Chris Browne Sketchbooks and Paintings

"Old Goat"

2012-01-28T23:08:00.001-05:00

Found this drawing (pencil and marker) in a watercolor pad and added the colors tonight. Pretty happy with how it turned out. The original is just 5 " w X 3.75 " h.

Unsettling news tonight. We've discovered a Great Horned Owl, one of the largest predator birds in the world, in residence on Bunny Hill. He has here a few years back and killed one of the larger rabbits at that time. That rabbit was larger that either of my Chihuahuas, so we are on full owl alert here, walking dogs on leashes and not letting them run in the back yard from dusk till dawn. Bummer, dude!

"The Night Scotsman"

2012-01-25T02:06:00.000-05:00

2012-01-23T12:39:00.001-05:00

Stegosaurus

2012-01-22T14:42:00.000-05:00

They had little tiny heads, thermal back plates and two brains, one just for the hips. What dancers they must have been!

2012-01-22T14:06:00.001-05:00

"Sleeping with the Yeti"

2012-01-04T00:16:00.002-05:00

2012-01-03T00:13:00.002-05:00

"Sheepish"

2012-01-02T01:16:00.001-05:00

Painted in a thinned gouache over pencil on Windpower watercolor paper.
Subject was a tiny toy plastic figurine of a sheep.

"My Yeti"

2011-12-28T15:46:00.000-05:00

"No one was better at gathering up luggage, running through airports or dodging paparazzi than my Yeti."

"Cowgirl"

2011-12-22T12:51:00.000-05:00

René Magritte

2011-12-22T02:57:00.002-05:00

"Albrect Dürer"

2011-12-20T20:58:00.002-05:00

Modern Yeti

2011-12-18T22:00:00.002-05:00

There was an episode of Science Fiction Theater that dealt with Bigfoot when I was a child. It fascinated me. Somehow, when I read Lynd Ward's "The Biggest Bear" I sort of smergerged the stories together in my brain...

Years later on "The Late Show". I saw the movie "The Abominable Snowman". Riveting, surprisingly compelling and emotional work. I don't know why Yeti's appeal to me so, but they do.

"Georgia O'Keefe"

2011-12-16T00:55:00.001-05:00

Artist Georgia O'Keefe became a powerful symbol to woman because of her will, her ability and her talent. My portrait of her is the young O'Keefe, strong inside and out. We need such people in our lives. We need to catch the light that shines from such stars, bring it into ourselves and make it our own. We must shine.

"A Cartoonist's Warren"

2011-11-30T02:41:00.000-05:00

I drew this at 4 A.M. Tuesday morning after waking from terrible nightmares. Drawn in a 4" X 6" Moleskin sketchbook with a Micron # 8 pen. More evidence that I am a rabbit at heart.

"Hagar and Dragons"

2011-11-21T22:16:00.003-05:00

I love dragons! When I was a child I had an old, hard cover children's book. I think it was either My Book House or Now We Are Five. There was a two page end-paper in the front and back of the book, depicting a storybook prince returning to a beautiful castle on a hill followed by serfs and squires and with a dead dragon in tow. The image captivated me. What was this? Were there such creatures in the world? Later I heard the classic story of St. George killing the dragon.

As I grew older and my father started teaching me how to draw he gave me a huge book- a recently published collection of sketches by Leonardo da Vinci. Wonderful stuff- and right in the middle of the book was a full page of drawing of a dragon. Not in the wild, not fire-breathing, but a cowering, angry little creature with large muscles, long claws and short, useless looking wings. What fascinated me was the creature was depicted as an animal in a cage at the Rome zoo! Pages on either side depicted bears, lions, monkeys, rhinos, all very real and presumably drawn from life. So what was a dragon doing in here? Was it a private joke to tease friends with his local pub? On were there dragons- real dragons- back then?

Ancient mariners believed in dragons- look at any map from medieval times and you will find inscribed in the uncharted corners the warning:

"Beware! There be dragons here!"

