Eric Orchard's Blog, page 57

Phone Doodles

I often do work I'm really happy with when my mind is somewhere else. 

The Saturday Post

This week I worked mostly on Maddy Kettle, trying hard to meet my (self imposed) Christmas deadline of inking half the book. Some days I feel on track other days I don't. Right now I have half the book penciled and about 25 pages inked. I also have other work to to besides Maddy, all fun work, which is kind of nice. I get to use other drawing muscles. I finally was able to make an order of prints and I'll post those next week. Also, looking ahead to next year when the first Maddy book is done I'm still seriously considering a Kickstarter campaign to help finance working on that book. Making a graphic novel isn't especially expensive but living can be. 

Broke Down Engine Blues

Another inked panel form Maddy Kettle, here Silvio is playing a blues song. "Got a broke down engine mama, ain't got no drive at all"

I'm starting to feel a bit behind as little things add up to keep me away from drawing. Today it was parent teacher meetings. And Henry will be home with me today, so that's always a challenge. 

Stranded In The Desert

This is a really small drawing in my comic so it's nice to separate it out like this and see if it works by itself. Sometimes drawing characters small can be a challenge, but I think these guys have enough of a recognizable shape that it's readable. I was up before 6 this morning and I don't think I'll be done much before 11. I have a feeling that my days will be like that right up to Christmas when I want to be midway finished the first book at which point my wife will hit me over the head and drag me unconscious to Ottawa. But the break will be good for me. I do intend on working on the outline for the second book while I'm there. But that's not really working. I've had about 5 Maddy Kettle books snap into place for me. I think I'll use a Tintin model and have stand alone stories in most books but sometimes have a 2 parter. The first storyline is completed in book 2. But I also envision and overall story arc, or an ongoing challenge that Maddy has to deal with/ There will be actually a few issues that Maddy will be dealing with consistently, some personal to do with home life and some a little more epic. I'm also thinking I'd like stories to take place in both the magical Cloudscape where the first 2 books largely take place, and various parts of North America.  most of the stories draw on North American folklore so that makes sense to me. 

Harry Sewing A Balloon

A recently inked Maddy Kettle panel, with Harry showing one of his many skills. Silvio is playing banjo in the background. So, I've set a deadline for myself to have the first book half finished by Christmas and the rest finished by Spring. So suddenly I feel like there's not enough hours in the day. Although, the inking is going very, very well. I can actually see a lot of improvement in my inking. There's more control. If I have a major complaint about my inking is that it can get unintentionally sloppy, I'm not aware it looks sloppy until after, but I seem to be getting past (passed?) that. 

E Is For Ellylldan

The Ellylldan is a form of Welsh Will' o the wisp. 
Check out more Alphabeasts here!

What I'm Reading

The Penguin Dictionary of American Folklore. A simply amazing book that leads me down all sorts of unexpected paths. Between this, my fairy tale books and a book on Surrealism I have enough inspiration to make a lot of comics!
On Amazon

Freight Train

It's my birthday and this is what I'm listening to. Elizabeth cotten is one of my favorite performers/composers/amazing people. And in my mind this is on the Maddy Kettle comic book sound track. 

Maddy Cover Inks

The inks for the first Maddy Kettle book cover. I'm thinking ahead, I should have the first Maddy book done by Spring and I'd like to jump right into the next one soon after. But that would be financially difficult, so I'm considering doing a Kickstarter campaign to raise enough money to survive while I do the second book. What do you think?

People have been asking about my eye and I'm happy to report it's pretty much all better. There's a small bump on it that is pulling the surface of my eye to one side but it's clearing up and barely noticeable. The ophthalmologist says it will gradually heal over two months but already I'm barely noticing. Thanks so much for asking and for your kind support!

Silvio In Trouble!

Here's an older comic page from Maddy Kettle. I just noticed I've made his eyes bigger in the more recent pages.  Still working on a book cover today, which I expect to be finished by the weekend. I started a Google Plus Maddy Kettle page so you can follow that here. And of course I still have the Maddy Kettle Facebook page here.