Chris Howard's Writing & Art

New Maps and Charts page live on Saltwater Witch!

New Maps and Charts page live on Saltwater Witch!

Maps and Charts relating to the Seaborn, Kassandra, and her family. I will be posting more, but starting out with three items, a map from the House Rexenor archives, Kassandra's "hand drawn" map of the Nine-Cities, and Kassandra's family tree.

http://www.saltwaterwitch.com/switch/maps.php

Mermaid drawing tutorial

I spent a few hours putting together a step by step guide to drawing mermaids. I did this for the Mermaids Group on deviantArt. Mermaids have become more popular than ever--there's even a "World Mermaid Awards" con in Las Vegas next month.

I did all the art on the iPad in the Brushes app, using the Pogo stylus. One of the cool features of Brushes is the ability to generate a video of every pen and brush stroke, so you can show off any painting from beginning to end.  I posted the video on Youtube here.

Here's the finished piece (warning: breasts)

Here's the video generated by the Brushes app:

Here's the Step-by-Step tutorial--click for the full view (very long)

 

 

Favorite Monsters

Do you have favorite characters who are monsters?  One of my most likable characters is Ephoros from Saltwater Witch.  I don't want to give anything away but I will say that I get more readers asking me about Ephoros than almost any other character.

I'm slowly making my way through the panels and art for Saltwater Witch chapter 2, redrawing and re-lettering everything.  It's going to be good.  If you haven't seen chapter 1 yet, here it is:

http://www.saltwaterwitch.com/switch

And here's Ephoros:

Cover for Seaborn Omnibus

I designed and painted the new cover and art for all three books, Saltwater Witch, Seaborn, and Sea Throne, all under one cover.  (See links down left side of page).  See the full cover--front, back, and spine--at the bottom.

Click for the full view! 

CLICK FOR THE FULL VIEW:

A little over a month away: Cephalopod Awareness Day!

I couldn't wait.  I spent part of today sketching and painting a couple things for October 8, Cephalopod Awareness Day. Here's one:

Bigger bolder scenes

This one's for Skott Klebe, a good friend and colleague of mine—and an author. I painted this on Saturday, starting out in the morning with a sketch and watercolor (see below) and over the day—about eight hours, completing the whole thing.  After the Seaborn Lounge painting I did last weekend, I'm trying to develop whole scenes—a main character, several featured characters or places, and a well developed background.

Click them all for the full view!

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Mermaids on the iPhone

Finished up painting another mermaid this morning--in the Brushes app on my iPhone.  This one's a little manga-ish, and have I mentioned how much I love the layering features in Brushes? I don't think I'd be able to do shading anywhere near as subtle without layers. 

Are you a Brushes user?  I'm wondering how many use a stylus?  I bought one, used it for a couple paintings, about twenty minutes and have never picked it up again.  I'm doing all of these drawings, sketches, paintings with my fingers.  Took me a bit to get it down, but I use the tools--brushes sizes, textures, undo, layers so much that I just couldn't work with the stylus--holding it and constantly shifting to change brushes, transparency, paint colors--all of this is so much easier with your fingers than with the stylus.

Here's the video:

Mermaid

I haven't painted a traditional mermaid in a long time.  I've penciled and painted bunches of "people from the sea," but my Seaborn don't have tails, in fact they make fun of the mermaid myths.  I actually started thinking about this in May for a contest running on dA that ended in June.  But I was finishing up my last book, and never got around to it.

I wanted a fairly realistic mermaid with jewelry, rings in her hair, maybe some cool tattoos, and clothes of course would be for those freaks who breathe air.  I wanted a mermaid who can kick Waterhouse's mermaid's scaly butt--with her tail. I wanted a mermaid who was stronger, edgier and maybe a little tragic, none of that combing long tresses and singing on the rocks--not unless it was clear that it's just a ploy to lure sailors to their dooms. Finally got around to completing the painting this morning.

A lot of this painting is about the light, bold white light coming from above.  As usual, I'm still tweaking, but it's pretty much done.  Hope you like.  Love to hear what you think.

So, here's the full work and some detail crops.  Click them for the full view.

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Cloud Goddess

Painted this one with the Brushes app on my iPhone while at the Dentist this morning--started sketching in the waiting room. 

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Mermaid on my iPhone (Illustration Friday: drifting)

Painted this in Brushes on the iPhone over lunch today, a little over an hour, a lot of save and duplicates, but I like the way this ended up.  I was planning to make the water a bit rougher, a little stormy, but...I ran out of time.

 
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