A Day in the Orchard

“Can I borrow this?”

All images © Eric Battaglia 2010

Renegade days

So far Renegade’s been going pretty smooth for me.  Here’s a brand new card I drew and printed up Thursday and Friday, just in time for the weekend.

Eric Battaglia © 2009

This will be added to the Old Scratch Etsy store within the next few days.   You can’t tell from the picture or the card, but I used silver ink for the spines of the creature in the original drawing.

Recent work for October

October was mostly all about a commission and then a couple of pieces here and there.  I did a bookplate for a contest at the blog “A Journey Around My Skull,” one of the musts that I have on my feed.

I recommend subscribing to A Journey Round My Skull if you are at all enamored of illustrations and books, especially those that are rare and hard to find.

I also did a drawing for what I hope to be a bookmark.  I plan to get a bunch of these printed up, as soon as I scrape together enough for a new and improved inkjet printer.

Other than that, nothing much else.  Why the sparse output?  Well, I may have mentioned it before, but I only do this for a hobby.  I actually make a living as a librarian, specializing in library IT.  It’s really only been recently that I’ve started pushing to get my work out there more and more, and to improve and develop as an artist.  The two go hand in hand for me, the exposure creates opportunities and deadlines, which pushes me to put more effort into my work than I otherwise might.

Recent Projects

A couple of weeks ago I took a staycation that was supposed to be a chance to catch up on some projects I’ve felt like I was falling behind on.  Of course, that’s when I got the flu.  Not the swine flu, but just the plain old I don’t have the energy to do anything flu.  So, it was a minor miracle that I got some things done.  I got some under-sketches for a series of drawings that I intend to turn into a book, tentatively titled “13 Devils and 13 Demons”.

I also made this block print of a flying squirrel, which started as sort of an upbeat greeting card for a friend (normally, I don’t do upbeat) and wound up being something I was pretty satisfied with.  The card was two colors, easy enough to do just by inking up the top with brown and then the bottom with green.  That’s my favorite kind of dual color print, no need to worry about registration or cutting multiple blocks.  I also did a few single-color prints with some Speedball paper I had.

The print and card are available through my Etsy store.

All images © Eric Battaglia 2009

Kanganocerous

Hybrid Arbortoreum dweller #3, the Kangonocerous. Only dangerous when it sees people.

Kanganocerous

The Racoonigator

Still keeping up with the Arbortarium mixed-animal series. My self-publishing ambitions haven’t pushed that to the sidelines yet. This is the much feared racoonigator. You don’t want to find one in your garbage.

Racoonigator in tree.

Snouty little bastard.

NaNoWriMo Again

I did NaNoWriMo last year, and blogged about it in a separate and now deceased blog.  Well, I’m doing it again this year.  I’m up to 5,866 words so far.  Haven’t really been keeping up with posting my wordcount on the NaNoWriMo site, just because the site’s been a bit slow, probably crammed full of writers and “writers”.

This year is special.  I’m working on the first in a series, ostensibly YA but aimed at varying ages, about a girl from a very interesting family, who finds herself in exile from the planet Earth.  This is something that has been kicking around in my head and on multiple scraps of paper and files long lost on corrupt hard drives for maybe 13 years now, and since 13 is my lucky number, well, it’s time.

While I’ll be blogging a little bit about this, I’ll also be continuing to do a series of drawings on wood planks similar to the mixed animal drawings I’ve posted a few weeks earlier, and maybe I can work in a few more Mole-Men drawings for the 700 Mole Men project?  Because I’m a glutton for punishment and a workaholic, that’s why, and because I’ve never had so many great creative outlets at one time.  After this it’ll be nothing but games and movies and beer all winter long.  And I’ll feel like I’ve earned it.

An ambitious project

This spring I came up with an idea.  I would take on one of my more ambitious block-printing projects and document it in a blog.  I was going to use a block of about 12″ x 18,” which is larger than I’ve ever done before.

I never really documented it as it happened, but better late than never.    I’ll be posting the prints on my  Etsy store soon.  Below is, in sequential order, the process of inspiration/production.

This old and very interesting tree served as my inspiration.The original drawing, inspired by the photo with extensive creative license.The linoleum block, cut around the outline.The blocked completely cut and inked for the first time.The silver layer of the print, the multiple color idea came late in the process.And the end result.