Chris Howard's Writing & Art

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Chris Howard's Writing & Art

 

Mermaid cover

Early look at the cover and title for Mermaid.

The Wreath of Poseidon is out.

The Wreath of Poseidon is Saltwater Witch remixed by my daughter Chloe and I. This version of the story is in 3rd person (Saltwater Witch is in 1st), and this version is a bit longer, has a more YA-ish feel, contains more story, including some scenes cut from the original. We went back to the original 3rd person story I wrote in 2003 with some help from a nine-year-old Chloe (She's seventeen now).

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"A lively and smart fantasy"
   -- Dru Pagliassotti, author of Clockwork Heart

"An amazing fantasy...Teen fantasy readers will
excitedly follow Kassandra's every step as she
discovers who she really is."
   -- Flamingnet Review

Four stars. I could almost feel the raging sea…
   -- Curled up with a good kid's book

The Wreath of Poseidon

This will be available soon! The Wreath of Poseidon is basically Saltwater Witch remixed by my daughter Chloe and I.  This version of the story is in 3rd person (Saltwater Witch is in 1st), and this version is a bit longer, contains more story, including some scenes cut from the original. We went back to the original 3rd person story I wrote in 2003 with some help from a nine-year-old Chloe (She's seventeen now).        

Seaborn Battle

I spent another four or five hours last night finishing up this one.  I'm still doing a bit of detail work, but this is pretty much done.

Click on the pic for the full view!

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

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)

 

 

Fun with teeth...lots of them

I'm still playing with the "Faces of Kassandra", working on more expressions and even playing with dental mods.

Sketching on the iPad

I drew most of this at lunch today, working on details tonight while talking with Chloe about a writing project. This is from Chapter 2 of Saltwater Witch.

 

Holiday over...

Check out the updated first chapter one of Saltwater Witch here: http://www.saltwaterwitch.com/switch

More on the way!