New bird paintings in time for Christmas!

Still looking for Christmas gifts? I have just completed three new bird paintings, all of which are ready and can be delivered in time for the big day.

Here they are!


Mixed media on canvas, 20" x 10"
$220


Mixed media on canvas, 12" x 12"
$180


Mixed media, on two individual canvases. 8" x 10" each. These can be hung as a pair or individually. Face-to-face if they're feeling friendly, back-to-back if they're feeling contrary, or in separate rooms if they're really not getting along!
$200 for the pair.

Pre-Christmas delivery withing Toronto is available up until, and including, December 22nd!

Please contact me at eden(at)edenbachelder.com for more info, or to purchase.

Leroux's Erik

"You must know that I am made entirely of death, from head to foot, and that it's a corpse that loves you, and will never leave you! Never!"
-- The Phantom of the Opera by Gaston Leroux

My apologies for the Phantom of the Opera inundation lately... unless you're enjoying it, in which case, you're welcome! :D

(I swear, there WILL be more birds and koi and bunnies and owls, and all of my usual things, coming soon! Some are on my easel right now, nearly ready. Meanwhile...)

There are so many lousy adaptations of the Phantom story, in film and other forms, that the original novel's phantom, Erik, gets lost in translation. We wind up with mopey emo Gerard Butler, instead of the terrifying mad genius we're SUPPOSED to get. The terrifying mad genius... who is supposed to look like the walking dead. Which, c'mon, is far more fun to draw!

Here's the character as he is ACTUALLY described in the original novel by Gaston Leroux. Corpse-like face, hole where a nose should be, sunken yellow eyes that glow, sparse, lank, black hair, "lipless mouth". Not some unforgivably hot, weepy Scottish guy.


(Click to enlarge.)

Image: 11" x 13", pencil on Canson watercolour paper (which was an incredibly fun and forgiving surface, which I will be using again). A hint of yellow added to the eyes in Photoshop, but otherwise, fully traditional media.

And last but not least: the cover!

Just had a look at my blog, and how I've been neglecting the poor thing! Foolish me. I completely forgot to add the cover.

Art by me, story by Alison Kooistra, and gorgeous lettering by KT Smith!

"Happy birthday, dear."

A little drawing from my lovely new, slightly less claustrophobic (but still purse-sized) sketchbook!

I'll spare people too much context here. It's a humour piece from my series of Phantom cartoons. Yes, I'm a nerd. And yeah, I'm good with that.

There's a bit more of an explanation to this on its deviantart page, but hey: drawing!

Gentleminotaurs Prefer Blondes: the final page!

The third and final page of the comic art I've been posting in parts.



Penciled and inked by hand. Tones in Photoshop.

But wait. There's still a cover coming!


(Story by Alison Kooistra. Lettering (on the final version) by KT Smith.)

In the news!

Hey, neat! Just saw this link via Ty Templeton's Facebook page. It's a review of the comic I worked on throughout the summer, "Holmes Inc.". And my name even gets a mention! Almost makes a girl blush.

Borderland Speakeasy #16: Sherlock Holmes and the Public Domain

(The art featured in the story is drawn by Gibson Quarter and inked by Ty Templeton. Story by Rob Pincombe.)

Art opening this Thursday, October 7th at Cafe Taste

I have another event to announce, and would love to see you there! This Thursday, Cafe Taste, near Queen and Dufferin, is hosting an opening party for a solo exhibit of my work, which will remain on display for the month of October. A wide variety of pieces from all of my series, including new koi fish and black bird paintings, are being exhibited, and are available.

I have created a public Facebook event for the opening, to which you can add yourself to keep track of it:

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=121360744584667&ref=mf

The party will take place this Thursday, October 7th, from 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm. Cafe Taste is located at 1330 Queen Street West, at Brock Street.

GalleryWest, next door to Cafe Taste, will be hosting an opening party the same evening, so you can get double the fine art fix with one visit. Info on that event is here: http://1332queenwest.com/programming.html

More info on Cafe Taste is here: http://www.cafetaste.ca

Thank you again, and hope to see you this Thursday!

More new comics pages! Gentleminotaurs Prefer Blondes

The second page of "Gentleminotaurs Prefer Blondes". Story by Alison Kooistra, lettering (to come, on the final version!) by KT Smith. Art by me.

New comics pages! Gentleminotaurs Prefer Blondes

I've just finished working on a comic that I've made in collaboration with author Alison Kooistra, with lettering by KT Smith. I'll be posting the pages one at a time here for your perusal!

From "Gentleminotaurs Prefer Blondes", I give you page the first. (Pencil and inking by hand, toning in Photoshop.)

