Chris Howard's Writing & Art

Armor study

A quick painting to explore plate armor

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A Girl and her Shark

Sketched this on my iPhone using the Brushes app, going for something a bit fun...although the shark is looking right at you!

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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:

Ephoros is back in the next set

My favorite old king of sea demons is back in the next set of pages for Saltwater Witch. Did a few sketches and paintings last night--while waiting for our cat Nikki to return home (the night was full of scary soundings things hunting in the woods.  Nikki's pretty savvy, so I was only moderately concerned).

Anyway, here's a quick pic of Ephoros, crammed inside the governess' office.  Yeah, he's not very comfortable, which only makes him angrier.

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Saltwater Witch - murdered for teaching science?

I'm in the middle of a four page painting and layout rush for Saltwater Witch.  I know I've said it before, but I think I have finally landed on the format I'm going to use for the rest of the story, a more traditional layout with fairly standard bubbles, also trying to put more into one page.  I've been very loose with the material so far, but I think compressing four or five panels into one normal-sized page makes the whole thing look more dynamic, more concentrated.  I like the look.  What do you think?

Oh, and you should see the pages I'm working on right now.  Mr. Henderson...uh oh...

Catch it all right here:  Saltwater Witch.

Saltwater Witch Sneak Peek

Did some drawing and painting at lunch, about halfway done with the next page and set of panels for Saltwater Witch.  I'll probably be posting this one end of the week sometime.  That's Mr. Henderson writing on the board.  He's in the middle of the page drawing a water molecule below the words, "EARTH IS AN OCEAN WORLD."  (Not doing this set on my iPhone--not like the last set).

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Saltwater Witch update!

Sorry for the delay in getting back to Saltwater Witch.  I took a break to finish up my last book, Winterdim.  That's done, and I'm back to storyboarding and planning for SWitch.  One unexpected path I've started down is the iPhone app called Brushes, one of the more powerful drawing tools on the iPhone, with extended hi-res and animation outputs.  (All for $5!)  I'm doing a lot of work in Brushes lately, mainly because it's convenient and Brushes is powerful enough to work with.

Another not-so-unexpected path I've headed down is a change in style for the comic.  If you've followed Saltwater Witch since last November, you know I've shifted styles and media a few times--started out ink and watercolors, then digital, a mix, back and forth, etc. 

So, I'm looking at going with a new style for the characters--something more stylized I should say, less realistic.  And I'm also planning to continue from here using the Brushes app on the iPhone for all the art, doing--as I've done from the beginning--the bubbles and lettering in layers in Photoshop before posting the pages.

Here are a few sketches I've done with Brushes, the first a manga-ish Kassandra, the second an even more stylized Kassandra, and last a quick sketch for a scene at the end of the story, Kassandra waving to someone heading out to sea.

So, what do you think--of any of this?  Good, bad, don't care?

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What am I working on? Give you one guess.

Okay, and one hint:

Saltwater Witch sketching...again

I've been doing some sketching to get back into my Saltwater Witch web comic.  I stopped in April or so to complete my last book, and I think it's time to get back to it!  I also think when I start it up again, going forward I'm going to do all the art on my iPhone--with lettering and other details done in PSP and Photoshop.  I'll give it a try anyway.  See where it leads. 

Here's one of my Saltwater Witch sketches, Kassandra waving from the shore.

Click 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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