done, this book is so much fun to draw, if a lot of work. I'm pushing through and will probably have it all done in two months. After which I have a new book to start and I'll have sent out a couple of pitches. 

Esme The Tiny Troll Witch

This is a little drawing from this morning of a character that I've known about for years who might finally have stumbled into the right story.

 It's been kind of a crazy week; sick dog, dentist appointments, general running around, art not going how it's supposed to. But things are starting to feel a bit more steady. I think I'll go take a moment to sit in the garden with a coffee before the day starts in earnest.