Chaos Theory ( Breadcrumbs)

1.

The way through the forest
is walked by shapeshifters
and wolves who suffer from indigestion,
having eaten too many grandmothers.

You may find a coterie of little men
occasional princes
and some sleepy guy with the head of an ass.

At any given moment
the path may twitch
and
(you can only enter the forest
by exiting the forest).

If you leave a trail of breadcrumbs
they will only be eaten (with Camembert)
during the cocktail hour.

2.

The way through the forest
is danced by wild girls with sharp teeth
who throw streams of frantically beating butterflies
into the air.

There are hulder maidens with cow-tails
and twelve-headed troll kings
who peer slyly from their caves
and from between the trees.

If you ask them for directions
you will merely be deboned
like a chicken
and made into soup.

3.

The way through the forest
is always bargained for
(payment is in salt).

If you are ever asked to supper
by a Court of exquisitely fair beings
seat yourself
smile politely
remember not to eat or drink
anything and take your leave
as soon as possible.

4.

The way through the forest
is always a pattern
and forever random.

(You must look before you leap
You must look before you look.)

There are helpers in the forest:
giant caterpillars who smoke too much,
tin men,
delusional old crones
who aren’t really old crones at all
trees that preen and mutter to themselves
in the wind.

5.

If you forsake the forest
it will follow you
surround you
permeate you
though you may not recognize it
(you can’t see the forest for the trees
you can’t see the trees for the forest).

6.

The way through the forest
is sometimes crossed suddenly
by the White Stag
who will give you your heart’s desire
if you catch him.

Your heart’s desire is to leave the forest
No one ever catches the White Stag.

7.

There is no way through the forest.

---

Sandra Kasturi
http://sandrakasturi.com/

Making Plans

I would really like to have Robot Museum done within a year or two, it's very hard to plan like that because the most surprising things keep happening. And I don't know how having a baby will affect my life. According to some people nothing gets done and it's a miserable existence all around. Neil Gaiman on his blog is a bit more charitable toward fatherhood and said his productivity went up if anything with small children, he just became nocturnal. I'm not really taking fatherhood much into account. I can't imagine what it will be like.
So here's my plan for the next year, at least as far as art work goes, I will work hard on Robot Museum while taking on book cover and magazine assignments. I'm not sure if that will work but it looks good in print. However, there are things like side projects I'm committed to and the possibility of doing a horror comic with my friend which would be incredibly exciting too.
I'll keep everyone up to date on stuff.

In Clouds

I went to see Ambera Wellmann's amazing art show at the Black Duck Gallery last week. It was amazing to be in a room full of her cloud paintings. It felt like falling through a storm. Beautiful, moody work. Ambera's such a cheerful person that sometimes these paintings seem incongruously dark. Ambera creates whole worlds out of clouds, worlds of darkness and light.
Check out her work at www.amberas.com

Quiet Monday

Here's another panel from Robot Museum that didn't make it into the Scholastic book. I'm feeling a bit under the weather today so I'm looking after administration stuff and reading. I have a massive pile of books to read. I hope everyone's well and having a splendid day.

Robot Museum Pages One, Two and Three

And here's all three pages of Robot Museum. I really like how it's developing. I'm going to leave this up over the weekend.

I'm Looking for Names!

Here's a rejected panel from the Robot Museum, although I quite like it. I've become totally addicted to Tor.com. The conversations are great. Fun, nerdy topics and I'm learning lots about the industry.
I've met a number of people there and we got to talking and realized that there is no resource for artists specializing in genre work. So we created a study group on Face Book to compile a list of fantasy and science fiction publishers, big and small who would be interested in publishing art work. So if you have any knowledge on the subject we could use your help. It would be great for everyone who does fantasy and science fiction art to have a single resource to refer to.

Werewolf

Here's a werewolf sketch I did for a more finished drawing. The last week or so, I've been thinking about trying to get into the adult book cover market. I would love to do some fantasy and science fiction work. It's interest that I worry about these decisions. Everyone knows I do picture books, so a shift into another market would be bad for business. I don't think it really works that way though. It's hard to say " this is my career path" when you're in the middle of it, and it's dark, and drizzly. It's only when you look back that you say " so That's where I was"

Trying Things

Something that was a bit inevitable was that I was going to influenced by the other artists working on the Totoro project. Many of the artists working on that project I had been a fan of for years but there were many I was being introduced to. Here I was trying to combine gouache with graphite. This is a combination some of the others used. I fell flat on my face. Ah well, it's good to try new things.

Nice Review

The Terrible Horrible Smelly Pirate got a very nice review in Toronto's Globe And Mail yesterday in the Sunday book section. Here's the link:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20080719.BKKIDD19/TPStory/Entertainment/Books

And please find me on Myspace at: http://www.myspace.com/ericorchard

And finally, check out the new Tor website. It's an amazing fantasy and science fiction site. It has amazing galleries, free stories, a great blog and a social networking system that's great as well.
Check it out at:
http://www.tor.com/

Robot Museum Page Three

Here is the finished paintings for page three of the Robot Museum.
The bottom panel will have Nora saying: Go home Potbot!

Random Update

Nothing much to report, just working away. I'm finishing up a new pencil drawing while planning another one. There's so much I want to do. Going to see Hellboy 2 tonight. Can't wait for that.

Cover sketches

Here are some rejected cover sketches for my Scholastic story. I think my compositions are getting a little more daring, I hope anyway. I've unofficially begun a new ongoing project as well. I'm illustrating the poetry of Sandra Kasturi. Our work is so similar that we just sort of fell into a collaboration. It also gives me the opportunity to explore some darker, stranger material. I'll post more about that later.Here's her web site, please check it out. http://sandrakasturi.com/
And, thanks for the kind words about the Totoro project. Again, I'll post more about that as I hear new things.
And on an unrelated note, I noticed my blog has passed the fifty thousand mark-and before even a year of posting! I understand that's pretty good. Thanks to everyone for creating this amazing, supportive, international community.

Emergency Totoro Post/Guardians Of Autumn

The cat's out of the bag! I can finally talk about this great secret project1 I was asked to take part in this some time ago and was absolutely thrilled, because it meant being part of something that was important and special and to be involved in a project with some of my favorite artists ever like William Joyce, Charles Vess, Michael Wm Kaluta, Peter De Seve, Rebecca Dautremer and a bunch more. This has been one of the high lights of my illustration career so far.
What is it? Well, it's called the Totoro Forest Project and it was organized by the amazing Dice Tsutsumi and other animators and it is a charity effort to help save an endangered forest preserve just outside of Tokyo,Sayama forest known as Totoro Forest. This is what Miyazaki based the forest in his film My Neighbor Totoro on.
Please check out the web site at:
http://totoroforestproject.org
There are about 200 amazing artists involved. There will be a charity auction held in Emeryville CA in September and an art book will be published too.

Robot Museum Pencil Roughs Page Three

And here is page three of the Robot Museum, or at least the pencils. I'm finishing up the coloured pages this morning. There are so many projects i want to get to these days it seems like I'm not sleeping. I don't think think this will be a relaxing summer.

Medusa In Technicolor!

And here is the painting! Sorry about the cropping..I haven't quite figured that out yet. Sat up in bed late last night finishing the book about Jack Kirby ( probably should have been working) and went to sleep feeling inspired. The great thing about Kirby is he changed the face of super hero comics and was a really good guy to boot. He seemed both an artistic giant and a moral giant at the same time. And his life was such a struggle, always fighting for something he deserved and failing much of the time. Reading the book I was amazed how through his whole life there were tremendous struggles but when you get to the end you realize he had been creating all this beautiful work and that was what mattered. He was always hopeful and that kept him creating amazing work.
It made me reevaluate my own problems. lately there's been a lot of one step forward, two steps back. Something will pop up that seems like a bright promise and then it'll just fade away. Maybe not gone, but distant. I think I have the most easily bruised ego ever. Every time something negative happens in my career it takes on the proportions of epic tragedy. I think I feel isolated where I live. But really things are surprisingly good. And when i look back at the things that once caused anxiety they often appear like part of a great adventure.
Medusa is copyright Marvel comics.

Medusa

Here's a rough for a painting of Medusa from the Inhumans , which is a team of superheroes in the Marvel Universe. She was created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby and I'm on my annual Kirby kick right now. I'm reading the excellent Kirby: King of Comics by Mark Evanier, published by Abrams. It's one of the nicest art/biography books I own. There is so much joy and exuberance in Kirby's work.
I had a busy weekend, working late into the night. I finished a rough for the Scholastic cover, which I'm pretty happy with. I worked on page three of my Robot Museum graphic novel and I finished the Medusa painting, which is a portfolio piece.
My wife and I also watched Batman Begins. The baby in my wife Julie's belly kicked and punched during most of the movie. Any thoughts on what that might mean?

Medusa and the Inhumans is copyright Marvel Comics.

Robot Musem Page Two

And here's page two. I'm putting up earlier than I meant but I'm pretty excited about it. There is text in the bottom panel, Quentin says: Hi Feebot, have you seen Nora.
And then the scene shifts to the thunderstorm outside where Nora is running away from the museum, with Potbot trying to stop her with blips and squeaks. I'll be full tilt on the Scholastic book for a couple of weeks so I'll post as often as I can.

Robot Museum Page One

OK , Finally, here's page one of the Robot Museum in it's entirety. I'm posting it vertically like this because I think it reads better on the screen like this. I wanted a cinematic opening and could have had this sequence go on for pages, I really enjoyed it. I did this in sepia ink and gouache.