Running In The Woods

Getting caught up today, this trip is putting me behind but I kind of suspected that would happen. Today I'm working on Maddy Kettle. The inking is really time consuming and I need long stretches to do it, stretches of time that includes being able to walk away to rest my hand.

I've also started working on a new project, a science fiction comic of sorts. more on that later. It's a collaboration with an author I'm a really big fan of....

A Mushroom Moon

A character sketch for a new project I'll announce soon. This is an exciting and tough year!

More Brushiness

A character sketch from my sketchbook. Have my head down working through a pile of work before more piles on. I call this a "freelancer's vacation" which is, no vacation at all. But things are going well.

I'm still looking for recommendations on my store, which I'll open from my website after I'm back. Any thoughts are welcome.  

Space Goblin

A sketchbook sketch. I've got lots of fun, anachronistic science fiction/fantasy on my mind lately. Also very much enjoying drawing with a brush. It's been a life long thing for me, trying to find a great line with a brush. There's a constant balancing of clarity and expressiveness.

It's also one of those periods where I'm balancing a lot of different things work wise. Comics, the profile pictures, book covers and looking ahead to a store on my web set. Phew! But it's all going well.

Anything you'd like to see in my store?

Mucking About With Brush And Ink

Sketching with brush ans ink, just practicing.This was done with a Series 7 Winsor & Newton number 5. I love working with brush but I tend to get sloppy so I'm always sketching with it trying to be somewhat restrained. I'm not really happy with this one because it's not exaggerated enough, I like my work to be more cartoony these days. I did some more sketching since that I'm happier with. I still like this but it's not quite there yet. I like the hair here, getting a sense of modelling is something I find hard with brush.

I'm heading downtown again because I need more paper. There's supposed to be a thunder storm today so I'm going to try and beat it.

I'm rereading all the Song of Fire and Ice books (well, audiobooks). The second book is darker than I remembered. 

Working, Working

Just strapped to the drawing board, trying to get stuff done despite an air of vacation going on all around me. 

Setting Controls

A sketchbook doodle with a Micron pen. I had one of those things come up that caused all work to come to a screeching halt and made me totally have to re-plan what I'm doing. A new opportunity, which I'll talk about another time. But it's a lesson I get often, always be ready to do a 180 because crazy things come up.

Today I'm going downtown for art supplies and to just see what downtown looks like now. Maybe read in a cafe for a while. 

A Hotel In A Swamp

A sketch I did for a story I wrote over the last few days, it's a ramshackle hotel in a swamp. While lacking access to some essential studio stuff I ended up doing some writing and came out with a short story I really like.

Today won't be a work day as we're off to a wedding. An enforced break, which is fine. I can sort through all my ideas while I relax. I hope I can anyway.

And this is a picture of Henry from a walk this morning beside a lake. We saw a deer leap 5 feet across a ditch, a very big deer and saw an airplane take off from the lake. Henry searched for"flying monsters and baby monsters" I love it here. 

' Splorin'

Henry exploring the banks of the St Lawrence with a red racing car.

Some issues with scanning here but I'm still getting lots done. It's energizing to be able to go outside and walk in the woods. I forgot how great it is. 

Barbarian Princess

A quick sketchbook sketch from this week. I'm currently trying to catch up on work after the trip out here and all the setting up. Things are certainly relaxed out here, we can all feel the sudden absence of bustle from being outside of Toronto. Also, we're missing a miserable heat wave in Ontario, so I'm very happy to have the ocean winds cooling us here.

I'm listening to the Game of Thrones audiobook while I work, it turns out the HBO TV show is much more faithful than my memory is, I recalled a totally different book. It's still amazing though.

I'm still doing the profile portraits which is taking up most of my time. I did find a bit of time to roughly write out a short story about were-wolves last night, inspired by our trip. 

The Bloggess

Here's a profile picture drawing I did for the the Bloggess. I'm still getting a lot of the commissions. I'm still really enjoying it but may have to stop after a bit to get back to Maddy Kettle. I had no idea how popular this'd be. At the moment I'm still taking these commissions but not for much longer, so let me know if you're interested. Emailing me is the best way.