New artwork available: koi and black birds

As some of you may know, I just participated in two shows in under two weeks! While the experience was admittedly exhausting, it was also very rewarding -- not to mention productive. As a result, I now have a number of new paintings available for sale.

In the koi series (currently showing at Insomnia Restaurant at Bloor and Bathurst until the end of September):

(Please note: the colours in these paintings are much more vibrant in person. I will be rephotographing these pieces once they are back in my possession in order to better represent them!)


Acrylic on canvas
36" x 48"
$2800



Acrylic on canvas
24" x 36"
$1250



Acrylic on canvas
24" x 20"
$850



And in the Black Bird series:



Mixed media on canvas
30" x 20"
$480



Mixed media on canvas
24" x 12"
$320
SOLD

Poor Raoul

I'll spare you all the long-winded explanation for this, but... here's a drawing!



Pencil and ink by hand, colour and lettering in photoshop.

Queen West Art Crawl: Outdoor Art Show -- This weekend!

This weekend I'll be exhibiting and selling art in Trinity Bellwoods Park, as part of the Queen West Art Crawl. This will be my first time participating in this show, and I'm very excited for it.

The hours for the outdoor art show are 11am-6pm on Saturday and Sunday. You'll find me at this location in the park, quite close to Queen West:



(See orange arrow!)

I have also set up a Facebook event, so feel free to add yourself here to keep track of it:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=148641375176324

Hope to see you there! The weather is supposed to be lovely this weekend, so make it part of a day trip through the park and along Queen West while you still can!

Shape in the Shadows

Pencil on paper, approximately 5" x 4". Some clean-up, and colour, in Photoshop.

Sketch: New Black Bird Painting

A sketch for a new painting, already underway!



I first scribbled this on a piece of scrap newspaper, when I realized that I had forgotten my sketchbook. I then scanned it, and tightened up the drawing in Photoshop, using my Wacom tablet.

I use these little thumbnails as roughs to plan out the major elements of my paintings, and they rarely see the light of day themselves. This one, however, appealed to me on its own, so I'm posting it here as a preview for the painting to come!

Upcoming events

Once again, I've been so hard at work that the blog here has been on hold for a bit. Now, however, I can tell you what all the work's been about! I've been creating pieces for the following events:

Fan Expo and The Launch of Holmes Inc.
I will signing at Fan Expo on Friday, August 27th, from 6pm to 8pm. Find me at the Toronto Cartoonists Workshop/Holmes Inc booth, and pick up a copy of the new book! Each story in the book is written by a different author, and illustrated by a different artist. Come buy one! Or five! I'll sign them all.
The Fan Expo site, with tickets, times, etc., is here: http://www.fanexpocanada.com

Art Opening at Insomnia Cafe
I'm showing new original artwork -- all from or related to my Koi Fish series -- at Insomnia (near the corner of Bloor and Bathurst) throughout most of September. The art will be going up on September 7th, and there will be a party there that evening. Come join us! The Facebook event page is here; add yourself!
http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=126385524074456

The Queen West Art Crawl
From Friday, September 17 through until Sunday, September 19, I will be selling original artwork and signed prints in Trinity Bellwoods Park. My booth will be located near the southeast end of the park. I'll have original artwork available from all of my various series, in a wide range of price points. Please come by and say hi, and check out the vast multitide of amazing artists showing and selling their work! This show is on par with the Outdoor Art Exhibition for number and variety, and is one not to miss! Information is here:
http://www.parkdaleliberty.com/show_info.php?page_id=99

Cafe Taste
My artwork will be up for display and sale during the month of October at this lovely wine and cheese bar and restaurant near Queen and Dufferin. The opening night is TBA, so stay tuned for updates! Meanwhile, check out their site here:
http://www.cafetaste.ca

That's it for the moment, but there will be even MORE announced soon, so stay tuned! (To those of you wondering where I've been hiding all summer, it should now be self-explanatory!)

Fit to Print -- comics page!

Tonight I completed the seventh and final page for the Fit to Print project with Toronto Cartoonists Workshop. This page was easily the most challenging piece of comics art I've had to draw, but I'm pretty happy over all with the end result!

The whole piece was drawn in pencil from start to finish. No inking, no digital colour. Just me getting messy with traditional media.

Bloop.

More comics work in progress!

Who's been busy? That would be me! Check out a (mostly) finished page I've been working on for a comic script by the lovely Alison Kooistra. The first panel is still in the works, and a few more details may happen on the existing ones, but for the most part it's inked and done!



