Chris Howard's Blog, page 88
August 13, 2012
Undead Character Studies
I did one last night, another tonight--the guy with the sign, gearing up for a big battle with these guys in the next few chapters of Saltwater Witch. Large crowds aren't easy to draw or paint, and I'm going to take some time to get this right. I'll definitely be posting more from the army of the drowned dead.
Click for the full view.
New Saltwater Witch banners
Last night I was drawing some new ideas for Saltwater Witch banner images, and here's one with the drowned dead looking for the right place to...do business.
The image is here if you would like to link to it: http://www.saltwaterwitch.com/SWitchO...
If you want to drop in some HTML copy and paste this into your site:
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August 12, 2012
Realistic Kassandra and Friends
Here's another approach: paint every panel, a more realistic Saltwater Witch for the next chapters. This is the opening Chapter 13 panel, Kassandra having a serious discussion with Jill and Nicole (not pictured--she's straight on, view over Kassandra's shoulder in the second panel). Takes a lot longer to paint one--and consequently a lot longer to paint an entire chapter of panels, but with painting I have many more advantages--for one I can have the characters be far more expressive, a hint of a smile, a huge range of emotion, not just happy, sad, enraged, determined, etc. Downside is that it could take me six months to complete a chapter.
Click for the full view:
August 11, 2012
Stylized Kassandra and friends
I'm playing with the idea of doing the next Saltwater Witch chapter in a different style--something like the following character studies. In the first one, that's--right to left--Kassandra, Jill, and Nicole. The second image was my first Kassandra study.
August 10, 2012
August 9, 2012
Listen to the sea...
It has some important things to say. Painted this tonight, about four and a half hours. I've had this idea planned out for a while, with sketching and different ways of communicating with the oceans. In one I had her using a long strand of seaweed, but I didn't like the way it was turning out, and went back to my original, listening in a seashell. Click the image for a slightly larger version.
August 5, 2012
Superhero Kass
...with backup from Ephoros. Just goofing with some ideas.
July 31, 2012
DERELICT cover art
I spent about 6 hours last night working on the cover art for Derelict by LJ Cohen--Lisa. Here's it is!
July 29, 2012
Watercolors and salt
Playing with watercolors and salt-texturing, basically you sprinkle salt (I like coarse) over wetter areas of the piece and when it dries you scrape it off and it adds a cool rough blossoming texture. I did a couple watercolor speed paints in Sepia and Prussian Blue, a bit of Viridian, and then poured on the salt.
October 4, 1810, a credible study of the Seaborn (or Sea-Born)
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to this edition. 
THESE chapters were not intended to form a whole by themselves, and had their Author possessed the opportunities of health and leisure, it is impossible to say what additions he might have made. It is certain, however, that the publication of a revised and complete edition had frequently been in his contemplation.
The Author had hoped that these chapters were to be only the first instalment of a credible study of the θάλασσογενηίς,—Sea-Born.
I have taken the liberty of including a small collection of hand-written Notes the Author intended for a future complete Edition of the book. That these Notes are not drawn up with the care which the Author would have bestowed on them before he presented them to the publick eye, will be apparent to the Reader on the slightest comparison with the two Chapters, and I must ask the Reader’s forgiveness for their state. I have gathered the Notes from the Author’s private journal and marginalia in earlier works. However, I would not have included them without sufficient reason or need, primarily that if these Notes were not made publick, they would have been, in time, lost to all the world.
Finally, it is common to all studies to be imperfect while they are in their infancy, and the Reader should not make an exception for the present work, nor fault the Author for at times, as Dryden says, looking “at the wrong side of the tapestry.”
THE AUTHOR, before his death, wished to convey his gratitude to two gentlemen; —the first, his friend and mentor, Professor J. W. Helmwhitt, and the second, a most virtuous, wise, and eloquent Gentleman of The Sea who, in the course of two years relating the histories, movements, and political structure of the Sea-Born to the Author, would only give his name as Telchines.
THE EDITOR
Ipswich, Octr 4, 1810.
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