As a teenager I LOVED monster movies. Gorgo, The Giant Behemoth, The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms, Reptilicus- but especially GODZILLA, King of the Monsters! And all the other Godzilla movies where he was battling winged and clawed giant monsters. He battled so many that they ended up in one movie on Monster Island! My favorite comic books were Tales to Astonish, Strange Tales and Journey To The Unknown, all written and published by Stan Lee and illustrated by the likes of Jack Kirby and Steve Ditko. Wonderful monsters. But the greatest of them all was FIN FANG FOOM, a Chinese dragon. The creatures in these comics and movies had big, dramatic names: Gorgolla! Oorgo! Varan The Destroyer! Gloom the Unbelievable! Rodan! Mothra!

No wonder then that when my brother and I were kids we took to calling dad "Hagar The Horrible!" We didn't have Vikings in mind when we coined the name- just something big and amazing. Dad was both!

By the time the internet and Google came about, I had a deep and abiding affection for criptids, monsters, dragons and dinosaurs of all kinds. It was easy to look up stories about dragons and lost worlds now. And there were many stories there to find. Taking a closer look at the St. George story I discovered that his encounter occurred as he was riding his horse to the edge of a river in what is today Libya when his horse was attacked. His famous killing of the dragon apparently happened with a long spear from horseback in an effort to save his horse. It's not hard to imagine that what he had actually encountered was a crocodile. They get to be gigantic in that part of the world and like nothing more that attacking hooved animals.

Around 1980 my parents, grandmother, brother and myself all moved to Sarasota, Florida. My folks bought a lovely large condominium with a boat basin in the backyard. As they were signing the mortgage papers in their new bank, a woman ran in from the parking lot, screaming, "Help! Help! And alligator just carried off my dog!"

Gasp! It was true, now as then: "Beware! There be dragons here!"

Indeed, years later I saw a poor, old alligator being carted away by an animal control officer. It had been creeping ever neared to the condo, no doubt attracted to the smell of my mother's Southern Fried Chicken and the yipping of my father's dog, Snert- Oh, yes, there was a real Snert!

SIGH! The world has become a hostile place for modern dragons. Crocs and gators outlived the dinosaurs, who they shared the earth with for eons. But, will they survive urban sprawl, oil spills and speedboats? The future is uncertain...

When my dad passed away and I started writing and drawing Hagar mostly on my own in 1989, I gave Dr. Zook a little Dragon Baby to raise. He turned out to be one of the most popular characters in the strip. For a brief time Hagar made his peace with dragons. But slowly they crept back into the strip, bigger and nastier than even. They are just too much fun to draw!

I was born in the year of the dragon, by the way, 1952. So maybe I've got dragons in my blood! Or is it soy sauce?

2011-11-18T01:52:00.002-05:00

This is a strange story, but it sheds a little light on my creative process (for what that's worth!). I woke up one morning from a fragmented dream about a zookeeper, poking around at night with a flashlight. Maybe it's because of the ads for "We Bought A Zoo" that are circulating. As I sat on the bed, waking up, I started to puzzle together the dream. I couldn't quite remember it, so I would jam new bits into the empty parts, like a kid jamming the wrong jigsaw piece into the puzzle. What I ended up with was a story of a kindly, out of work man who is approached by a stranger one foggy night in a local boîte. He is offered the job of zookeeper and given an address and a package containing a suit, hat, flashlight and keys.

Okay, a lot more happens, but I will skip ahead. It ends up a ghost story. The man who hired him is the ghost of the previous zookeeper. The new guy has to solve the death and clear the gorilla before the authorities take him away. Ultimately it was too dark and problematic for one of my book projects, so off it goes into Backburnerland from whence most stories never return. But, it did result in this nice, moody watercolor. So, there.

"Gouache"

2011-11-14T21:27:00.002-05:00

This is a tube of cadmium red gouache, a beautiful paint made from one of the most deadly substances on Earth. I bought it at an art store in Westport, Ct. about 30 years ago. The proprietor of that art store was named Max, a dear man with a sharp and informed wit, a kindly smile and eyes that had seen much. The store was deep, a long walk past sketchbooks and paints and canvas, clay, easels and what have you. I loved being there. It was like a toy store to me and there was always something new to discover. My father and I made weekly jaunts to Max's, sometimes combined with visits to the homes of other area artists and friends, sometime a side trip to Bill's smoke shop for a chocolate malted.