I should add: this is actually the first time I've attempted a full inked page. I've drawn and shaded full pages in pencil before, and I've inked individual panels (usually on separate pieces of paper, and assembled and coloured as layers after, digitally), but I've never before attempted to ink over pencils all on one page. So... slow... but in the words of Calvin's father, "It builds character."

Rough stuff!

It's funny: every time I let this blog go a while without posting anything, you'd think it was because I haven't been working on anything. Au contraire. It's when I get busiest with projects that I forget to update! But not this time! This time: I update.

I often get asked about my process for working on things. I've always been someone who prefers to keep my rough ideas hidden, and who waits for the finished product before I'll let people take a look. I'm the person doodling stuff in the coffee shop or on the bus who will snap the sketchbook shut if you get too close. But I'm trying not to be!

So, for the moment, I'm going to post some of what I've been working away at over the weekend. These are for a comics project that just got underway a couple of weeks ago. I'll stay mum on the details for the moment, but it's shaping up to be something really exciting, and is so far a pretty amazing collaborative effort by a large number of contributors.

Anyhow, back to my process. My process is itself a work in process. These layouts were figured out, first, as individual panels sketched out and repeatedly drawn and redrawn in pencil before I decided I was happy enough with them to sketch them into a layout template. I then scanned them and did some resizing and redrawing using photoshop and my wacom tablet. Many many... many... hours later, and they still look mostly like an indecipherable sloppy mess, but from this indecipherable mess will come finished pencils, inks, toning, lettering... and a comic is born.

Here are just a couple of the seven pages I roughed out this weekend:

Death and the Maiden

Sketched in pencil, without photo reference, so it may have some... idiosyncrasies? I'm happy with the mood though, which is the main thing for me.

Based on Gaston Leroux's original novel's description of the Erik and Christine characters. No Gerard Butler in the house here. Though I think this could potentially be a standalone piece, without the context of it being an illustration for a book.

New Black Bird paintings available!

I've produced a couple of new paintings in the last few weeks. And here they are!

Black Bird XXIII
20" x 16", mixed media on canvas
$330
Available.



and

Black Bird XXIV:
24" x 12", mixed media on canvas
$330
Available.



Coming soon: more koi, in a medium-sized format!

Upcoming event! Speakeasy Drawing and Painting Show at the Gladstone

For one evening, the second floor of the Gladstone will be filled with the artwork of 29 local artists. And I'll be one of them!

Wander through multiple rooms and hallways, each hung with a huge variety of original works, and meet the artists.

Wine and beer will be served. Admissions is pay-what-you-can.

The official site is here, with all the info:

http://www.blttogo.com/index.php

"The atmosphere at SpeakEasy is casual...
conducive to innovation and inspiration. Each month a selected group of artists from a different creative discipline displays work for the crowd. Some of our most popular shows have featured Photography (part of the city wide Contact Festival), Illustration, Industrial Design, Multimedia, Graphic Design, Fine Arts, and the SpeakEasy Craft Shows."

I've also made a facebook page for the event, here, so you can add it!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=129571927055432

The finished article: "Christine, Please..."

Okay, so I finally finished my fan art experiment, and probably my fan art kick, for the moment, too.

Here's the final, fully coloured and shaded version of the Phantom of the Opera unmasking scene that I had been posting at different stages:



(I also have it posted, with a description of the scene and what I was going for, on deviantArt: here.)

In other news, on a much sillier fan art front (oh God help me), I made another piece of Love Never Dies mockery, which will mean absolutely NOTHING to anyone who hasn't listened to the cast recording or seen the play, but it DID get used in a video piece by The Phantom Reviewer, so it's going to be seen by thousands on Youtube, at least! (Makes me wish I'd bothered with shading.)



And I think that's it for the glut of Phantom fan art, for the moment. (But no promises!) More fine art posts to come, in the VERY near future...

Unless I go off on a different fan art kick. Like Sherlock Holmes, or Les Miserables, or The Wicker Man (the ORIGINAL)... I don't even know. That's why this is the Sketches and Miscellany blog! Stay tuned for more random insanity.

Work in progress update: the nerdery progresses!

Just a little update on the piece of Phantom of the Opera art that I posted recently, showing the piece in progress. I've since spent many more hours inking it and cleaning it up, which resulted in the following line art:


...to which I have now started adding some colour:


I've barely started shading it at this point, but I'm certainly looking forward to getting to the finished product.

These types of exercises are good for my art in pretty much every way: I get to practice anatomy, perspective, expression, drapery, inking, colour, shading... and why not work on these things using characters I enjoy?

More to come soon!