This is our second day in Halifax and I'm only now getting back to work, yesterday was consumed by moving furniture and trying to get the wireless going.

Also, if you're interested I took part in a fascinating discussion of art and copyright on Google+. If you're there you can read it here.

Along The Saint Lawrence

We arrived safe and sound without arguing once on the whole 24 hour drive, which I think is very good for any family. I'm still getting set up and dealing with emails and new commissions that arrived while I was enroute. I still need to set up my studio as well, I have a pile of work I can't wait to get to. At the moment I'm still shaking off the trip by drinking coffee and reading books.

We made a lot of stops along the way here, to let both Henry and the dog run around. Above is a picture of Henry at the edge of the St Lawrence River, which was just breath taking in the mist and moon light.

Riviere Du Loup Garou

Hello from the parking lot of MacDonalds somewhere in northern New Brunswick. I'm grabbing some wireless from the golden arches to say hello. I'd better be quick because we're all sitting in the car and I sense the families getting anxious to leave.

Last night we stayed in a hotel in Riviere Du Loup, I like to add the garou to make it Loup Garou which is French for werewolf. Above is what I expected to find in the hotel lobby. We didn't find that but we were treated to a spectacular, scary movie worthy thunderstorm for half the night.

OK, got to run. Talk to you all soon.

Hello From The Road

Well, we made it to Rivière Du Loup and ieven found a computer to do a post but the computer seems to be from another era and has no USB ports I can use so this is non image post. I`m hoping to find a proper computer5 tomorrow to post stuff some drawings and photos. tomorrow we leave Quebec and head on to New Brunswick and drive all day until we`re back in Nova Scotia. 

And We're Off

We're minutes away from pulling out of the driveway on our trip out east. I hope we packed everything. We'll be driving across Ontario, Quebec and New Brunswick and stopping in Nova Scotia. And this means I'm forced to take a few days off, but it'll be nice.

Darkwing Duck

A sketch of Darkwing Duck coloured in Photoshop. Doodled while chatting on video chat with cartoonists. Very modern. Today should be crazy, tomorrow we leave on our road trip back east and I'm scrambling to get work done. I've received so many avatar commissions I've decided to bring my Cintiq with me, which wasn't the original plan. But it looks like I'll need it. OK, scramble to finish stuff starts now!

Happy Anniversary!

Happy anniversary Julie! Thanks for five amazing and supportive years together! I think the family is letting us go out to dinner and a movie tonight. Which feels like a huge deal.

And thank you so much to star blogger Karen at Chookooloonks for featuring my portrait commissions!

Maddy And The Spider Goblin

I just finished up a pile of penciled pages for Maddy Kettle to ink when I'm in Halifax, and we leave in a few days. And my schedule is full with commissions until then. So, things are going really well right now!

This panel had to be redrawn more than any other panel so far, despite the fact it's really simple. I thought it'd be really straight forward, that I had it al in the thumbnail and just had to redraw that but it turned out to need lots of tinkering. I needed to get the expression just right and the spatial relationship between the figures. This is the first time you get to see a spider goblin in the story and i wanted it to have some impact. The spider goblins are the villains of the first book. This is where Maddy's adventure really begins.

An Unexpected Project

I didn't expect to be doing portraits like this ful time, but I am and it's really fun. As mentioned I an earlier post I was asked by Matt Staggs to do a profile picture for him in the style I did mine. And then people saw Matt's and started asking me to do one and it just snow balled. So, illustration is a funny, unpredictable business. And I'm really enjoying doing these plus I have time to work on Maddy Kettle. So, no complaints!

Spider Goblin

A Spider Goblin from the clouds, one of the characters from the Maddy Kettle comics. This is a warm up sketch I did the other day for fun. Scrambling right now to get stuff done before I leave for Halifax in a week. Starting to look forward to it. The heat here in Ontario has been pretty unpleasant. And a road trip is a nice change of pace. I love getting to see Quebec and New Brunswick. It'll also be nice to see family and friends and my cat Esther, who's been sick this week. And my studio is more or less ready to go there, except for internet which we're working on.

