Chris Howard's Writing & Art

Saltwater Witch update - pages 234 through 238

Okay, I've posted them--www.SaltwaterWitch.com! For the foreseeable future I'm going to draw panels on my iPad (color when I can) and letter in Photoshop, hoping to get this down as a system that won't take all of my time. I have the rest of this chapter and a bunch of the next--roughly twelve pages--planned out, storyboarded but really sloppy. I drew eleven panels yesterday in Art Rage and Sketchbook Pro, which is a lot for me, and the quality is pretty good.  I'm doing a lot more with gestures and facial expressions.  Disgust is a really tough one to capture. I like the way all of these pages came out, enough to post them.  Haven't colored the last four, but I'm going to keep moving.

Firsts: first time drawing a toilet.

Questions?  Comments? I'd love to hear what you think! 

See chapters  1 - 12 here:

http://www.SaltwaterWitch.com

SWitch page 215 top panel WIP

Here's what I'm working on at the moment--and have been working on for the last couple hours.  This is the top panel for page 215.

I've done all of this in Art Rage and Sketchbook Pro on the iPad.

Check out Saltwater Witch here: http://www.SaltwaterWitch.com

Saltwater Witch Comic in ePub

Chapter 1 of Saltwater Witch is now available in ePub format!  Open in it iBooks, Nook, Adobe, Stanza, or any of the ePub readers out there. I will be following up with the rest of the available chapters--1 through 11 with a bit of 12.

 Saltwater Witch Chapter 1   (7.5 MB)

 

Seaborn app for the iPhone is out!

The Seaborn app for the iPad has been available for a while, and I'm working on a new version.  Apple just notified me that the iPhone version is now available!

Here are the links:

Seaborn iPhone app

 

Seaborn iPad app

 

Help me spread the word! Here's the HTML for the iPhone app:

<p><br />Seaborn <strong>iPhone</strong> app<a href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/seaborn-books-and-art/id468260118?mt=8"><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><img src="http://www.saltwaterwitch.com/knowledgenix/AppAvailable-iPhone.png" border="0" alt="" width="116" height="40" /></span></a></p>

Here's the HTML for the iPad app:

<p><br />Seaborn <strong>iPad</strong> app<a href="http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=393798398&mt=8"><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><img src="http://www.saltwaterwitch.com/knowledgenix/App-iTunes-iPad.png" border="0" alt="" width="116" height="40" /></span></a></p>

Here's the main menu for the Seaborn iPhone app:

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iPhone app for Seaborn

Finally. It's months late but I submitted it to iTunes Sunday night, and expect to see it in the app store soon—within the next couple weeks. I'll keep you posted. 

This is pretty much a straight port of the Seaborn iPad app to iPhone.  The main difference is the "Art Portfolio", which points to my online portfolio. (One collection to maintain and it's always up to date).

I was halfway through development of a Seaborn "universal app" which covers iPads, iPhones, iPod Touches, but dropped that path a couple months back and moved to two separate apps because there are different features and presentation methods--some of them significant--I will be adding for each platform.  (e.g., I may move the iPhone version to the Cocos2D framework and include games and other cool things).

Seaborn iPad app

Readercon sketching

A few samples of some of the stuff I drew in the Art Rage app on the iPad while taking in some of the panels at Readercon over the weekend. I'm working--as much as I can--on redrawing all of chapter 2 of Saltwater Witch (http://www.saltwaterwitch.com/switch).

Here are the beginnings of three of the replacement panels.

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)

 

 

Seaborn Universal App (That's an app for iPhone and iPad)

Got up early this morning with a project I have been waiting to get to--a "universal app" for my Seaborn app, which is currently iPad only.  Some of you have been emailing for an iPhone/iPod Touch version, and I can now offer proof that it's in the works!

The idea is that the app developer builds a single app that works for both platforms, and in the case of purchasable apps, if you have already purchased it for your iPhone, you can install the same app on your iPad without another charge. 

Here's what I have so far--and trust me it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. Seaborn is a Navigation controller type app, but on the iPad it uses features that are iPad specific--UISplitViewController, etc.  So, it's been a subclassing kind of morning.

Here's the current Seaborn iPad app

Here are a couple screenshots of the latest development--porting the navigation controller menus to both platforms:

iPhone menu--menu items will be changing, but this is the existing menu layout:

Here's the same menu on the iPad--with splitscreen:

 

 

 

Tarot Wallpaper

I had this strong feeling you were looking for tarot card themed wallpaper for your desktop. Here you go. This is the art for my latest book Teller, which will officially be out next month.  Three different sizes to choose from, but one of them should work for just about any aspect ratio you're running.

Click the one that fits your sceen best--then save it and set it as your wallpaper.

The first one is 1280x960 and obviously works well for 1024x768 and other resolutions with a similar ratio. The second one, 1280x768, is for wider screens, and the last one if for tablets (portrait, 768x1024)

 

Drawing demons at lunch on the iPad

I drew this in the Brushes app over lunch, doing some sketching for a new set of panels for the Saltwater Witch graphic novel.