I love using gouache. It was very much the paint of choice for commercial illustrators who wanted to achieve a painterly look but on a Madison Avenue deadline: the stuff dries quickly. It is creamy, vibrant, quickly calms into pastels with a touch of Titanium white added. You can use it to make shapes and shadows with the smallest coaxing. It's forgiving. More things in life should be so forgiving.

As life goes on, happiness tends to become a thing more remembered than felt. But with a brush dinging the edge of a smokey water glass, I return to those days when everything was a head, anything was possible and the paper was white and clean and waiting.

"Winged Heart"

2011-11-12T23:39:00.001-05:00

I spent one summer and fall co-producing a folk album many years ago. On almost every level it was a disaster. I went through thousands of dollars I had scrupulously saved over decades. My fiancé questioned our relationship, my judgement and my sanity. The only good that came of all this was that it provided bridges for good people to go on to better places. The album's artist was nominated for a Grammy in the folk category. My co-producer went on to do great things and supported the careers on many, many people. And they both continue to do good work. The winged heart started showing up in my sketchbooks around this time and is still with me. Most of the good stuff is.

"Black Rhino"

2011-11-11T23:19:00.003-05:00

Painted in memorium, the day the word arrived that the last Black Rhino in the world had died. May he rest in peace. And may the rest of us, not.

Tom

2011-11-09T00:24:00.001-05:00

Our friend Tom. I'm still painting this. Need to work on the skin tones and texture, soften the beard (it never looks this dark). The eyes and the grin were the toughest.

"Cryptid"

2011-11-01T22:42:00.003-04:00

This was actually an unsuccessful watercolor but in a moment of vanity I scanned it into Photoshop and used filters to give the image a kind of faux woodcut feel. I love woodcut, especially the works of Lynd Ward, Antonio Frasconi and my friend Nathan Holman.

"Bongo Fever"

2011-10-26T03:57:00.001-04:00

NANOWRIMO begins on Tuesday, Nov. 1. It's a one month intensive project to motivate people to write their novel. I intend to partake in hopes of finishing a chapter book I've been working on.

"Le Monde"

2011-10-25T19:33:00.003-04:00

I had a great morning today thanks to friend Ken Alvine. Ken and I spoke to the local Retired Teachers association at a local restaurant. It was great. Ken did a terrific Power Point program including a lot of his artwork and a video interview and then I talked about growing up in a cartooning family and drew some cartoons on a big newsprint pad.

The teachers were great, a really warm and smart bunch and we all got along like gangbusters. I even met one of my Facebook friends there, who gave Ken and I loaves of homemade bread. You can't beat that!

"The Walk"

2011-10-25T17:43:00.002-04:00

I did this drawing in pencil in my Wind Power sketchbook. I gradually added Higgen's Black Magic ink with an old Gillot 170 pen nib. Finally I added color, Pelican Transparent watercolors and a few little touches with the wonderful Staedtler Ergosoft colored pencils. I added the "Maxfield Parrish" sky with a paint bucket effect in Photoshop. The Band-Aid on the dinosaur's tail is actually a device to illustrate that the dinosaur and the boy have a caring relationship.

"Death Cab For Cutie"

2011-10-23T01:04:00.004-04:00

I was in a yellow cab with my dear friend Ralph and we were driving into Brooklyn a few years back to see our daughter. Perhaps I should clarify: Ralph's biological daughter, my step-daughter. Through some miracle, my wife's first husband and I have remained best of friends. The whole deal is very modern and civilized and kind of reminiscent of the early works of Neil Simon. So we were just blocks from her home and the hood of the car came unlatched, caught a gust of city canyon wind and flew up, smashing the window and showering us with glass. Somehow the driver, screaming in what had to be Klingon, maneuvered to the side of the road and we finished our journey on foot. So there you go. "Death Cab for Cutie". It's not just for breakfast anymore.