New painting: Black Bird XXIII

After the big push for the Bazaar of the Bizarre, I gave myself a bit of a breather. However, I'm back in productive mode, and have some new things to post in the next few days!

For starters:



This piece was just completed on Monday, and is available!

Black Bird XXIII
Mixed media on canvas
20" x 16"
$330

Coming soon: an update on a couple of illustration pieces, and... some more koi!

Play 'em off...

...keyboard rabbit.



Sometimes I can't help myself.

New work and new prints!

Now that the Bazaar of the Bizarre has happened, I can finally unleash a bunch of my new work upon the rest of the waiting world... or... something.

Thank you to all who attended!

Check out the Paintings section of my site to view all of the new work that I prepared for, and showed for the first time at, the Bazaar. A couple of pieces sold, but the majority of the new paintings are still available!

Prints that I wasn't able to have ready in time for the show are also now available for order!

These include:

Brown Hare II:


Original painting: $300
Signed print: $20


Angry Circus Monkey:


Original painting: $600
Signed print: $20


Barn Owl II:


Original painting: $850
Signed print: $20


And a couple of smaller pieces, which are available only as originals:

Brown Hare I:


Original: $200


Black Bird XX:


Original: $220


Also, my show at Trap Door Boutique remains on display! Larger black bird paintings, and a VERY large koi painting, remain available there, as well as a wide variety of other, smaller pieces. Check it out if you're planning to be out near the Junction, or even if you're not! :D

The Bazaar of the Bizarre -- Spring edition!

It's happening again!

On April 25th, 11am-7pm, at the Pia Boumann School of Dance, a collection of vendors including yours truly will be displaying all kinds of wicked, dark, spooky and eccentric wares.

Come out and see!

The official site is here:

http://thebazaarofthebizarre.org/

And the Facebook event page is here. Add it so you don't forget!

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#%21/event.php?eid=442238325004

The fall bazaar was FUN, with a ton of great items and some really wonderful people. If you can make it, come by and say hello!

The theme of the event is CIRCUS AND SIDESHOW. My contribution to the theme? An ANGRY CIRCUS MONKEY. Stay tuned!

Confessions of a NERD: Eden makes fan art...

I used to be internet famous. No fooling.

But only among a very particular set...

When I was 14, I started writing Les Miserables fan fiction, and for a couple of years I had one of the biggest websites devoted to hosting it, for myself and for others. This was before fanfiction.net showed up and relieved me of my burdens. But for several years, I wrote stories and parodies and inflicted them upon the (largely uninterested) world.

My interests weren't limited to Les Mis, though. I was a big musical theatre fan, and an avid reader of 19th century French literature (oh the things kids get up to) and The Phantom of the Opera was always very much on my radar as well. As a more visually compelling story and stage play, it was always the more fun one to illustrate via notebook doodles and other methods of time wasting.

Sometimes... I still go through phases.

I made this particular item in mockery of one of the main songs from Webber's Phantom "sequel", which has recently opened in London and uses some serious ret-con to describe a steamy night between the main characters:



Getting back to the Webber's FIRST Phantom stage play, I've always liked the moment that Phantom and Christine have post-unmasking, in which he tries to get her to look at him, but all she can do is avert her eyes and hand him back his mask. That is COLD, woman! I did a little thumbnail sketch of this scene in my book while stalled on the subway the other day, and just this evening, did a rough "pre-ink" clean-up to get my lines sorted. Still needs some work, but here it is so far:



...The Phantom still looks too pretty here, but on stage, only one side of his face is deformed. The finished version of this drawing will have a bit of that peeking out from under his hand. (Bit of trivia: the reason they opted for the half-mask on stage was to allow the actor to still express emotions in his face. Makes for a good compromise, and the Two-Face style deformity has always been pretty compelling.)

...

Okay, now you've seen a little of my true face. My NERDY FAN-ART MAKING FACE. Back to business as usual now... Nothing to see here...

Full-colour house portrait

I was hired last year to paint a house portrait for some friends of the family. This was my first crack at painting a home from photo reference.

I went to their home on a sunny day and took a few pictures. We settled on this as the final reference shot:


They made a few requests for alterations, which included showing the hedge in its full fall colours. They also wanted the satellite dish and a few minor distrations left out. I also opted to increase the lighting on the side of the house, as it was in heavy shadow in the original shot. I used a slightly looser brush stroke on the surrounding foliage, and put a lot of detail into bringing out the texture of the stones. Here's the finished product:


20" x 30", acrylic on canvas.

Molly: kitten portrait

A slightly looser portrait, this one proved challenging because of the vagueness of the source photo. Still, it was definitely workable, the lack of sharpness and looser pencil strokes give it softness.

