Eleanor

The December 12th update will be delayed for a day or two, as Felicia and I welcomed Emma Purl on Sunday, 12/11!

New! For the first time you can order prints of Eleanor pages! Two new prints from Chapter 2 are currently available for sale. If there’s a particular page you’d like a print of, just email me your request!

Apologies all for the late update today! As we approach our baby’s due date, Mondays have become our days of hyper-activity — there are weekly doctor’s visits to be visited and birthing classes to be classed. So today’s page may be late, but it’s here, which means my perfect record is unspoiled. Although after some of the videos we had to watch in class tonight, my appetite definitely was.

I’m posting tonight’s updates while hanging out with our dogs, Radar and Dr. Meatloaf. Here they are:

Radar (back), Dr. Meatloaf (front)

Okay, I posted that to gain cuteness points to make up for the delayed page. I confess.

Tonight’s page, while portentous, is kind of a fun one. At least if you’re into sound effects and feet. I’m pretty happy with how this page turned out, and what’s more, it definitely represents a changed approach to the overall tone of the book’s art. Flip between this page and the previous one, and you can see the beginnings of a new approach to color and line weights. It’s not a dramatic change just yet, but as the pages keep coming you’ll start seeing more bold moves towards a certain style. It took 30-plus pages to find it, but it’s beginning to appear.

Did you happen to see the previews I posted earlier today or this weekend? While you’re reading a new page from chapter 1 each week, I’m hard at work on chapter 2. And the linework and colors are really starting to find the right voice in that chapter. I’m extremely happy with how those pages are coming, and it’s hard not to share them, so that’s what I’m doing. Sharing them. Here’s a preview of the first five pages of the next chapter (yes, this is also a bit of an apology for the late update today — sue me, I overcompensate):

The first five pages of chapter 2. (Click to enlarge.)

I may be too close to the book to give an unbiased opinion, but I definitely think that the quality of each page is growing in huge, Superman-worthy leaps.

And now you also know the title of the next chapter. I haven’t settled on that title completely, but right now it’s the frontrunner. An artist friend of mine pointed out that it’s a nearly word-for-word reference to A River Runs Through It. I haven’t read the story or watched the movie in nearly a decade, but he was right. The film ends with Redford’s wistful narration: “I am haunted by waters.”

Leave it to my brain to dredge up a line from the past to serve as a pitch-perfect title for a chapter that’s all about water, and the distinctly different stories of two women, crashing together like a flood.

Thanks to everyone who makes Eleanor a part of their week. I hope you’re enjoying every word!