"Night Bunnies"

2011-10-21T00:09:00.004-04:00

This is the view out the front window of my studio. There's a path where I toss apples for the Eastern Cottontail bunnies who visit me. I sometimes see these two bunnies at dusk. I just love them. May God protect them.

"Party Animal"

2011-10-17T22:17:00.002-04:00

Fuzzy animals. This picture could depict any Saturday night of my life in the 1980's. The good ol' daze. I'm not sure if the girl is reaching for her card, a match or Mace. Anything was possible back then.

"Sprinkles"

2011-10-17T01:07:00.001-04:00

Somehow I avoided the slings and arrows of my youth. I never got into drugs or drinking, I only dated a handful of women and I was faithful to each of them. I don't like fast cars (or slow ones), dislike travel, never was a thrill seeker, hated bars and brawling. The addictions and diseases that have cruelly plagued my fellow Boomers somehow missed me. Except for food.

Well, it had to be something. My weight shot up in the seventies while I was depressed over a failed romance and hearing the news that my mother was dying. It has been climbing like Apple stock ever since. Now I have plateaued. I hope. At least my Chihuahua is losing weight.

So here is a donut with sprinkles. No calories in this one, but the gouache sprinkles contain cadmium. And that's worse for you than sugar, trust me.

"Girl"

2011-10-12T00:33:00.003-04:00

I don't know who this is, honest. I saw the photo on Facebook and did this small painting from it. She reminded my of my old friend Ann Craig, who passed away years ago, way too young. I liked the shadow that frames the nose like a mask. I built the paint up slowly from the lightest hints of tone to the deeper shadows. You know, like life.

"Gorgo"

2011-10-10T22:16:00.001-04:00

Do you like the new format? You can change how you view these paintings by clicking Mosaic, Magazine, Classic, etc... Not 100% sure how I feel about the new Blogger format, but here it is.Looking over my posts I am finding that I like drawing/painting: movie monsters, robots, tin toys, food, bunnies, my dogs and a lot of random stuff.It's sort of like a mini version of my brain. Inside my brain looks sort of like the last reel of Citizen Kane but with fewer sleds & snow-globes and more comic books, bobble heads and plastic dinosaurs.

"Partnership"

2011-10-08T13:18:00.001-04:00

"Mama Bunny"

2011-10-06T06:29:00.001-04:00

The hostas are starting to yellow on Bunny Hill. Soon the protective tunnels of green will be gone. Our Eastern Cottontails don't hibernate so with luck we'll see them through the winter. They know they can count on me in a pinch. Midnight last night I discovered Carroll had piled furniture on the bed for some work we have planned for today. Her plan was for us to sleep in the living room. I tried but failed so I stayed up and did a set of comic strips and this painting of Stripe, the mother of Apple and Nano, with a piece of apple.Painting this: I did a very simple sketch in a watercolor pad of the rabbit and the apple using a 4H pencil and a very light touch. I used Pelikan watercolors and a #5 Royal brush for the browns on the bunny, just getting a wash down.Then I damped the area around the bunny with a paper towel and used a combo of the #5 and a 3/4" flat brush for the green, again just doing the broad color field, no detail yet. After that dried I mixed a mess of slightly darker green and working with a #1 brush, damp but not wet, added the blades of grass over the color field as slowly and patiently as I could bear. Later I did the same thing with brown for fur on the bunny but it wasn't detailed enough so I swathed to a brown and a tan colored pencil for the fur. I used a watchmaker's magnifying headband for the detail work. Regular, zen breathing helps. The painting probably took over an hour to do and it's about 5" X 6".

"Good-night, Sweet Prince"

2011-10-05T22:12:00.004-04:00

Now cracks a noble heart.
Good-night, sweet prince,
and flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.

I did this watercolor apple a couple of years ago, but it seemed appropriate so I digitally added the memorial.

"P B & J"

2011-10-05T11:55:00.003-04:00

Watercolor, with Jif Peanut Butter, Smucker's Sugar Free Grape Jelly, Pepperidge Farm White Whole Wheat bread.