Original photo:




Finished drawing:




5" x 7" image on 7.5" x 11" Stonehenge warm white paper.

Me, in the news!

The coverage by Snap Bloor West of my art opening at Trap Door Boutique is now online! It's also in the physical newsletter itself, available for free in many fine stores in the west end. (Inside the very back of the paper.)

Check out the article and photos here.

If you weren't there, you can see all the fun times you missed out on! If you were there, relive the magic. And stuff.

From the archives: BILLY

This is OLD OLD OLD. And yet... it's still one of my favourite things I've ever drawn. So I'm wiping the dust away and posting this here for your, and my, amusement.

Dog portrait: Becky, the Boston Terrier

A new piece in my dog portrait series. This is Becky, my family's 11-year-old Boston Terrier. Though now senior, she's surprisingly active, and while she can no longer jump 6 feet straight into the air from a standstill (usually to lick your face), she's still got a lot of personality in her.

This piece is on 11" x 8" Stonehenge warm white paper. Image area is about 6" x 5". Drawn entirely with pencil. (Pardon the watermark on the image -- I'm trying to protect my portfolio pieces drawn in this style!)

I'm always up for doing custom portraits. Though most of my samples are animals, I've also done drawings of people, houses, and even cars. As long as I have decent photo reference, I'll draw pretty well anything!

Prints now available!

I have good news for anyone who has expressed interest in my artwork but can't afford the price of the originals.

I am now offering signed, colour prints, on 8" x 10" satin-finish photo paper, for $20 each.

Prints are currently available for:
-the koi
-the great-horned owl
-zombie-ish people ("Don't Talk to Strangers" and "Consumer")
-a wide selection of pieces from the Black Bird series
-potentially anything else that appeals to you on the paintings page -- just ask!

Email me at eden(at)edenbachelder.com if you're interested or if you have any questions.

Great Horned Owl -- Complete!

Here it is, finally! The finished article.

I rarely do photorealism, as it's typically unbelievably time consuming -- especially in full colour. However, I really couldn't resist the beauty of this subject. So, after working on it off and on over a couple of months, the piece is now complete!

If you're interested in seeing it in person, it's currently up at my show at Trap Door Boutique, 2993 Dundas West, Toronto. The painting itself is available, and I also have prints of it for sale there.

The painting itself is:
18" x 14"
Acrylic and modeling paste on canvas
$550

Phoenix: colouring exercise

Something new today!


Line art drawn and inked by hand, then cleaned up and coloured in Photoshop.

Did this as a colouring exercise to, well, improve my colouring, and also to get used to colouring with my new Wacom Bamboo.

It's a pretty silly Phoenix. I'd bet money that it tastes like chicken. Um. Not that you can eat a Phoenix. They always burn when you try to roast 'em.

Art show follow-up

So, we just had the opening for my solo show, Bird & Beasts, at Trap Door Boutique this past Thursday. It was a really fun night, with a great turn-out. Thanks to all who made it out for your support and friendship. It was so great to see all the hard work pay off and for the artwork be appreciated by so many!

A photographer from Snap! Magazine came out, so keep an eye out for a write-up on the show in the upcoming Bloor West edition.

If you missed the opening but still want to see the art, it will be on display for at least one month -- possibly longer. There are also signed PRINTS available there! (Finally!!)

For info on the store's location and hours, check out their website:

http://www.shoptrapdoor.com

It's a very cool place with some really great clothes and accessories, so you can get some great spring shopping done while you're there, if you'd like!

As for what I have on display: if it's on my site and listed as available, it's most likely there! This is the perfect opportunity for anyone who has been wanting to see my pieces in person but hasn't had the chance.

Thanks again to all who made it the other night, and to anyone still planning to go!

Show opening: event page

For those interested in attending the opening (see post below), below is the link to the Facebook event page. If you would like to attend, you can add yourself! I know I would be lost, socially, without my event list to refer to. :S

http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=313039684654&ref=mf

(If you have an problems accessing the event or adding it, please let me know!)

Birds and Beasts. It's official!

It's on! If you're in town and able to attend, please do! Opening reception is the first Thurdsay in March. If you can't make opening night, you can still come out to the shop to see the paintings for the following four weeks (possibly longer), as they'll be on display there until the next artist is ready to show.

The show flyer is here. If you have anywhere you're able to post it or share it around, that would be greatly appreciated.

I'll be posting a link to the Facebook event shortly, so you can add it there. I know I have no idea what I'm supposed to be doing any given week without checking my event list there!