I've really been enjoying Google+ this week! If you're there please say hello. You can find me here.

What I'm Reading

Year's Best Fantasy 9

The Mechanic

I think it's a summer thing but my reading of science fiction is way up right now. Lots of Anthologies. Looking for great science fiction adventures. So in honour of my current voracious appetite I'm posting an old picture of Quentin the transgenic robotics mechanic from the Moon.

The whole family is on the road next week, maybe Saturday and it's getting harder to work as it nears.Luckily I'm doing fun work so there's no real struggle.

Do You Need A Profile Picture?

For the next little while I'm taking commisions for profile pictures. This is a fun little project that got kickstarted by Matt Staggs last week and it led to a number of commissions. It actually took me by surprise! If you're interested contact me at eric.orchard@gmail.com and let me know. I'm only charging 50 dollars per picture and will change it if you're not happy with it.

Also, in regards to yesterdays post Cabinet of Curiosities has hit the best sellers mark on Amazon! I've never been associated with a best seller before and it's pretty cool! Thanks so much everyone.

The Thackery T. Lambshead Cabinet of Curiosities~Buy This Book!!

OK, I think I can safely say I've never been prouder, or more surprised to be part of a project than with Cabinet of Curiosities . This book is just amazing. The talent is top rate. It's a very visual collection of short fiction based on the idea of the Cabinet of Curiosities.Contributors include Holly Black, Greg Broadmore, Ted Chiang, John Coulthart, Rikki Ducornet, Amal El-Mohtar, Minister Faust, Jeffrey Ford, Lev Grossman, N.K. Jemisin, Caitlin R. Kiernan, China Mieville, Mike Mignola, Michael Moorcock, Alan Moore, Garth Nix, Naomi Novik, Eric Orchard, James A. Owen, Helen Oyeyemi, J.K. Potter, Cherie Priest, Ekaterina Sedia, Jan Svankmajer, Rachel Swirsky, Carrie Vaughn, Jake von Slatt, Tad Williams, Charles Yu, and many more. See? Amazing. 

“The narrative scope and stellar assemblage of writers and illustrators…makes this a book that will be absolutely cherished by fantasy, science fiction, and steampunk afficionados alike.” – Paul Goat Allen, B&N Book Club

So, please help me spread the word and get yourself a copy of this amazing book.

Drawing Machine

Zap Gun

Well, I can't find my sketchbook this morning so I'll posting an older drawing. But it's one I like. Just spent three very, very long days working on a book cover with not very much sleep. I caught up a bit last night but still have quite a bit of work ahead of me. I should be done today and then back to working on Maddy Kettle. In Maddy Kettle news, I have finally seen a font that I'm in love with, discovered by Top shelf Productions designer Chris Ross. Thanks Chris!

What I'm Reading

Dick Tracy Volume One: 1931-1933 by Chester Gould

Krabat by Otfried Preubler 

I'm actually so busy it feels like I've been reading these books for weeks and weeks....

Midnight Oil

As my trip out east gets closer I'm rushing and pushing to get a contract done and gets lots done on Maddy Kettle. I pulled an almost all nighter last night and found myself really enjoying it. There was a thunderstorm keeping me company. Above is Harry doing some cloud cartography. Unlike Silvio I see Harry as being more obsessive, like me. Silvio and I have goofing off in common.

I'm playing around with Google+ and really enjoying it. If you're there you can find me here. 

Brass Tack Mermaid

On a very tight deadline right now, which is good. Everything should be done well before we head out to Halifax in a few weeks. Feeling the stress though. Above is a metal mermaid drawn in pencil and ink from my sketchbook. 

Alice

Sketchbook drawing coloured in Photoshop. I think Alice is a mechanic, but I'm not sure. It's a long weekend! Apparent;y, I'm still working. Right now doing revisions to a book cover. After that back to Maddy Kettle. I got some very good news about the current book cover project; it seems it's a series and I'll be doing the covers! Very cool. I wish I could say more about the books. I read the first and really loved it. I would've bought it whether I was involved it in or not. That's always a very good thing.

Also working on Maddy Kettle! Really hoping to have a certain amount finished before we head out to Halifax.