"Hadrosaur in Bronze"

2011-10-03T21:50:00.001-04:00

Painting of a small bronze figurine I keep in my studio. This once belonged to the author John D. MacDonald, who wrote "Condominium" and the Travis McGee novels. He was a hard-won friend and a fellow member of the famous Liar's Club of Sarasota, Florida. There were giants in the Earth, in those days...

"Orangina"

2011-10-03T01:33:00.000-04:00

"Drive!"

2011-09-29T13:09:00.002-04:00

Here is my little USB drive, made by Tokidoki. Love it. Got all my children's books, text and art, plus my portfolios on this.

"On Bunny Hill"

2011-09-28T12:20:00.001-04:00

This is a special piece I painted on plastic mannequin form at the request of the Eastbank Art Gallery at Railroad Place in Sioux Falls. It will go on sale there sometime in the next few weeks.

"Five New Paintings"

2011-09-26T14:48:00.002-04:00

"Mouse Hero"

2011-09-13T13:33:00.002-04:00

"Elf Baby"

2011-09-09T21:38:00.002-04:00

"Tin Toy Plane"

2011-09-08T03:35:00.003-04:00

I bought this at Zandbroz! Of course!

"White Hat"

2011-09-06T12:18:00.004-04:00

"Francis at one month old"

2011-09-05T01:04:00.002-04:00

"Dr. Kelly's saurapod project.

Francis, the sauapod, is named for Francis Crick, the Nobel Prize winning biologist who co-discovered the double helix of DNA with James Watson.

Here he is at one month old. He's now 18 feet long,n just under 1000 pounds and stands 6 ft tall at the shoulder, not including his neck and head.

While the project is incredibly exciting, I am concerned with where all this is going. It's brilliant work, but in the end, will this dear creature prove to be the loneliest thing on the planet?"

from Francis, a work in progress.

Schrödinger's catnip

2011-09-02T08:11:00.002-04:00

I've been having a terrible time writing this month. For some reason I have had a hard time doing the sort of psychic pearl diving required for any meaningful writing venture. Which is perfect, because someone is finally interested in one of my novels (a chapter book).

I'm fine at drawing, I still draw any number of Hagar dailies and Sundays and I manage to do a few little paintings here and there. But writing a novel is different, demanding. Maybe it's just fatigue or maybe the stress of the last few years has taken it's toll. My cup declares coffee to be Novelist Fuel! And maybe that's all my problem is: "Must has coffee!"

Everything will be better if I can just live until the premiere of The Big Bang Theory on Sept. 22.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

"Sikh"

2011-09-02T00:54:00.001-04:00

"Where Candy Canes Come From"

2011-09-01T17:47:00.002-04:00

"Sub Conscious"

2011-08-30T23:40:00.002-04:00

"Faux Blue"

2011-08-28T15:32:00.000-04:00

My forgery (kind of) of George Rodrigue's Blue Dog. Have no fear, I'm not going to try to sell it, so it's more in the realm of art students dragging their easel's to a museum to copy masters as practice. But it was fun to do. The bunny, however, is all mine.

"Ice Cream Sandwich"

2011-08-20T01:15:00.001-04:00

"On Bunny Hill"

2011-08-10T13:32:00.002-04:00

"Fox Run, Redding, Ct"

2011-08-09T13:25:00.000-04:00

I used to see this fox coming home from seeing my girlfriend in the wee hours of the morning. I'd be stealing home, he'd be stealing home. Both of us up to no good!

"Onward!"

2011-08-06T01:55:00.002-04:00

Our family portrait as we journey on.

"We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."
T. S. Eliot

"My Chihuahua"

2011-08-02T03:52:00.005-04:00

"Hedgehog"

2011-08-01T13:39:00.002-04:00

"Lamp post"

2011-08-01T02:45:00.004-04:00

"Dreams"

2011-07-26T19:05:00.003-04:00

Sometimes a Siggy is just a Siggy.

"Listen To Your Heart"

2011-07-26T19:03:00.005-04:00

Advice, with mice.

