Chris Howard's Blog, page 102

Art Portfolio is online!

My redesigned art portfolio is finally live with a bunch of new work, including book covers, fictional maps, cephalopods, monsters, and a few charcoal & ink pieces on birch. Here's the link:  http://www.saltwaterwitch.com/portfolio/

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.

Doodling between chapters

Here's a quick pencil sketch from my journal while I was reading Caitlín R. Kiernan's Threshold.  Did this a few years ago and came across it tonight.

 

Zombie Disney Princess

It was in the mail today! I used the "wet method" to apply the decal--this is one rugged sticker, and because it's made for exterior use it can be applied by spraying the sticky side with a light film of water and a few drops of dishwashing soap. Positon the sticker, then gently squeegee out any moisture.

I ordered it on Etsy here.

Here's a quick pic:

 

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:

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.

 

Final...until the next change

Okay, this is it...for now. The Teller cover updates have gone into Amazon, B&N, pushed to Apple, but it takes a bit longer in iBooks.  The print edition won't be out for another week or so--early July. 

Where's that confounded pond?

Yeah, we gave him the right of way. This decent sized snapping turtle was just marching across our back yard, presumably heading for the pond up the street.  He sort of mad-eyed us for a bit, and then went on his way.

Click the pics for the full view:

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: