Eric Orchard's Blog, page 38

The Case Of The Bottled Things

Old Experiment

First page of a short Maddy Kettle story I did a while back where I experimented with adhesive tone combined with hatching. 

Holmes And Watson

I took a short break from Maddy to spend some time on this commission of Holmes and Watson from an adventure that went unrecorded, conveniently. Really, really nice to have a short break and explore something very different. I'm always striving to ink over my looser, expressive pencils and I'm starting to get the effect I want here. This piece has since been coloured and I'll post that finished wok tomorrow.

It was commissioned by a gentleman who has an astounding Sherlock Holmes art collection, for more than 20 years he's been commissioning these pieces from pros. You can see much of his collection here. 

Finch

Here's a sketch of a Maddy Kettle character I haven't figured out how he fits in yet. I've done stories with him and I think Finch is great but so far he hasn't found his way into the story. I want him to be in book two, which hasn't been fully written yet. 

Something In The Clouds

Maddy is coming along really well. Almost out of paper, though, so I need another trip to the store this weekend. Above is a page from a Maddy minicomic. There's probably about 2 more weeks of penciling left in the first Maddy graphic novel. And then I have to ink the rest of it.

I'm finally reading A Tale of Two Cities by Dickens which is full of excitement and wonderful writing. Enjoying it more than any book I've read recently. 

Sick Day

Not a sick day for me but for Henry. Just a mild fever, nothing awful. Maybe a bit of mental health day for him, as well. The first week of school has been overwhelming for him, I think. It's raining here and we're both in the den watching cartoons and eating and I'm drawing Maddy Kettle pages.

In what I'm reading news I've moved from Heart of Darkness to The Marvelous Land of Oz.

Hanging Basket

Maddy Kettle panel....

Flying Boat Of Arizona

Working like mad, really enjoying every moment. Finally settling into the new routine with Henry at school. In fact it's proving to be a lot easier than over the Summer where I could get interrupted any moment. I think the pencils will all be done within 3 weeks, hoping less! 

Lots Of Drawing And Minor Catastrophes

Henry woke up early, taking up all my morning work time and then I forgot his lunch, meaning several extra bike rides to and from his school. Felt like a major catastrophe at the time. Now that I'm working it's not so bad. The drawing is going much faster than I thought it would, though like I mentioned yesterday the inkling is much more time consuming. I also love inking and tend to get lost in it. I can't rush it. I take a lot of pride in the craftsmanship of the inking.

Started reading Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness, which is an amazing read. This is the book that the film Apocalypse Now is based on but it's very, very different. And a lot of the joy in reading it is in the expressive descriptions. It's a short book, less than 100 pages, but I can't read it fast. The prose is arresting to say the least. Interesting that English wasn't Conrad's first language, his mastery of it is astounding. 

Final Push For Maddy

Finally making that final push to finish Maddy Kettle, and I'm so happy to be working on it. I have 30 pages left to draw, which I think will take me about three months. A few things have fallen into place allowing me to do this, Henry is back at school giving me full uninterrupted work days. Every day I wake up at 6 and start drawing right after my first coffee. I drop Henry off at 9 so I have a nice full day to just draw. Another thing is Julie got a good raise at work (she's a teacher) taking a bit of the pressure off financially. I've been working on Maddy for the past three years and could have easily got it done in a year if I didn't have to worry about bills etc. I've had to hunt down contracts, get part time jobs in retail and all that fun, distracting stuff. I'll be going into another contract as soon as Maddy's done and am hoping to get another project picked up as well, if so, 2013 is looking pretty good. If Maddy does well I will be doing lots more comics about Maddy, Harry and Silvio, so I'm really hoping it does well!