"Empty Self Portrait" by Chris Browne

2011-07-25T18:53:00.001-04:00

Carroll was pitching a cardboard cylinder and I nabbed it to do this self portrait.

4" x 4" x 5.5", watercolor and some white gouache.

"Eastern Box Turtle"

2011-07-25T01:09:00.003-04:00

"If it's a good idea, go ahead and do it. It's much easier to apologize than it is to get permission."
Grace Hopper

"Close"

2011-07-24T13:01:00.003-04:00

It's not that I thought, "Dang, there aren't enough portraits of Chuck Close in the world!" I just like his face, his weathered punim, like an old beat up Bel-Air that's rusted out and too dangerous to drive but you just can't junk her.

"Red Chuck Close # 1"

2011-07-24T04:35:00.001-04:00

"Mabel, my most beloved"

2011-07-22T11:21:00.002-04:00

One of my favorite artists was Feodor Rojankovsky. You've seen his work in the classic Little Golden Books. He was magical. This painting didn't turn out as I expected but some elements of Rojankovsky seemed to emerge. That was good enough for me and better than I deserved.

"Lucian Freud"

2011-07-22T04:07:00.004-04:00

"A painter must think of everything he sees as being there entirely for his own use and pleasure."

"A painter's tastes must grow out of what so obsesses him in life that he never has to ask himself what it is suitable for him to do in art."

"And, since the model he faithfully copies is not going to be hung up next to the picture, since the picture is going to be there on its own, it is of no interest whether it is an accurate copy of the model."

"As far as I am concerned the paint is the person. I want it to work for me just as flesh does."

- Lucian Freud

"Le coeur doit être aussi profond que l'esprit est large."

2011-07-18T23:33:00.002-04:00

"The heart must be as deep as the mind is wide."
-Orpheus Kelly

"Underground Adventure"

2011-07-15T01:32:00.003-04:00

TinTin's American cousin, U.S. Grant.

"Red Devil On The Rocks"

2011-07-14T00:40:00.001-04:00

"Whales"

2011-07-12T10:40:00.001-04:00

"Masks!"

2011-07-08T12:41:00.001-04:00

Can you tell I love the art of Seymour Chwast?

"The Man From Planet X Goes To The Deli"

2011-07-05T02:46:00.000-04:00

"Giant Behemoth Attacks Edinburgh!"

2011-07-03T19:59:00.003-04:00

The Giant Behemoth (1959) was a British sci-fi film. A radioactive monster comes out of the ocean and makes people ill with it's very existance, complicating efforts to stop it from destroying coastal towns. If it sounds a bit like The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms (1953), there's a good reason- same director and contributing screenwriter, Eugène Lourié. Lourié also directed the similar Gorgo (1961), the only one of the three films to skip animation in favor of a man in a rubber monster suit.

The Beast F-20K-F was a magical film, with lovely acting, casting, set pieces and story, but mainly because it had Rays: Ray Bradbury, whose story The Fog Horn was the scaly centerpiece of the plot and Ray Harryhausen the cinematic sorcerer who made skeletons fight and cyclops roar.

Godzilla, the King of All Media Monsters debuted in 1954 one year after The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms. He arrived fashionably late and headed straight for the bar.

I LOVE these movies. Can you tell?

"Cafe Fox"

2011-07-01T14:30:00.002-04:00

"The Pirate Cat"

2011-06-18T03:10:00.003-04:00

Inspired by Waldorf, the Magnificent
I want to do some larger art pieces soon, I think that would help center me. Maybe some sculpture as well. Painting and sculpting seem to help me calm and focus.

New baby bunny on the Hill: Nano

2011-06-12T02:49:00.003-04:00

Brand new bunny, probably three to four weeks old, seen today for the first time. CUTE!

Also RAISING DUNCAN is back on GO COMICS!

The Return of Duncan

2011-06-09T19:03:00.000-04:00

Hi. There will be a reboot of Raising Duncan mid-July on GoComics and then the strip will be updated regularly (and the gags will be back in sync with the months and seasons again) Yea!

"Foxes"

2011-05-10T09:02:00.002-04:00

Duncan in his chair

2011-05-08T03:43:00.003-04:00

The Mother Bunny

2011-05-03T01:01:00.001-04:00

My health seems somewhat better. Some interest in my writing but nothing concrete.

2011-04-22T16:14:00.000-04:00

You say it's your Earth Day?

It's my Earth Day, too, yea!

Duncan by the window

2011-04-12T18:05:00.000-04:00

I'm not a cubist- the dog (Duncan) actually looks like this!

He's watching out the rear window of our living room for anything of interest. I saw three bunnies yesterday, including one small baby, maybe only a few months old. Luckily, Duncan did not see them.

Chromosaurus

2011-04-05T18:08:00.000-04:00

Chapter Books

2011-04-01T12:00:00.000-04:00

An editor I have been dealing with in New York has floated the idea by me of doing Chapter Books. Chapter books range from simple fare like Captain Underpants and Diary of a Wimpy Kid to more "grown up feeling" books like the Magic Tree House series. I'm intrigued by the idea and will explore it. I'm nothing if not flexible!

From About.Com:

Generally, a children's book that is long enough to be split into chapters, yet not long enough or deep enough to be identified as a novel, is known as a "chapter book." Chapter books are often illustrated, but not anywhere nearly as much as a picture book. Chapter books tend to be particularly popular with 7-10 year-olds as transitional books between beginning reader books and novels. Chapter books also tend to appeal to reluctant readers of all ages.

Arrow and Oblio

2011-03-26T21:53:00.002-04:00

My re-imagining of the characters from Harry Nillson's "The Point".

SuperMoon!

2011-03-19T20:42:00.003-04:00

The sky is ultraviolet here. Soon it will be black! And if the clouds roll by, the SUPERMOON will appear, riding her chariot across the sky. Don't forget to look for the Supermoon tonight! It should be lovely!

Green Submarine

2011-03-17T21:49:00.004-04:00

My great grandfather left Ireland in chains and was sent to Van Dynansland (now Tasmanian) to work in an opal mine. He was one of six special political prisoners, members of the Fenians, a revolutionary group that became the IRA. On Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee (it means she'd spent 75 years on the throne- make your own jokes) she sent word that the six were to be freed. But they had all already escaped. With pockets full of opals. He escaped to America. That's my Irish story! Happy St. Patrick's day!

2011-03-13T21:57:00.000-04:00

Chaos In The Lab

2011-03-06T21:08:00.001-05:00

"The trouble started when the Sailback suddenly noticed the fish tank..."

The Doctor

2011-03-06T04:48:00.000-05:00

MARCH IS SKETCHBOOK MONTH!

2011-02-28T16:54:00.019-05:00

Friend, cartoonist and huge talent Cedric Hohnstadt has declared:

March is Sketchbook Month!

What a good idea! I will add new fresh sketchbook stuff here as often as possible during this hallowed event!
To see what Cedric is doing and links to other cartoonist's effort this month check out:

Cedric Hohnstatd

Best always,

Chris

2011-02-24T23:28:00.000-05:00

"Love is Greater Than Hate!"

2011-02-18T01:55:00.000-05:00

Golden Kite Test Flight

2011-02-01T17:06:00.001-05:00

Hey, I can dream, can't I?

Ptera

2011-01-23T22:44:00.002-05:00

Possible artwork for a secret project. SHHH!

2011-01-19T12:30:00.000-05:00

Cera, my triceratops, Copley Square, circa 1986. I had truly found paradise.

My Pie

2011-01-17T21:23:00.001-05:00

Woman With Cats

2011-01-17T21:20:00.002-05:00

Roc and Roll!

2011-01-15T21:38:00.003-05:00

An idea I just had for a children's story, possibly for High Five magazine or even a small book: the story of Sinbad's encounter with the giant Roc- told from the bird's point of view. It struck me that this particular story turned on it's head might teach a heightened sensitivity to the lives and feelings of the animals we traditionally look on as food. Fast food doesn't sound as fun if we're the food!

The Aviary

2011-01-05T04:47:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T23:32:00.000-05:00